- Optery is the #1 pick — it had the highest removal rate in Consumer Reports' 2024 study, and its free plan shows you what's out there before you pay a dollar.
- DeleteMe is the most established service and uses human reviewers, not just automated requests.
- Incogni is the simplest set-it-and-forget-it option, especially if you're already a Surfshark user.
- No service removes 100% of your data permanently — re-listing happens, and ongoing subscriptions are the only real answer.
- Privacy Bee covers the broadest range of company types, including insurance and marketing firms.
TL;DR: Optery is the best personal data removal service in 2026 — it posted the highest removal rate in Consumer Reports’ 2024 study, its free plan includes an exposure report with screenshots, paid plans cover 380+ to 625+ brokers, and the upper tiers add before-and-after removal screenshots. DeleteMe is the strongest alternative if you prefer human reviewers over automation. Incogni is the best pick for simplicity and Surfshark bundle value. None of these services offer permanent removal; ongoing subscriptions are the only way to stay clean as brokers re-list your data.
Your home address, phone number, email, relatives’ names, and approximate income are sitting on dozens of websites right now. Most people find this out the hard way — after an ex shows up somewhere they shouldn’t have known about, or after their parents start getting scam calls that use suspiciously accurate details.
Personal data removal services exist to fix this. They submit opt-out requests to data brokers on your behalf, verify the removals, and repeat the process as brokers inevitably re-list your information.
I’ve been evaluating these tools with the same question I bring to every business tool: would I actually recommend this to someone who needs it to work?
Six services. Here’s where they landed.
Quick Comparison: Data Removal Services in 2026
| Service | Brokers Covered | Price/Month | Free Tier | Removal Method | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Optery | 380+–625+ | Free–$24.99/mo | Yes (free plan with exposure report) | Automated + verified | Best overall, maximum visibility |
| DeleteMe | 969 listed (91 on Standard) | $10.75 | Free scan; no free plan | Human-assisted | Most thorough, proven track record |
| Incogni | 420+ | $7.99 | No free plan | Automated | Simplest, best Surfshark bundle |
| Privacy Bee | 1,344 | $16 | Free scan | Automated + human | Broadest company types covered |
| OneRep | 317 (876 on Pro) | $8.33 | Free scan; 5-day trial | Automated | Free scan, family plans |
| Kanary | – | $250/year | No | – | – |
1. Optery — Best Overall
Optery earns the top spot because the independent evidence lines up behind it.
In Consumer Reports’ 2024 study of seven removal services, Optery’s Ultimate tier removed 68% of participants’ people-search profiles within four months — the highest rate of any service tested, ahead of EasyOptOuts (65%), Kanary (34%), and DeleteMe (27%) (Source). Two caveats from the same study: Incogni, OneRep, and Privacy Bee weren’t part of it, and doing the opt-outs by hand still beat every service at about 70%. PCMag has named Optery its Editors’ Choice for personal data removal in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 (Source), and CNET picked it as the best overall data removal service in its 2026 roundup (Source).
Start with the free plan. Free Basic needs no credit card and gives you a personalized exposure report with screenshots, plus visibility into your profiles on hundreds of sites, self-service removal tools, and free ongoing monitoring (Source). It’s a genuinely sobering exercise. Optery isn’t the only service that will show you your exposure for free — OneRep and DeleteMe both run free scans — but Optery pairs its report with a standing free plan you can keep using.
That transparency is the product philosophy in a nutshell. Optery says it pioneered screenshots in both its exposure reports and its removals reports, and the removals reports include before-and-after screenshots (Source). You’re not buying blind faith that something is being done; you’re looking at the evidence.
Paid plans start at $3.99/month (Core, covering 380+ brokers with monthly automated removals), scaling to $14.99/month for Extended (555+ brokers, human Privacy Agent backup, before-and-after screenshots every ~90 days) and $24.99/month for Ultimate (625+ automated brokers, 940+ total with custom removals) (Source). The Core plan handles most situations. Extended makes sense if you’ve been doxxed, work in a sensitive profession, or want before-and-after screenshot proof of your removals.
