Best Data Removal Services: Complete Guide

Spam calls that won’t stop. Texts from scammers who know exactly how to target you. Higher insurance premiums because some algorithm decided you’re ‘high-risk’ based on where you shop or what you search for online.

Data removal services exist to fight this mess. They automate the tedious process of finding where your info lives and submitting removal requests so you don’t have to spend hundreds of hours doing it yourself.

In this guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about data removal services in 2025: which ones actually work, what to look for, and whether they’re worth the investment. We’ve also included a detailed section on DIY removal if you’d rather tackle this yourself.

Let’s take back some control.

Data removal services do the dirty work of getting your personal information off the internet.

Once you sign up, they scan hundreds of data brokers and people-search websites to find where your info is listed. When they spot you, they submit opt-out requests on your behalf.

But this isn’t a one-and-done deal.

Data brokers can legally start collecting your personal information again after 90 days (even after you’ve already opted out). So, your data reappears constantly because brokers keep scraping public records, social media, and other sources.

That’s why good data removal services keep working in the background.

They actively monitor these sites and follow up when your information pops back up. They continuously scan for your data, send removal requests, and verify that brokers actually comply month after month.

Think of it like a subscription to ongoing privacy protection rather than a single cleanup job.

I learned this the hard way.

A while back, I googled myself out of curiosity and was shocked to find my phone number and email sitting right there on my public LinkedIn profile. Suddenly, all those weird scam calls made sense – you know, the ones with a robotic voice claiming they have a job offer for you.

Once your contact info is out there, it gets scraped, sold, and resold. The spam never stops unless you actively fight it.

A Consumer Reports study showed that the removal services generally had low success at removing the volunteers’ data.

The researchers found a total of 332 pieces of personal information about the 28 volunteers who were signed up for the removal services. Only 117 of them (or 35%) had been removed after four months.

Wait… So these services only work 35% of the time?

Not quite. That Consumer Reports study shows the reality: data removal is hard, even for professionals. But here’s what matters: the two most effective services in the study, EasyOptOuts and Optery, had success rates of 65 percent and 68 percent, respectively, after four months.

The better services do work.

More importantly, even the time-consuming process of filling out the opt-out forms manually only works 70 percent of the time. So while no solution is perfect, paid services save you massive amounts of time and get similar (or better) results than going solo.

Here’s what you actually get:

• Fewer spam calls, texts, and emails. When data brokers don’t have your phone number and email readily available for sale, marketers can’t buy it. Simple as that.
• Lower identity theft risk. Removing your personal information from people-search sites makes it harder for criminals to collect your data and use it to target or impersonate you. Scammers rely on detailed profiles to craft convincing attacks. So, less available data means fewer opportunities for them.
• Protection from targeted scams. The more someone knows about you (your age, income, recent life events), the easier it is to manipulate you. Data removal services make it harder for scammers to build accurate profiles.
• Hundreds of hours saved. This process can take around 30 hours the first time, depending on how much of your data is out there. And it’s recommended to repeat this process every six months since data reappears. Do the math: that’s 60+ hours per year if you go DIY. Automation streamlines the personal data removal process, and very little is required of you.
• Peace of mind. Knowing someone’s actively working to keep your info offline is worth something. You stop wondering who’s buying your data or what they’re doing with it.

It’s true that these services won’t make you invisible online, but they’ll make it significantly harder for your info to be commodified and sold.

Most services follow a similar process, though the details vary.

The timeline expectations are:

• Week 1: Initial scan completes,
• Weeks 2-4: First wave of removals complete, you start seeing fewer records online.
• Weeks 5-8: Most removals finish, spam noticeably decreases.
• Month 3+: Ongoing monitoring kicks in, data stays removed.

After signing up, you provide basic info (full name, current and previous addresses, age, email, and phone number). The service needs this information to match your data against what’s in broker databases.

The service then scans hundreds of sites, looking for profiles that match you, automatically sending out emails on your behalf to get the data removed. This initial scan usually takes a few days to a week.

Once the service finds you, it starts sending opt-out requests. Some services are fully automated. Others, like DeleteMe, use manpower to opt out of all people search sites, with human reviewers handling each request.

The time it takes for a data broker to honor removal requests can vary significantly. Some sites act within hours, while others may take weeks or even months.

You’ll start seeing results within 2-4 weeks, but complete removal across all sites can take 2-3 months. Some brokers are slow. Others ignore initial requests and need follow-ups.

Good services don’t just send a request and forget about it.

Strong automation handles discovery, removal, and ongoing monitoring automatically. No manual requests or constant oversight are required.

They verify if brokers actually removed your data (not all do), and they follow up on sites that don’t respond. This is essential since some brokers will simply ignore requests if they think you won’t check.

Here’s where the value of data removal services really kicks in.

