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In 2024, there were 2.6 million reports of fraud and 1.1 million cases of identity theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission, resulting in losses of over $12.5 billion. One way cybercriminals glean information is by hacking data brokers — companies that track and sell our personal details to marketing agencies, credit card issuers, pharmaceutical companies and others. Data removal companies like DeleteMe, Incogni andOptery promise they can remove your personal identifying information (PII) from data brokers' files, reducing the odds that your identity will be compromised. "They do have an impact," said Rob T. Lee, chief of research at the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training center. They remove you from a lot of these well-known locations. They'll find your contact information and they'll send a removal notice." DeleteMe UFB Portfolio Savings offered by Axos Bank®, a Member FDIC. Product description The original personal data removal service, Abine DeleteMe removes your info from data broker sites using both automation and human agents. Its streamlined process is ideal for hands-off users Reach Opts users out of more than 750 data broker sites Pricing $129.00/year for one person, $229.00/year for two people, $329/year for four-person family plan. Business plans available, as well. Full refund before your first privacy report, then pro-rated based on unused time on subscription. Incogni Product description Incogni offers four affordable subscriptions, including two family plans with up to five members. Users can submit three addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Reach Opts users out of more than 450 data broker sites. Advance plans add custom data removal of 2,000+ additional sites Pricing $15.98/month ($86.29/year) for Standard plan, $29.98/month ($161.89/year) for Unlimited plan, $31.98/month ($172.69/year) for a Family plan, $45.98/month $248.29/year for Family Unlimited plan. Who has your data? The largest data brokers include LexisNexis, Cotality (formerly CoreLogic), media analytics company Nielsen and the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. There are also public-facing people finder sites, like BeenVerified and Whitepages, that enable individuals to find or verify information about other people. In addition to basic demographics, brokers collect Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, browsing histories, biometrics and employment and education records, among other records. On its website, Experian cites 24 industries that it has "sold, shared or disclosed" data to in the past 12 months, including government agencies, utilities, tech firms, media outlets and even food and beverage companies. Because the information comes from public records, surveys, loan applications, loyalty programs, social media and data-sharing agreements you've previously accepted, it's perfectly legal. But if one of those third-party clients suffers a breach, your information can wind up in the wrong hands. By law, data brokers and people-finder sites must remove your information upon request. You can send one yourself for free, but finding the opt-out page, submitting a request and verifying it was completed can be tedious and confusing. For about $8 to $15 a month, a data removal service will do the work for you. How do data removal services work? Data removal services search the biggest data brokers and people-finding sites for your personal identifying information (PII), using a combination of bots, AI and human agents. "We have quite a large team of well-trained and experienced privacy advisors that can help customers in ways that automated tools can't," said DeleteMe co-founder and CEO Rob Shavell. Within the first three to four months, he claimed, DeleteMe can reduce the amount of your PII that's been tracked by 80% to 90%, "and hopefully it gets better from there." Many services allow users to request custom removal from additional sites, The removal process varies by company and plan, but it typically involves sending requests by email or phone. Optery will search Google and hundreds of other sites for free, including name variations and past addresses, and share the results. If you buy the Extended plan for $14.99 per month, it automatically requests removal and presents you with before-and-after screenshots every 90 days. Optery Product description Optery offers four affordable plans with extensive exposure reports and DIY instructions. Users can search unlimited past addresses and name variations. Reach Automated removals from more than 645 sites Pricing Basic plan is free, $3.99/month for Core plan, $14.99/month for Extended plan, $24.99/month for Ultimate plan. 30-day money-back guarantee Pros Free plan available Sends screenshots of findings 30-day money-back guarantee Custom removals with premium plan Detailed verification of broker compliance Cons Only upper tiers reach all sites Limited international reach Focuses on public data brokers If a broker or third party doesn't comply, data removal services can contact regulatory bodies or, after several infractions, legal authorities. Data removal services do need to collect your information themselves to perform their searches, but reputable companies take great care to keep it secure, performing regular audits and simulated cyberattacks to ensure their security is up to date. Are data removal services worth it? Ideally, using a data removal service will result in fewer spam calls and lower the risk of identity theft. It can also help shield you from harassment and limit how much of your information banks, insurance companies, and even potential employers can access. It's not a permanent solution, though. There are always new brokers and existing ones aren't required to honor opt-out requests indefinitely. In California, which has some of the country's strictest data privacy laws, requests expire after one year. According to Shavell, 42% of DeleteMe's customers found their information was back on data broker sites within six months. "The reason we are an annual subscription service is that we go back to work when your information is found again," Shavell said. "The broker bought it again or they scraped it from a different place." A 2024 Consumer Reports study examined how successful seven leading data removal services were at removing PII from more than a dozen popular data brokers. Of the 332 pieces of PII found by the services, only 35% remained off the sites after four months. Some were more effective — Optery had removed 68% after four months and EasyOptOuts deleted 65%. Manually opting out had a 70% success rate, the highest in the study. Data removal sites can't delete public records, like deeds or court filings, and they can't get content posted on social media taken down. They also have no sway over what's floating on the dark web. Lee has used them in the past, but said he encountered issues when he asked where his PII was found. "The site keeps saying, 'I found your information on the dark web. I've removed 10,000 entries from online sources," he added. "But then, when I asked for examples of what they removed, they were opaque." Ironically, data removal services could soon be obsolete. "In a couple of years, all of your data is going to be sitting inside an AI large-language model for training," Lee said. "Once that happens, it can't be removed. It's like trying to un-bake a chocolate chip cookie." Other ways to protect your personal identifying information Be mindful of what you share online and on social media. Unsubscribe from unwanted email lists and subscription services. Be cautious about opening links or attachments Don't use public Wi-Fi if you're shopping or banking online (or use a VPN) Use unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication for your accounts. Use a credit monitoring service and anti-virus protection. Data removal FAQs How much do data removal services cost? Data removal services usually offer tiered pricing. Individual plans can cost $8 to $15 per month, while family plans that cover up to 4 people can cost $32 per month. Some providers, like Optery, have free plans with limited offerings. What is the downside to using a data removal service? Data removal services may not be entirely effective in removing your data from all the sites that have it. In addition, to ensure your information doesn't just reappear later, you'll need to pay for an ongoing subscription. Can I remove my information from a data broker myself? Yes, you can request that data brokers and people-finder sites remove your information, but you'd need to track down the sites that have your details and manually send each an opt-out request (and confirm they complied). It takes considerably longer than using a data removal service, which can also contact regulatory and legal authorities if a broker fails to comply. Subscribe to the CNBC Select Newsletter! Money matters — so make the most of it. Get expert tips, strategies, news and everything else you need to maximize your money, right to your inbox. Sign up here. Meet our experts At CNBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority, grounded in years of relevant training and experience. For this story, we interviewed Rob T. Lee, chief of research at the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training center. A former U.S. Air Force officer, Lee is considered the "Godfather of DFIR (digital forensics and incident response) and has trained more than 100,000 professionals. We also spoke with Rob Shavell, who co-founded DeleteMe in 2010. A leading consumer privacy advocate, Shavell has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Telegraph, among other publications. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University, where he initially studied architecture. Why trust CNBC Select? At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice to help them make informed financial decisions. Every cybersecurity article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of mortgage products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.
