How to Use DeleteMe to Remove Your Personal Data from the Internet

If you have ever searched for your own name online, you have probably found it on sites like Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, or Intelius. These are called data broker sites. They collect public records, social media data, and other information to create profiles that include your home address, phone number, age, relatives' names, and sometimes income estimates. Anyone can look you up for a few dollars — or sometimes for free.

These sites are used by marketers, background check services, and unfortunately also by people with bad intentions. Frequent spam calls, robocalls, and phishing attempts are often fueled by data purchased from brokers. Getting your information removed can reduce spam and improve your personal privacy.

The problem with removing your own data is the scale of the work. There are hundreds of data broker sites, each with its own opt-out process. Many require you to submit a form, wait for confirmation, and repeat the process every few months as your data reappears. Doing this manually can take 20 to 40 hours — and the data comes back.

DeleteMe automates this process. You provide your name, current and past addresses, and age. DeleteMe scans over 750 data broker sites for profiles matching your information, submits removal requests, and sends you a detailed report showing what was found and what was removed. The service continues monitoring and sending new removal requests every three months, because removed data has a habit of reappearing.

The individual plan is about $129 per year, which works out to about $11 per month. A family plan covering two people runs about $229 per year. DeleteMe also offers a trial report. You can see what they find before committing.

What DeleteMe does not cover: it cannot remove information from news articles, court records, your own social media profiles, or government databases. Those require separate action and are often not removable. DeleteMe focuses on the commercial data broker ecosystem — which is where most of the consumer privacy risk lives.

Alternatives include Kanary and Privacy Bee, which offer similar services. For those who prefer a do-it-yourself approach at no cost, the FTC maintains resources on data broker opt-outs, and many states now have data privacy laws that require brokers to honor opt-out requests directly.