Data brokers and people search sites won’t have the chance to collect and start selling more of your personal information because the service keeps rescanning for your data.

Most services rescan every 30-90 days. When your info reappears (and it will), they automatically send new removal requests. This continuous loop is what keeps your data off these sites long-term.

Not all services are created equal. Some are legitimately good. Others are overpriced and underdeliver. Here’s what actually matters when choosing one.

Our investigation revealed that some data removal services are inflating coverage numbers by adding hundreds of custom request options. Furthermore, some subscription plans also limit the number of custom requests users can actually make.

Don’t just look at the headline number. A service claiming ‘750+ brokers’ might only automatically monitor 150 sites – the rest require you to manually submit requests (which defeats the purpose).

What matters:

• Automated removal count: How many sites does the service monitor automatically without you doing anything?
• Types of brokers covered: People-search sites are visible, but marketing data brokers, financial info brokers, and recruitment data brokers matter too.
• Independent verification: Third-party audits matter because they prove services aren’t just making things up. For example, Incogni released its Deloitte Independent Assurance Report in August 2025, validating that Incogni provides removal coverage for 420+ data brokers.

Remember – more isn’t always better.

For us, the number of data brokers covered is the top priority. But we also need proof that the service is actually doing something. A dashboard showing which sites had our info and confirmation that it’s been removed gives us confidence that the service isn’t just taking our money and doing nothing. That’s why we pay attention to services that provide before-and-after screenshots or detailed removal reports.

As already mentioned, data brokers can legally start collecting your personal information again after 90 days – even if you’ve already opted out.

Look for services that rescan and resubmit requests at least quarterly, but keep in mind that monthly is better.

Some services only do annual or semi-annual scans. That’s not enough – your data will reappear between scans and stay public for months before the next removal wave.

You’re handing over personal info and paying monthly. You deserve to know what’s happening.

Good services provide:

• Dashboard access: See which brokers have your data, which removals are in progress, and which are complete.
• Regular reports: Monthly or quarterly updates showing removal progress.
• Before/after proof: Services like Optery provide before-and-after screenshots of removals, setting a new standard for accountability in the industry.

Avoid services that are vague about what they’re doing. If they can’t show you specific results, they might not be doing much.

Data removal is the core, but some services bundle in extras that add value:

• Dark web monitoring: Alerts you if your email, SSN, or other sensitive data appears on dark web marketplaces or in data breaches.
• Credit monitoring: Tracks your credit report for suspicious activity that might indicate identity theft.
• Identity theft insurance: Some services include coverage for expenses if your identity does get stolen (usually $1M+).
• Email/phone masking: Tools to generate temporary emails or phone numbers so you don’t have to use your real ones online.
• VPN and antivirus: A few services include lots of additional protective features, including basic identity monitoring, a VPN, an antivirus, and a password manager.

These aren’t necessary, but they can make a service more worthwhile if you’d use them anyway.

Prices range between $8 and $25 per month, depending on coverage and features.

Here’s the typical range:

• Budget tier: $7-10/month – basic automated removal from 100-200 brokers.
• Mid-tier: $15-20/month – more comprehensive coverage and better monitoring.
• Premium: $25-30/month – includes identity protection, credit monitoring, and custom removals.

Family plans can save money if you’re covering multiple people. Some services charge per person, others offer flat-rate family coverage.

Most services heavily discount annual plans, so it’s worthwhile thinking about getting the longer plan.

When a broker refuses to remove your data or you find your info on a new site, you need help.

Look for:

• Response times: How quickly do they reply to support requests?
• Support channels: Email only, or do they offer chat and phone?
• Reputation: Check Reddit, Trustpilot, or BBB for real user experiences.

We also factor in customer support quality, since you’ll want help if issues come up.

Before you can fight data brokers, you need to understand what they are and how they operate.

Data brokers (or information brokers) are companies or individuals that collect, process, and sell or share personal information about people – often without their direct knowledge, consent, or compensation.

Think of them as middlemen in the personal information economy.

They don’t produce anything themselves. They just gather data from various sources, package it up, and sell it to whoever wants it.

Data brokers pull from everywhere:

• Public records: Court records, census data, and voter registration are all easy places for data brokers to obtain information like your birth date, political affiliation, and marital status. Property deeds, marriage licenses, business registrations – if it’s public, they’re scraping it.
• Social media: When you leave your profile public on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, data brokers can easily access any info you share, like your employment history and contact details. Every post, like, and comment adds to your profile.
• Web browsing activity: Data brokers use web scraping to pull information about your online activities directly from the websites you visit. Cookies track what you search for, which products you view, and how long you spend on certain pages.
• Apps and loyalty programs: Your purchase history, credit, and health information can be accessed through your apps, either by using third-party sharing in exchange for free services or app scraping. That fitness tracker? Those shopping apps? They’re all feeding data somewhere.
• Other data brokers: Brokers often buy and trade data with each other to enrich their databases and expand their reach into new industries and regions. Your info gets passed around and combined with other datasets to create increasingly detailed profiles.

