DeleteMe Review - Personal Data Removal Done Right
Advertiser Disclosure: Fortunly.com is an independent review site dedicated to providing accurate information about various financial and business-related offers. Fortunly.com remains financially sustainable by participating in a series of affiliate partnerships - it’s visitors’ clicks on links that cover the expenses of running this site.
How and where the offers appear on the site can vary according to the partnership terms. Affiliate partnerships may affect where a particular product is listed within a review, but they don’t affect the review’s content in any way.
Fortunly.com’s in-house writing team writes all the site’s content after in-depth research, and advertisers have no control over the personal opinions expressed by team members, whose job is to stay faithful to the truth and remain objective.
Our pages may include reviews of products or services for which we do not receive commission and are not tied to affiliate partnerships; information included in these reviews has been solely collected by Fortunly.com and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this product or service. Product/service details may vary. Please see the issuer’s website for current information.
The Fortunly.com website does not include reviews of every single company offering loan products, nor does it cover all loan offers or types of financial products and services available.
Founded in 2010, DeleteMe is a product of Abine's effort to create an easy-to-use subscription service that removes personal information from more than 750 data brokers. Apart from individual users, DeleteMe also caters to businesses and boasts more than 100 million individual pieces of data removed from third parties.
In this DeleteMe review, we will cover every aspect of DeleteMe's service: pricing plans, how their process works, the type of data removed, and personal reports.
Higher-tier plans offer savings
Fortunly Rating
Fortunly's Rating: Our editorial team determines the rating based on a set of evaluation criteria developed for each product and service category.
Strengths
- Large price cuts for advanced plans
- Easy to sign up and use
- Free DIY data Privacy Guides
- Phone, live chat, and email support
- Thorough personal report
Weaknesses
- Report waiting time 7 days
What Does DeleteMe Remove?
The Internet is swarming with shady data aggregators that specialize in selling personal data, whether that of individuals or businesses. DeleteMe's goal is to remove every piece of personal information from all of these websites and safeguard your online privacy.
DeleteMe can remove the following:
- names
- aliases
- addresses
- age
- phone numbers
This data can be used for custom-tailored marketing and advertising, or, in extreme cases, even identity theft, which is why it's important to remove it. For company owners, personal employee information can pose a grave cybersecurity risk that can negatively impact business.
How Many Sites Does DeleteMe Cover?
DeleteMe currently covers more than 750 such as 123people.com, MyLife.com, Spokeo, US Search, WhitePages, PeopleFinder.com, and many other personal information collection websites. You can view the full list on their website.
The list is not complete and is being updated regularly. It's important to note that DeleteMe, or any other digital footprint removal agency for that matter, can't remove you from search engines such as Google or Yahoo. However, by removing data from broker sites, it should gradually weed out your personal information out of search engines as well.
How Do I Use DeleteMe?
After you make your DeleteMe login, you have to enter the personal data that you would like removed. DeleteMe removes your name, aliases, addresses, emails, date of birth, and phone number from data brokers. You have the liberty to choose which data you want to be removed.
From that point, DeleteMe's experts find personal information and proceed with the removal, and after 7 days, you will receive a detailed report from their operators.
The DeleteMe Privacy report contains statistics which DeleteMe’s expert team has gathered in the 7 days, and it shows the total number of listings they scanned, how many listings your data has appeared in, and how many brokers had your data in the first place.
Preliminary results also show which data brokers mentioned you the most and how many hours DeleteMe has saved you by crawling for personal data and deleting it.
In the Findings section of the report, you can find detailed information on all data broker websites you were featured on and how much time it takes for said aggregator site to completely remove your information.
How Quickly Does DeleteMe Work?
DeleteMe can't remove online information instantly because the removal process differs from data broker to data broker. Instead, they give you a timespan by which you can expect your data to be removed. Additionally, it ensures that your data is gone by checking up on third-party websites every 3 months.
DeleteMe Service for Businesses
DeleteMe's services also handle business data removal. The removal process is the same as for individual users: employees, executives, and board members sign up, and the service scans for an exposed digital footprint.
After the scan, all those affected within a company fill out a data removal request and after opting out and sharing the initial report, DeleteMe continues monitoring your vulnerable info all year long.
How Effective Is DeleteMe?
As mentioned above, DeleteMe removes your information every three months from more than 750 websites. However, not even the best data broker removal service can remove your information from Google search results, since search engines only work by crawling already existing websites and their content.
Instead, by frequently deleting personal info, DeleteMe ensures that your data is harder to come by using search engines.
If you want to completely scrub every single personal information from the Internet including people search sites such as Spokeo and Intelius, DeleteMe can't help you there. However, they provide you with a comprehensive DIY guide on how to remove yourself from said websites. If you follow the steps outlined in these guides, you can count on a clean digital footprint.
DeleteMe Customer Support
If you have any questions about data removal, DeleteMe also has a dedicated customer support team. You can reach them either by phone(1-833-335-3836), live chat, or email. Their office hours are Monday – Friday, 9 am – 8 pm, Eastern Time. Alternatively, you can visit their website's FAQ and blog section for more answers.
How Much Does DeleteMe Cost?
DeleteMe has three pricing plans depending on the number of people that want personal data removed. There is also a DeleteMe Family Plan for your family members and relatives. All plans are billed either annually or biannually, and if you choose the latter, DeleteMe is ready to slash prices. If you need DeleteMe for business purposes, you can contact them and get a customized quote.
How Does DeleteMe Compare to Other Personal Information Removal Services?
$10.75/mo
750+
Every 3 months
$8.33/mo
196
Every month
$6.49
181
Every 2 months
Our Final Thoughts on DeleteMe
Similarly to any other data removal services out there, DeleteMe can't completely scrub your information off the Internet. It only affects search engines to the extent that it can make your data harder to come by deleting it from data broker databases. When it comes to people search sites, they provide you with a DIY guide since that is the only legally effective way you can hide your information.
The pricing plans, although heavily discounted, can be a bit too expensive for users, especially if we take into account competitors' prices. However, as we've shown in our review of DeleteMe, that steep cost is justified when you take into account the enormous broker library.
With more than a threefold number of scanned websites compared to their competitors, DeleteMe easily comes across as the best company to remove personal information from the internet.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What information does DeleteMe require?
To create a DeleteMe account, you'll need to provide them with your desired account name, full name, billing address, and payment information such as credit card number and date of expiry. As for the types of data DeleteMe removes, you will be asked to enter your names, aliases, addresses, emails, age, and phone number, but you are free to choose which data you want to be scrubbed.
Does DeleteMe sell your information?
DeleteMe doesn't sell personally identifiable information, that is, information about you. You are free to choose how you want your data handled. DeleteMe does share personal data with third-party brokers as a part of the data removal process, and it's nothing data broker sites don't already have.
How long does it take for DeleteMe to work?
After you provide them with the information you want to be removed. DeleteMe's experts will need 7 days to initiate the process and send you a report. This, however, doesn't mean that your data is already gone. The report lists every broker website that has your information and how many days it will take for them to remove it completely.
Can I make a company delete my personal information?
Yes, you can, and there are various ways to go about it. You can either subscribe to a data brokers removal service such as DeleteMe, Incogni, OneRep, and Norton Reputation Defender, or contact each data broker yourself. Note that it won't affect search engine results immediately, as they crawl already existing data.