Best data removal services of 2025

Our data is for sale — everything from our addresses and Social Security numbers to our browsing histories and employment records. Data brokers sell our personal details to other companies for marketing, credit reporting, debt collection and other purposes, including training large language models. 

Your information can also fall into the hands of cybercriminals, who use it to commit identity theft.

Data removal services advertise that they can shrink your digital footprint by getting data brokers and people-search sites to delete your personal identifying information (PII). You can send data removal requests yourself, but sites like DeleteMe and Incogni are faster, more thorough and have more resources.

We’ve reviewed more than a dozen leading data removal services to find the best in a variety of categories, from price to comprehensiveness.

Check out our methodology to see how we made our choices.

Who’s this for? DeleteMe collected the most data points of any service we reviewed and advertises removal from over 850 data brokers. It’s also the only company to share how many pieces of PII it found in its privacy reports.

Standout benefits: DeleteMe charges a single price for everything, with no features locked behind higher tiers. Users receive an initial privacy report within 24 hours, with additional reports generated every 3 months. Optional email and phone masking is available. 

Who’s this for? EasyOptOuts is the right choice if you value your privacy but aren’t interested in high-end features or costly membership tiers. Click “delete” and it goes to work right away. You’ll receive an email a few days after enrollment detailing where your PII was removed from. As you remain subscribed, it will perform additional scans every four months.

Standout benefits: The simple set-it-and-forget-it service opts you in without requiring a Social Security number or other sensitive information. You can see a list of all the covered data broker sites EasyOptOut covers, and its price is low enough to pair with another service.

Who’s this for? Incogni offers transparent pricing and an easy-to-use interface, with removal notices listed on the streamlined dashboard.

Standout benefits: Incogni is the rare service that indicates the severity of the threat posed by each broker for marketing, spam calls, data leaks, identity theft, and more. You can then buy a subscription to have Incogni issue requests or go through the effort of doing it yourself at no cost.

Who’s this for? If you want more than just data removal, Aura offers a suite of privacy features, including a VPN, a password manager and dark web monitoring.

Standout benefits: Aura also offers three-bureau credit monitoring, virus protection, identity theft insurance, title monitoring and financial transaction alerts.

Who’s this for? Optery‘s easy-to-navigate dashboard clearly displays where your data was located, which brokers were sent requests and the risk each poses.

Standout benefits: Optery shares before-and-after screenshots proving your data was taken down. The free tier includes detailed DIY removal steps, including links to data broker sites where your details were found.

Data removal services collect your PII, then scour data brokers and people-finding sites using a combination of human agents and automation. If a service finds your details, they’ll send a removal request.

Depending on the company, they may reach out to hundreds or even thousands of sites.

If a broker doesn’t comply, a service can escalate its efforts by contacting regulatory bodies and legal authorities. Their efforts don’t erase you completely or permanently; however, since data brokers are only required to honor a removal request for a limited period. Most data removal sites have monthly or annual subscriptions to enable them to continue checking for your info every several months.

It’s easy to zero in on cost, but the features and number of data brokers a removal service will reach out to can vary greatly.  EasyOptOuts, for example, is just $20 a year, but it only scans 100+ sites.  DeleteMe reviews 750+ data brokers, but runs nearly $130 per year.

When shopping for a data removal service, consider one that provides before-and-after screenshots proving the request has been fulfilled. Many top sites also provide DIY removal instructions with a list of where your PII has appeared, which can save you a lot of money.

Others have additional privacy features, including anti-tracking browser extensions, email and phone number masking and the ability to blur your house on Apple and Google maps. 

The more of your data that’s out there, the more likely you are to be targeted by advertisers or scammers. While a data removal service isn’t a perfect solution, it can be quite effective at limiting how much of your information is floating around.

Data removal is especially worthwhile if you receive numerous robocalls or phishing emails or if you’re worried about being doxxed or harassed.

For a deeper sense of security, you’ll still need other tools, like a password manager, VPN and credit monitoring service.  

Pros

• Removes personal details from data brokers and people search sites.
• Can reach out to regulatory and legal authorities if the broker is non-compliant
• Additional identity protection features are available, including VPNs and credit monitoring.

Cons

• Requires users to give personal data to another company 
• Opt-out requests must be sent repeatedly to prevent data from reappearing
• Can’t remove your data from social media, public records or newspaper articles

At CNBC Select, our mission is to deliver high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice to our readers, enabling them to make informed financial decisions. Every review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content independently of our commercial team and any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on maintaining high journalistic standards and ethics.

We chose the best data removal services based on factors including:

Cost: We considered how a service’s price compared to its features, and whether it had a free tier.

Ease of use: We reviewed onboarding processes, how easy the dashboards were to navigate and how much users have to interact with the service.

Clear and helpful information: Services with privacy reports were given more weight, as were those that provided proof that data had been taken down.

Additional identity protection features: We gave more weight to services with added features like pasword generators, VPNs and dark web monitoring.

Based on that criteria, the best data removal services are:

• Best for in-depth removal: DeleteMe
• Best for affordability: EasyOptOuts
• Best for simplicity: Incogni
• Best for identity protection: Aura
• Best for user experience: Optery

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