Personal Data Removal Service: Remove Personal Information From Data Brokers and People Search Sites
Start with what is actually published about you. The scan below returns the real, unblurred listings carrying your name, address and phone number, so you can decide whether this is worth paying for before you spend anything.
No account needed. Adding a city and state is what lets us tell your record apart from everyone who shares your name.
The short answer
A personal data removal service files opt-out and deletion requests with the data brokers publishing you, then re-files them every time a broker puts you back.
You can file every one of those requests yourself for free. What you are buying is the recurring part: roughly 5 to 15 minutes per site across dozens of sites, the confirmation emails and ID checks, and the relisting cycle that puts your address back a few months later. Prices for an individual in the US run about $20 to $250 a year. The services differ less on whether removal works and more on how many sites they reach, whether they give you dated proof, and how they price a household.
Last updated July 2026. Every competitor price below was read off that vendor's own pricing page this month.
Scope
What a personal data removal service covers, and what it cannot touch
Most disappointment with these services comes from a mismatch of expectations. Removal works on the commercial databases that resell you. It does not work on lawful public records or on accounts only you can log into.
| Type of exposure | Examples | In scope | What that means |
|---|---|---|---|
| People-search and background-check sites | Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, TruePeopleSearch, Radaris, MyLife, PeopleFinders | Yes | This is the core of the job. Each site runs an opt-out process, and a service files them for you and re-files when a broker relists you. |
| Marketing and risk data brokers | Acxiom, Oracle-era marketing databases, list brokers that sell contact and household data | Yes | These never show up in a Google search of your name, which is exactly why people miss them. They are deletion-eligible under CCPA and CPRA. |
| Google results pointing at those listings | Your name plus your city returning a Spokeo or Whitepages profile | Indirectly | The result drops once the source listing is gone. Google's Results About You tool also removes results that expose a phone number, home address or email. |
| Your own accounts and old profiles | Dormant social accounts, forum posts, an old resume PDF on a former employer's site | No | Only you can log in and delete these. Any service that claims otherwise is overselling. A good report tells you which ones to handle yourself. |
| Public records, court dockets and news | Property deeds, voter files, a county court docket, a legitimate news article | No | These are lawful public records. They come down only through a court order, a statutory exemption, or the publisher's own decision. |
The second row is the one people underestimate. Marketing and risk brokers never surface when you search your own name, so they feel harmless, and they are the ones quietly selling your household profile. Our data broker opt out list shows who they are and links the real opt-out form for each.
Cost
What personal data removal services cost in 2026
Prices below are the current published US rates, read off each vendor's own pricing page in July 2026. We include the cases where a competitor is the better buy, because you will find that out anyway.
| Service | Price | Coverage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deindex | $29/mo, or $19/mo billed yearly ($228/yr) | 50 sites, filed with a cited legal basis | You want dated before-and-after screenshot proof and the statute named on every request |
| EasyOptOuts | $19.99/yr flat, one tier | People-search sites only | The cheapest way to cover the obvious people-search sites and nothing else |
| Optery | Core $39/yr, Extended $149/yr, Ultimate $249/yr (or $3.99, $14.99, $24.99 monthly) | 380+, 555+, 635+ sites by tier, custom requests to 950+ on Ultimate | You want the broadest raw site count and screenshot reports, and will pay up a tier for it |
| Incogni | Standard $95.88/yr, Unlimited $179.88/yr, Family $191.88/yr for up to 5 | 420+ brokers automated, 2,000+ more via custom requests on Unlimited | You want strong marketing and risk broker coverage at the lowest annual price |
| DeleteMe | $129/yr for one, $229/yr for two, $329/yr for a family of four. Annual billing only | Broad people-search coverage with human-reviewed reports | A household: the family-of-four price is the best per-head deal in the category |
Raw site count is the number every vendor leads with and the least useful one to compare on. A list of 600 sites includes a long tail of tiny scrapers that republish the same five aggregators, so covering the big feeders matters more than the headline. What is worth paying attention to is whether removals are re-filed after relisting, whether you get evidence a listing was actually live and then gone, and what a second person in your household costs. The full best data removal service comparison goes feature by feature, and our own pricing is a flat $19 a month billed yearly with no tier upgrade to get proof.
How it works
How a personal data removal service actually runs, step by step
Scan your name and see the real exposure
Run the free scan above with your name and city. It returns the actual listings publishing your address, phone number, relatives and age, unblurred, so you are deciding based on what is really out there rather than a vague count. This takes about a minute and does not require a card.
Decide what you would rather not do by hand
Every opt-out on that list is free to file yourself. The honest question is time: each one takes roughly 5 to 15 minutes, several require an emailed confirmation link or an ID check, and the big aggregators relist you within months. Fifty sites is a weekend, then a recurring chore.
Let the service file the removals under a named law
Requests go out under the mechanism that actually binds the broker: a CCPA or CPRA deletion request if you are covered, GDPR Article 17 erasure where it applies, or the broker's own opt-out policy. Naming the statute matters, because it starts a legal clock instead of a courtesy queue.