Data brokers collect, analyze, aggregate, and sell consumer data to advertisers (for targeted ads), insurance companies (for risk assessment), employers (for background checks), law enforcement (for criminal investigations in some jurisdictions), and even political campaigns (for voter targeting).

Sometimes the uses are relatively harmless – a retailer wants to send you a coupon, for example.

Other times, it’s more problematic.

For instance, a data broker collects an individual’s personal and geolocation data and infers that they are a car enthusiast and spend their weekend at a race track. A car dealership purchases this information to offer the individual special deals, but an insurance company analyzing that same information might infer that the individual is a reckless driver and may impose a higher insurance rate.

But above everything, the real issue is that you have no control over who buys your data or how they use it.

In the U.S., there isn’t a federal law regulating data brokers.

So, generally speaking, data brokers aren’t acting illegally if they use public records to obtain the information they sell.

However, A few states have passed laws requiring brokers to register and allow opt-outs.

Vermont passed a law in 2018 that requires all businesses selling or sharing data about the state’s residents to register in a public database and share information about their operations.

California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) allows the state’s residents to obtain copies of the information data brokers have collected on them.

But enforcement is weak, and recent investigations into state data brokers have revealed major flaws in the system. Many companies fail to register everywhere they should, and a large share either never respond to lawful deletion requests or demand even more sensitive personal details first.

In the EU, GDPR provides stronger protections, but even there, compliance is spotty.

The data brokerage industry is extremely lucrative, generating upwards of $200 billion in revenue per year. Some estimates put the market value even higher.

There are hundreds of active data brokers in the U.S. alone. Some are massive companies you’ve heard of (Equifax, Experian, Acxiom), whereas others are small operations flying under the radar.

Many people-search sites like Whitepages, Spokeo, and BeenVerified are essentially consumer-facing data brokers that let anyone look you up for a few bucks.

So, the main issue is that your personal information is a commodity being actively traded, and you’re not getting a cut.

Not ready to pay for a service? You can remove your personal information yourself.

Fair warning: it’s tedious, time-consuming, and you’ll need to repeat it regularly.

But it’s free!

Start by Googling yourself. Use quotation marks for more accurate results: “Your Full Name” along with your city or other identifiers.

Check:

• Google
• Bing
• Yahoo
• DuckDuckGo

Set up Google Alerts for your full name, username, email address, and other related data. Keep up with the notifications about content that includes your data and request its deletion.

Make a list of every site where you appear.

Pay special attention to people-search sites like Whitepages, Spokeo, MyLife, Radaris, Intelius, BeenVerified, FamilyTreeNow, FastPeopleSearch, and TruthFinder.

You can start by checking the Privacy Rights data brokers list, which shows which brokers collect personal data and how you can opt out for free.

Create a spreadsheet to track:

• Site name
• URL where you found your info
• Opt-out page link
• Date you submitted the request
• Status (pending/complete)
• Date to follow up

This organization is critical. Without it, you’ll lose track of what you’ve done.

Now comes the heavy lifting. There are generally four types of opt-out processes:

• Search and Remove: Search for yourself on the main page, click a removal link on your record, and follow the additional steps.
• Removal Page: Navigate directly to the site’s opt-out page (usually in the footer or privacy policy), enter your info, and submit.
• Email Request: Some sites require you to send an email requesting removal. Be specific about which record you want removed.
• Blind Submission: Submit your information on the removal page without seeing the record.

The opt-out process varies by data broker but typically takes about five minutes per site. Multiply that by 50-100+ sites, and you’re looking at serious time investment.

Common hurdles you’ll face:

• Email verification: Many sites send a confirmation link to verify it’s really you.
• Multiple records: You might have several profiles on one site, each needing separate removal.
• Fake search timers: Some sites pretend to search their databases for up to 2 minutes. It’s theatrics, but you have to wait.
• ID requirements: Some brokers demand photo ID, which ironically requires you to share more personal info.
• Payment walls: Some sites require payment for data removal. These are sketchy – legitimate opt-outs should be free.

After submitting requests, wait 2-4 weeks. Then go back and check if your info is actually gone.

Some brokers will confirm removal via email. Others won’t notify you at all. You have to manually check each site again.

If your data is still there:

• Resubmit the request.
• Try a different opt-out method (email instead of form, for example).
• Document the non-compliance in your spreadsheet.

Data brokers can legally start collecting your personal information again after 90 days – even if you’ve already opted out. That means you need to resend your removal requests regularly.

Create a simple spreadsheet to track which brokers you’ve contacted and when, and set a reminder to repeat the process every 90 days. Reuse your original opt-out emails or form submissions to save time.

