In 2026, expecting much in the way of privacy or anonymity can feel like a lost cause. From the cell phones we carry in our pockets to the information we share online, finding personal information about someone has become increasingly easy. But what happens when a platform claims to facilitate business relationships with you without your knowledge or consent?
SocialDB is a platform that appeared online in the summer of 2026, claiming to help facilitate sponsorships and collaborations for creators and influencers. The problem is that many of the relationships it advertises do not appear to exist. Despite that, the platform lists suggested sponsorship rates for creators and offers to hold payments in escrow.
Where did SocialDB come from?
SocialDB was started in May 2026, with a website launching in June at SocialDB.xyz. It’s a Toronto-based platform created by Utsav Sarkar, a ServiceNow lead at Apple.
According to Sarkar, the platform was built entirely using Anthropic’s Claude AI agent. It uses 15 data import pipelines that scrape the internet to discover creators and find public contact information. At least that’s what it claims.
In practice, it appears to pull in all types of users, creator or not. Profiles belonging to people like Barack Obama and organizations like NASA were listed as “creators”. Same with general personal profiles, with rates listed and payments being accepted.
Because the platform pulls information from publicly available sources, even profiles belonging to minors could potentially be included. SocialDB’s privacy policy states that the platform isn’t intended for anyone under 16 and that it does not “knowingly collect” personal information from children. But that doesn’t guarantee that minors aren’t being listed.
Insider Gaming attempted to contact Sarkar to discuss the platform and the concerns surrounding its practices. The emails were opened and read, but no response was received before publication.
Apple was also contacted regarding its policies on employees serving as leaders or executives of outside business ventures. Those inquiries have also gone unanswered.
False relationships
The platform was first brought to Insider Gaming’s attention via social media posts by Twitch user Buffbarbarianbabe or Buffy. In the posts, she explains that she noticed SocialDB lists prices for collaborations like sponsored segments, dedicated streams, logo placement, and more. The problem is that the prices weren’t provided or approved by her, and Buffy has never been associated with SocialDB in any way.
The profile pages also hint at having a relationship with the creator and that visitors can send a paid deal or collaboration requisition to her through the platform. Again, no relationship exists.
Buffy says that emails were being sent pitching collaborations with partners who weren’t even active on the site. One example shown to Insider Gaming was for a partnership between two streamers, neither of whom had accounts on the platform, to co-stream a game. Another offered a paid raid, which violates Twitch’s Terms of Service regarding fake engagement.
Twitch is investigating the matter internally.
Listing creators who haven’t opted into a platform isn’t necessarily unusual in the influencer marketing industry. Alyssa Sweetman, who works as COO at 10xn, explained to Insider Gaming that research platforms commonly collect publicly available information and provide estimated rates for creators.
The difference with SocialDB, she said, is how that information is presented.
“What’s unique about the SocialDB situation is how they just made everything public,” Sweetman said.
Most established platforms, she said, keep their databases private, allowing brands to search for creators and invite them to campaigns without publicly presenting those individuals as being affiliated with the service.
So where do these prices that were advertized come from, and what happens if people actually pay for a creator who isn’t on the platform? Initially, there was no mention of how the prices were generated. It was only mentioned in the Terms of Service that they were “estimates”. How were they estimated?
According to Sweetman, there’s no universal standard for what influencers should charge for collaborations.
Sweetman explained that rates should vary depending on the brand, the size of the company, and the deliverables being requested. Factors such as usage rights can also play a significant role in determining what a creator should charge.
She also said she’s had brands send her screenshots of estimated rates from research platforms and use those figures to justify limiting how much they were willing to pay.
The problem, she said, is that these estimates don’t account for the individual circumstances of a potential deal and can ultimately hurt both creators and brands.
The estimates on SocialDB were also presented on the prominent pages as something official from the creator themselves. And should a brand or anyone else sign up for that collaboration or deal, money would be taken and “held safely in escrow.”
That resulted in a lot of backlash online, leading to several creators finding out they were being listed on the platform and demanding they be removed. That turned out to be a different headache altogether.
The runaround
As people started to discover they were being listed on this platform without their knowledge, they began their attempts to have themselves removed from the site.
Initially, contacting them could be done in a couple of ways. You could either fill out a contact form on the website or email the publicly listed email address, [email protected]. Screenshots shared with Insider Gaming show that trying to contact them via the email address resulted in your message being sent to their spam folder.
The contact form, meanwhile, appeared to work for a time. Some users reported successfully having their profiles removed simply by submitting a request.
That changed on November 3.