Keep the proof and re-file on relisting
Each completed removal is recorded with a dated before-and-after screenshot, so you can show a specific listing was live on one date and gone on another. Monthly re-scans catch brokers that repopulate your record from a new data source, and those go back into the queue automatically.
If you would rather run the first pass yourself, the opt-out guides for 50 people-search sites give you the exact form, the field names and the confirmation step for each one. Plenty of people do the ten biggest sites by hand and subscribe later, once the same listings come back.
Who buys this
Who a personal data removal service is actually for
People being harassed or stalked
The urgent case. A people-search listing hands over a home address, phone number and relatives in one page, and taking those down removes the easiest path to finding you. Dated proof matters here, because a protective order or a police report benefits from a record of what was public and when.
Anyone drowning in spam and scam calls
Your number sitting in list-broker records is a supply line. Cutting it off reduces new callers over months rather than overnight, which is why this pairs with the Do Not Call Registry instead of replacing it.
Public-facing professionals
Judges, attorneys, clinicians, journalists and law enforcement carry real risk from a published home address, and several states now give some of these roles a statutory right to have it removed.
People with an old record following them
Background-check aggregators keep surfacing an arrest that went nowhere. Those listings are opt-out eligible even when the underlying court record is not, which is the distinction our mugshot removal guide walks through.
Households, not just individuals
Broker records are relational: your listing names your spouse, your adult children and your previous addresses. Removing one person leaves the rest of the household mapped, so compare family pricing rather than individual rates.
Companies covering their staff
Executive and employee exposure is a security problem, not a personal one, because a published home address is the raw material for a spear-phishing or SIM-swap attempt. That is a different purchase, covered on our business and executive coverage page.
The honest version
Should you pay for this at all?
If you have a free weekend and a tolerance for forms, do it yourself. Nothing about the opt-out process is gated behind a subscription, the legal right to demand deletion is yours rather than ours, and every guide you need is on this site for free. Work down the biggest aggregators first, because the small sites mostly copy from them, and you will clear the majority of what shows up under your name in a couple of sittings.
The reason people end up paying is the second year, not the first. Brokers buy fresh data continuously, so a record you deleted in March reappears in September sourced from somewhere else, and the only defense is checking and re-filing on a schedule. If the honest answer is that you will not do that, a subscription is the difference between a clean search result and a weekend you wasted. If you know you will, save your money and use the guides.
FAQ
Questions people ask about personal data removal services
A personal data removal service finds where data brokers and people-search sites publish your name, address, phone number and relatives, then files opt-out and deletion requests on your behalf and re-files them when a broker relists you. It is a subscription because removal is not permanent: brokers rebuy and repopulate records, so the work is continuous rather than one-time.
Yes for the sites they cover, with a clear limit. People-search and broker listings are removal-eligible under laws like the CCPA and CPRA, and most brokers comply within days to a few weeks. What no service can do is delete public records, court dockets, news articles or accounts you control yourself. Judge a service on proof and relisting coverage, not on a promise to erase you.
Expect roughly $20 to $250 a year for an individual in 2026. EasyOptOuts is $19.99 a year, Optery runs $39 to $249 a year by tier, Incogni is $95.88 a year on Standard, DeleteMe is $129 a year, and Deindex is $19 a month billed yearly. Family plans usually cost less per person than buying separate individual subscriptions.
There is no single winner, because the tiers differ on what you are buying. Pick on raw site count if breadth is the goal, on evidence if you may need to show a listing came down, and on family pricing if you are covering a household. Our honest side-by-side comparison lays out where each competitor beats us and where it does not.
Yes. Every opt-out a paid service files is available to you for free, and the guides on this site walk through each one. The tradeoff is time and persistence: budget 5 to 15 minutes per site across dozens of sites, then repeat every few months as brokers relist. People pay for the recurring part, not for secret access.
Most people-search sites process an opt-out in about 3 to 7 business days, and some confirm within 24 to 48 hours. Larger marketing brokers can take a few weeks, and the CCPA gives businesses 45 days to respond to a deletion request. A first pass across 50 sites is usually substantially complete inside a month.
It reduces the supply of new numbers rather than silencing your phone. Removing your number from people-search and list-broker records cuts off a common source callers buy from, so volume tends to fall over months. Callers already holding your number are unaffected, so pair removal with the National Do Not Call Registry and your carrier's blocking.
They solve different problems. A VPN hides your traffic and IP address going forward, but it does nothing about the name, address and phone number a broker already published and sells today. If your concern is what someone finds when they search your name, removal is the tool; a VPN does not touch it.
Keep reading
Related pages
Best data removal service
A feature-by-feature comparison of the main US services, including where each one beats us.
Data broker opt out list
Every broker publishing you, with the real opt-out link for each one.
Remove my information from the internet
The full worklist and the legal deadlines each request starts.
Business and executive coverage
The same removal work bought for a team, with reporting a security lead can use.
What a data removal service costs
A closer look at pricing models and what actually changes between tiers.
Do data removal services actually work?
What the evidence shows about removal rates, relisting and the limits.