Are Data Deletion Services Worth It? What Research Shows

The Problem: How Data Brokers Work

A data broker is a business that collects personal information about consumers from various sources and sells that information to other companies, even when the consumer did not interact with the business. Data brokers collect and sell personal information that may include social security numbers, precise geolocation, health-related information, browsing history, and more.

They compile data from public records, social media, purchase histories, loyalty programs, app usage, location tracking, and other brokers, creating detailed profiles on hundreds of millions of Americans—often containing thousands of data points per person. This data ends up in the hands of marketers, employers, landlords, and worse. 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.

How Data Deletion Services Work

Data removal services track down data brokers and people-finder sites that have—or are likely to have—information about you. The basic process is straightforward: You provide them with your information so they can determine how and where you're being exposed, and the service runs a scan to tell you where your information can be found on the internet.

People-finder sites and data brokerages have between 30 and 45 days to respond to removal requests, and coupled with the fact that more of these companies keep popping up, it can take a few months before you start seeing meaningful progress.

The Hard Truth: Limited Effectiveness

The effectiveness of data deletion services is where the promise breaks down. A 2024 Consumer Reports study examined how successful seven leading data removal services were at removing personally identifiable information from more than a dozen popular data brokers, and of the 332 pieces of PII found, only 35% remained off the sites after four months.

The top performers in that study weren't universally impressive either. Optery had removed 68% after four months and EasyOptOuts deleted 65%, while manually opting out had a 70% success rate, the highest in the study. In other words, doing the work yourself is often more effective than paying for a service.

The reason for these disappointing numbers is structural. Even after removing data, new data can repopulate profiles unless recurring removal requests and monitoring continue. According to one data removal company, 42% of their customers found their information was back on data broker sites within six months—"the broker bought it again or they scraped it from a different place."

What Data Deletion Services Can't Do

It's important to understand the hard limits of what these services can accomplish. Data removal sites can't delete public records, like deeds or court filings. While you can control your digital footprint in the present, you can't erase the history of the internet, and DeleteMe can't magically remove listings in Google search results or other search engines—those require a more expensive service known as reputation management.

These services only remove existing data; they cannot prevent future collection. They cannot erase every trace of you from the internet forever.

Pricing: An Ongoing Cost

You can expect to pay $5-$25 monthly. More specifically, data removal services range from $39/year to $199/year, with most mid-range services costing $77–$130/year on annual plans. Incogni costs $6.49/month on an annual plan ($77.88/year), and DeleteMe costs $10.75/month ($129/year).

The key thing to understand: these are subscriptions, not one-time purchases. A one-time cleanup becomes worthless within months as brokers re-acquire your information. To ensure your information doesn't just reappear later, you'll need to pay for an ongoing subscription.

Are They Worth It? An Honest Assessment

Whether a data deletion service is worth it depends on your specific circumstances and risk tolerance.

Consider them if you: Have significant privacy concerns or safety risks (stalking, harassment), want to reduce spam and unwanted marketing, or simply lack the time or patience to manually opt out from dozens of sites.

Consider them unnecessary if you: Are willing to manually submit opt-out requests (which Consumer Reports found to be more effective), have minimal online exposure, or have recently discovered your data on only a handful of sites.

While these services can take time to show meaningful results, they effectively reduce your digital footprint and make it much harder for people to track down information you don't want out there. But no removal service is perfect at its job—they can remove as much data as possible, but 100% of your data is not guaranteed to be deleted from the internet.

The Bigger Picture

Data deletion services address a symptom, not the disease. There is no federal law in the United States that adequately regulates the data broker industry, and as a result, private companies spy on our families and gather our most intimate facts on a mass scale for profit. States like Vermont, California, Texas, and Oregon have enacted laws to address data brokers. California's law requires data brokers to delete all personal information held about residents who submit an opt-out to the California Privacy Protection Agency.

If privacy laws expanded and data brokers faced real consequences for non-compliance, deletion services would become far more effective. Until then, they're a partial solution to a systemic problem.

Bottom Line

Data deletion services do work—just not as thoroughly or permanently as their marketing suggests. If you're willing to pay $75-$150 per year for reduced but not eliminated exposure, and you value convenience over cost, they're worth trying. Most reputable services offer free initial scans, so you can see how much of your data is out there before committing. But if you're on a budget or skeptical of their effectiveness, investing your time in manual opt-outs will likely get you better results.