Question 1

Who is behind this?

Accepted Answer

CanaryWatch is built by Serious Tech and backed by Serious Defence Pty Ltd, an Australian, sovereign technology company serving the Australian Defence Force. The same discipline that work demands, around security, process and accountability, is how we built and run this service. CanaryWatch is a commercial service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Department of Defence.

Question 2

Do you store my passwords?

Accepted Answer

No. We never ask for them and we never want them. We watch for the identifiers that identify you — an email address, a phone number, a username, a card number, a passport number. Those are stored encrypted and only ever shown back to you masked, like s•••@example.com.

Question 3

Is this a password manager?

Accepted Answer

No, and it is not a replacement for one. A password manager keeps your logins. We tell you when one of them has turned up somewhere it should not be, or when someone has stood up a fake version of a site you use.

Question 4

How do you find out my data leaked?

Accepted Answer

From independent sources: breach feeds, deep-web and paste-site collections, newly registered domains that imitate the ones you care about, and decoy tripwires you plant yourself. When two or more of those point at the same person, we raise a threat.

Question 5

Will I be buried in alerts?

Accepted Answer

That is the problem we set out to fix. A single leaked email address on its own is not worth a 3am email. We stay quiet until at least two independent kinds of signal line up on the same person — then you get one alert, with the reasoning, instead of four vague ones.

Question 6

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. Your photo is reduced to a numeric fingerprint inside your own browser. Only that fingerprint is sent. We never store the picture, and we never build a face template — this finds reused images, not faces, so it cannot be used to identify you or anyone else.

Question 7

Can I watch over other people?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and most of our users do. You can add a partner, a parent, or a child and monitor their identifiers alongside your own, with separate findings for each. Children are the group least able to protect themselves and most likely to be targeted.

Question 8

What happens if I stop paying?

Accepted Answer

Your monitoring stops and the alerts stop with it. You can export everything we hold and delete your account at any time, from Settings. We do not hold your data hostage.

Simple plans. Cancel any time.