This is where most people give up.

While the initial cleanup is manageable, doing it again every three months forever is the real challenge.

This process can take around 30 hours the first time, depending on how much of your data is out there. It’s recommended to repeat this process every six months, as some websites may re-add your data.

So you’re looking at 60+ hours per year, minimum, to maintain privacy through manual removal.

Google has a dedicated tool where you can ask it to delete your information from the search results.

Use Google’s “Remove Results” tool to request the removal of:

• Personal contact information
• Doxxing content
• Sensitive images

Remember that removing a search result doesn’t erase the information; it only delists it. You’ll need to work with the hosting site to achieve full deletion.

You can also:

• Blur your house on Google Maps
• Turn off location history
• Disable YouTube watch history
• Delete old Google account data

Manually search each profile for any sensitive information you may have posted, such as your phone number or address. Delete photos you no longer want to share, and remember to change your privacy settings from public to private.

For each platform:

• Review what’s public vs private
• Remove old posts with personal details
• Disable location tagging
• Turn off ad personalization
• Restrict who can tag you or find you via search

Deactivate or delete accounts that you no longer use. Every dormant account is a liability.

The average person has over 240 online accounts, many of which are dormant but still potentially accessible.

Search your email for:

• “Welcome to”
• “Account created”
• “Password reset”
• “Confirm your email”

These reveal accounts you’ve forgotten about. Go through and systematically delete or deactivate them.

Let’s be honest about what manual removal can’t do:

You can’t remove everything. Some information is legally protected or outside your control:

• Court records (these are public by law).
• News articles mentioning you (the publisher controls this, not you).
• Professional licensing databases.
• Most government records.
• Content on sites you don’t control (someone else’s blog post about you, forum discussions, etc.).

Success rates are limited. Even the time-consuming process of filling out the opt-out forms manually only works 70% of the time. Some brokers just won’t comply, no matter how many times you ask. They’ll ignore your request, claim they can’t find your record, or make the process so difficult that you give up.

The ongoing maintenance is brutal. Data brokers can legally start collecting your personal information again after 90 days. That means you’re not doing this once – you’re committing to quarterly removal cycles across 50-100+ sites, forever. Most people start strong and burn out within 6 months.

Verification is on you. When you submit removal requests, you have to manually check back weeks later to see if they actually worked. There’s no automated tracking, no dashboard, no confirmation. Just you, a spreadsheet, and a lot of manual checking.

The scale is overwhelming. There are hundreds of data brokers. You can realistically tackle maybe 50-100 of the biggest ones. The rest? They’ll keep selling your data because you’ll never find them all.

DIY works for cleaning up the most visible stuff: your social media, the big people-search sites, and old accounts.

But comprehensive removal across the entire data broker ecosystem? That’s where paid services earn their keep.

The DIY approach works if you’re willing to put in the time and accept the limitations. Paid services work better but cost money. Here’s how to decide.

• You’re on a tight budget and can’t spare $100-300 per year for a service.
• You have a relatively small online presence (few social media accounts, limited public records).
• You’re comfortable with spreadsheets and tracking your own progress.
• You enjoy this kind of detective work (some people genuinely do).
• You only care about removing data from the biggest people-search sites, not the hundreds of smaller brokers.

• Your time is worth more than the cost of the service (60+ hours per year vs $8-25 per month).
• You want comprehensive protection across hundreds of brokers, not just the obvious ones.
• You need ongoing monitoring because data keeps reappearing.
• You want proof that removals are actually happening (dashboards, reports, before/after screenshots).
• You’d rather set it and forget it than maintain a quarterly removal schedule yourself.
• You value peace of mind and don’t want to think about this constantly.

You can also split the difference:

Start with DIY to handle the biggest people-search sites, covering maybe 20-30 sites and taking 5-10 hours.

Then use a paid service to handle the hundreds of smaller data brokers and marketing databases that are harder to find and navigate.

Some services, like Optery, provide a solid freemium plan for DIY users, offering free tools to help with manual removal plus paid options for automation.

Data brokers have made billions packaging and reselling your details to anyone who’ll pay. It’s time to fight back.

But the ‘best’ data removal service depends on what you need.

Choose a data removal service if you:

• Value your time more than $100-300 per year.
• Want comprehensive coverage across hundreds of brokers.
• Need ongoing monitoring, not just a one-time cleanup.
• Want proof that your data is actually being removed.

Go DIY if you:

• Are on a tight budget.
• Have time to invest.
• Only care about the biggest, most visible people-search sites.

Remember that no service will make you invisible online, but you can make it significantly harder for your data to be bought, sold, and weaponized against you.

The longer you wait, the more your information spreads, so take action now.

Whether that’s signing up for a service or spending a weekend on DIY removal, do something. Because doing nothing guarantees your info stays public.