SocialDB, which previously allowed you to request removal with a simple form submission, began requiring people to create an account in order to have their information taken down.
That meant agreeing to the platform’s Terms of Service, which also had been updated to make fee language more vague and include no mention of how fees are calculated.
The terms also suggest that, though they hold the money during the deal, they bear no responsibility for it. There’s no dispute timeline or indication of how long the money can sit, suggesting it can stay there indefinitely without it being paid out or refunded.
As with the home and contact pages, the email address has been removed, making it harder to reach leadership. The email address [email protected] does exist in the privacy policy with promises to respond within 30 days. So, by their own policy, creators shouldn’t need to create an account to have their information removed. Emails sent to that address also appeared to be directed to spam.
There are also other contradictions in their terms, such as the data being presented. SocialDB mentions “verified creator data”, even for profiles without accounts like mine. The terms themselves contradict that claim, saying data may be inaccurate.
Sweetman believes creators should have a straightforward way to remove themselves from platforms they don’t want to appear on.
“It should be much easier for creators to remove themselves from any platform they don’t want to be searchable on,” she said. “And that should just be, they should email and contact the platform outside of that.”
Requiring someone to create an account and agree to a platform’s terms before allowing them to request the removal of information they never submitted in the first place raises additional concerns.
Mounting pressure and updates
On November 5, the pressure against SocialDB had reached its boiling point. Creators on all platforms were making it known that they wanted no part of a platform that advertised working with them when they weren’t.
The domain name was also changed from SocialDB.xyz to SocialDB.co after the website had been reported multiple times to its registrar, Namecheap.
It resulted in the entire website being updated multiple times over 48 hours before being taken completely offline for “maintenance” late on November 5. For several hours, heading to the site gave you a message of:
“We’re temporarily offline. Social DB is down briefly while we ship some updates. We’ll be back shortly – thanks for your patience.”
When it returned online the morning of November 6, they no longer allowed you to view accounts of those who haven’t claimed their profiles. It also appeared as though Bluesky and Twitch accounts had all been removed. It’s unclear if that was intentional or by mistake. There has been no response from the platform’s creator.
You were still able to view brands with the option to pitch, even if they aren’t affiliated with the platform. Sources at multiple brands say that they didn’t know they were on the platform, and that “pitches” could be made to them. And SocialDB proudly displays accounts such as Mr.Beast, Cristiano Ronaldo, T-Series, and Cocomelon in a ticker on the home page as part of the site.
Sweetman questioned the decision to publicly display brands on the platform, noting that those listings could give visitors the impression that the companies were using or endorsing SocialDB.
She said platforms should never promote creators as having worked with them unless they have actually completed a deal through the service.
That was until around Noon ET on Friday. Around that time, the site was updated again to remove all front-end profiles, account claims, brands, and more. Still, creators already know they have or had profiles on the platform, and statistics of what they claim to have exist in other areas of the website. And the Wayback Machine exists to show what the site had been advertising, including having 9.2 million influencers, 101K sponsors, and a reach of over 125 billion.
Another notable change was a disclaimer now stating that the earnings are “transparent estimates” and that SocialDB is “not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a partner of the creators, brands, or platforms listed.”
That language appears to address some of the concerns raised by creators, although questions remain about why the information was initially presented in a way that could suggest otherwise.
SocialDB remains online
Despite the growing scrutiny surrounding its business practices, SocialDB remains online.
The platform has made several updates in an apparent effort to address concerns over the past several hours, but many creators believe the damage has already been done.
SocialDB’s X account, which was created this week, continues to respond to criticism and defend its requirement that users create accounts to have their profiles removed.
The platform has yet to publicly explain how its suggested sponsorship rates are calculated or what methodology it uses to determine what creators should charge for potential collaborations.
Sweetman said the public nature of SocialDB’s profiles is what ultimately separates the platform from many established influencer research tools. Had it operated as a private discovery database, she believes the backlash may have been significantly different.
She also expects more platforms like SocialDB to emerge as AI makes it easier to build and launch services that collect and organize publicly available information.
“They’re not hard to spin up,” she said.
For SocialDB, the immediate challenge is rebuilding trust with the creators and brands whose names and information appeared on its platform without their knowledge.
The platform has made several changes since the backlash began, but the questions surrounding its suggested rates, creator listings, payment practices and removal process remain.
Until those questions are answered, creators have little reason to trust a platform that has already put them in the position of having to fight to get their information removed.
In other news, read about why Shawn Layden believes there hasn’t been more Bloodborne from Sony and FromSoftware. For even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
More from Mike Straw
Comments