The dashboard is the strongest in the category — PCMag’s review credits Optery with giving you more detail about found profiles than the competition (Source). Live thumbnails let you click through to see exactly where your profile was found and how it looks after removal. When a broker re-lists your data (and they will), the monthly scans catch it and the removal process starts again.
Where it falls short: Even the Ultimate plan doesn’t cover every data broker in existence. And Optery can’t remove your data from social media or public records like court documents (though the Ultimate plan includes an outdated content removal tool for Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo).
Pricing: Free exposure report (no credit card). Core $3.99/month ($39/year). Extended $14.99/month ($149/year). Ultimate $24.99/month ($249/year). Annual billing saves 17%. Start with the free Optery exposure report.
For a full breakdown of Optery’s plans, pricing, and how it compares to competitors, see our Optery Review 2026.
2. DeleteMe — Most Thorough, Best Track Record
DeleteMe has been doing this since 2011 (Source) — which is ancient history in privacy-tech terms. That longevity matters.
The biggest differentiator is the human element. DeleteMe uses actual human reviewers.
DeleteMe’s own list names 969 data brokers it removes from (Source). Read the legend before you count, though: 562 of those entries are marked as custom requests, and only 91 carry the marker for the Standard plan. The rest belong to international or higher-priced tiers. The quarterly reports are detailed — they show which sites had your data, what was removed, and what’s still being processed. You’re not flying blind between check-ins.
The trade-off is speed. In Consumer Reports’ study, DeleteMe had removed 13% of profiles after one week and 20% after a month; Optery was at 52% and 58% over the same windows. For people who need results fast (a doxxing situation, a job search), that gap matters.
$10.75/month ($129/year) per person is real money for a subscription. Family plans are available and reduce the per-person cost, but this isn’t the budget pick.
Where it falls short: Slower first-sweep results than automated competitors. No free plan, though there is a free scan if you want to check your exposure before committing. Most of the 969 listed brokers are custom requests, not automated removals. At $129/year, the cost adds up quickly for families.
Pricing: Individual at $10.75/month ($129/year). Start your DeleteMe subscription.
3. Incogni — Best for Simplicity
Incogni is what you recommend to someone who doesn’t want to think about it.
The service is built by Surfshark, the VPN company — and it shows in the product philosophy. Simple interface, automated everything, and bundle pricing that makes it nearly free if you’re already a Surfshark subscriber. The standalone Standard plan is $7.99/month billed annually ($95.88/year), which makes it one of the more affordable paid options in the category.
You hand over your name, email, phone, and address; Incogni submits removal requests to 420+ data broker sites; the dashboard shows progress, including each broker’s expected removal time, and you get monthly progress reports (Source).
That simplicity is genuinely appealing for a certain kind of user. But it means you’re trusting the process without being able to verify it in the same way Optery’s screenshots allow. Incogni does update the dashboard regularly — I’m not suggesting they’re doing nothing — but the evidence of work is less tangible.
The Standard plan is automated only. Custom removal requests — where Incogni’s privacy specialists chase your data on sites the Standard plan doesn’t cover — start with the Unlimited plan at $14.99/month billed annually. Incogni’s 420+ broker coverage is respectable but not the widest in this list.
Where it falls short: Less visibility into exactly which sites had your data and what was done. No custom removals on the Standard plan. Coverage (420+) trails Optery’s Extended (555+) and Ultimate (625+) tiers.
Pricing: Standard at $15.98/month or $7.99/month billed annually ($95.88/year). Unlimited at $14.99/month billed annually. Try Incogni.
4. Privacy Bee — Broadest Company Type Coverage
Privacy Bee covers ground the other services mostly ignore.
Privacy Bee goes wider: insurance companies, marketing firms, and healthcare data brokers. If you’re concerned about your data sitting in industry-specific databases beyond the obvious people-search sites, Privacy Bee’s 1,344-broker Pro coverage (Source) is meaningfully different from the alternatives.
The service also handles email breach alerts and offers a privacy score that updates as removals are completed. That broader privacy posture is useful — it’s not just data brokers, it’s a more holistic approach to reducing your digital footprint.
The catch: the UI is busier than competitors. It feels like the service is trying to show you how much it’s doing rather than giving you clean, clear confirmation of what’s been done.
Not wrong for the right buyer. If you’re a professional with specific concerns about insurance or healthcare data brokers, Privacy Bee’s coverage is unmatched here. For everyone else, Optery or DeleteMe is a cleaner choice.
Where it falls short: Expensive. UI is cluttered. Less name recognition means slightly harder to evaluate trustworthiness for a new user.
Pricing: Essentials $8/month, Pro $16/month, approx. when billed annually (Source). Visit Privacy Bee.
5. OneRep — Free Scan, Clear Plan Split
OneRep splits its coverage cleanly by plan, which makes it easy to know what you’re paying for.
Every plan covers 317 people-search sites — the ones where anyone can look you up. The Pro plans add 559 non-public data brokers, which sell to businesses rather than the public, for 876 in total (Source). OneRep keeps those on a separate tier because opting out of a non-public broker means handing over the personal details you want removed. That’s a reasonable trade-off to let the customer make. Monitoring runs monthly, and OneRep rescans the profiles it found to verify they’re actually gone.
You can also see your exposure before you pay. OneRep runs a free scan of people-search sites, and every plan starts with a 5-day free trial. There’s no free plan.
Family plans are a strong value: up to 6 people at $15.00/month billed annually is competitive pricing for a multi-person household. Individual pricing is $8.33/month billed annually, and Individual Pro, with all 876 brokers plus unlimited custom removal requests, is $15.95/month billed annually (Source).
For users who just want their address off the people-search sites, the standard Individual plan is a solid, reasonably priced option. If non-public brokers worry you too, budget for Pro.
Where it falls short: The standard plans cover people-search sites only; the 559 non-public brokers cost extra on Pro. No free plan beyond the scan and trial.
Pricing: Individual at $8.33/month, Family (up to 6 people) at $15.00/month, Individual Pro at $15.95/month, Family Pro at $29.95/month, all billed annually. Try OneRep.
6. Kanary
The UI is clean and modern. Kanary’s dashboard gives you a clear picture of what was found and what’s been requested for removal. The monitoring cadence is solid.
Pricing: $250/year per account, billed yearly (Source). Visit Kanary.
Physical Privacy: Accessories Worth Considering
Data removal handles what’s already on broker sites. But there’s a separate category of physical privacy worth thinking about — especially if you work in public spaces.
A privacy screen filter for your laptop (the SightPro is a solid option for 14-inch screens) blacks out your display to anyone not directly in front of you. Coffee shops, airports, open offices — anywhere someone could shoulder-surf your screen is a place this matters. The technology is simple: micro-louver film.
RFID-blocking wallets address a different threat: contactless payment card skimming. Modern credit cards with tap-to-pay use RFID signals that can theoretically be read by a nearby device. An RFID-blocking wallet eliminates that attack surface. The FurArt slim minimalist wallet is a reasonable option if you want something thin enough to actually carry.
None of these replace a data removal service — they’re complementary. Physical privacy and digital privacy are different surfaces.
The Honest Disclaimer Every Article in This Category Should Include
No service removes your data permanently.
Data brokers re-list your information constantly. They buy new data from other sources, they rebuild profiles from public records, and they’re specifically structured as businesses to perpetually collect and resell this information.
What you’re paying for with any of these services is ongoing maintenance — repeated opt-out requests as re-listings appear.
That’s not a knock on any specific service. It’s just how this category works. Go in with accurate expectations.
Bottom Line
Optery is the best choice for most people. The free exposure report alone is worth running — just to understand what’s out there — and the paid tiers offer the best combination of coverage, transparency, and verified proof of removal in the category. See our full Optery review for a deep dive on plans, pricing, and comparisons.
If you want the most thorough coverage and don’t mind paying more for human-assisted removals on stubborn brokers: DeleteMe has a list of 969 brokers it removes from — though most of them are custom requests or higher-tier plans.
If you want the simplest possible experience: Incogni — especially if you already use Surfshark.
And if you’re worried about data beyond people-search sites — insurance databases, healthcare brokers, marketing firms — Privacy Bee covers ground the others don’t.
The decision mostly comes down to how much visibility you want into what’s being done on your behalf. Optery shows you everything. Incogni shows you the summary. Both are doing real work.
See also: Best Password Managers in 2026 and NordVPN Review 2026.