DeleteMe Review 2024
For over a decade, DeleteMe has targeted data broker sites to get personal and sensitive data taken down. The service allows individuals and companies to remove their information from 750 people-search websites and counting.
- Personal information removed from over 750 data broker sites
- A+ BBB rating trusted service
- Detailed quarterly reports
- Easy to navigate interface
- Manual opt out guides available
- No free trial period
Which data can DeleteMe remove?
Since 2011, DeleteMe stated that it removed over 100 million personal listings from the internet. This includes private information from Google as well as sensitive business data that could put organizations at risk of advanced social engineering attacks. This is crucial since 422 million data breaches were reported in the last quarter of 2024 alone.
Many websites collect a lot more data than you’d initially assume. While having your name up on Google isn’t as worrisome, other sensitive data could be attached to your name — including your address, approximate income, and more. DeleteMe removes the following personal information from data broker websites:
- Age
- Gender
- Email addresses
- Phone numbers
- Current and prior home addresses
- Marital status
- Property value
- Employer info
- Gender
- Race and ethnicity
- Information about family and relatives
And more.
DeleteMe review: How does it work
Using the service is relatively easy. First, you need to sign up, process your payment, and submit your personal details to the company. This is a straightforward process, and you will receive sufficient assistance along the way.
Once that’s done, you get access to the DeleteMe dashboard. You are also assigned a DeleteMe expert, who will start removing your name from as many sites as possible.
Since most of the opting out is done manually, this takes seven days to complete. In this time, the company claims to remove an average of 15 public listings from Google.
After this, you will receive a comprehensive report along with a personalized note from your advisor. It will summarize what has been done so far in detail — and outline the next steps. The following reports are generated quarterly.
If new data broker websites access your information at any point after, the service will continue to scrub your name in the background. You can also update information, or submit custom requests at any time. Data always has a chance of resurfacing online, so you’re secure for as long as you’re subscribed to the platform.
DeleteMe review: Ease of use
The DeleteMe interface is easy to navigate. Filling up relevant information and identification documents takes only a few minutes. There are tabs to access your reports, privacy tools, account information, and a $50 bonus for referrals.
Plus, DeleteMe positions itself as a sign-up-and-forget-about service. So once your account has been created and the work begins, there’s very little you can do to help the team do its job. All you really need to look out for are your quarterly reports.
Reviewing additional features
With that said, there are some additional functionalities that you can try out when dealing with specific threats — or in between reports.
Search yourself
The dashboard’s privacy tools reveal a search yourself feature. This allows you to control how your personal information appears on Google search results.
To use this feature, navigate to the privacy tools tab on the dashboard. Use the search bar to look for your name, and select from the results which results you want to keep. The team will then get to work removing information on your behalf.
This process could take a few days depending on the individual policies of the websites. It is included in the standard plan.
Email and phone masking
The masked email or phone feature lets you create disposable addresses and numbers to use in lieu of your own. When signing up for a new service online, you can use generated numbers to avoid spam calls in the future.
Alternatively, when filling up information online, a masked email address can prevent you from accidentally leaking private data linked to your email ID.
The masked emails and numbers are temporary and can be removed or changed when they’re no longer needed. Recently, the organization even added a feature to mask credit cards. It’s a handy tool — and one of the simplest ways to protect your privacy online.
However, they may come at a cost. While masked emails are included in your plan, a phone number costs $7.00, while the prices for masked cards range from $2 – $10.
DIY opt-out guides
This is one of DeleteMe’s coolest features. It’s not often that a service shows you exactly how to avoid paying them, after all.
The team behind the website want to ensure private information is taken down, whether or not you purchase its subscription. On its website, you’ll find numerous useful blogs to guide you through the process of protecting your data yourself.
The website also has comprehensive resources helping you delete your accounts from popular websites like Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter.
So, at the end of the day, the decision on whether you’d rather pay DeleteMe for time saved, or do it yourself manually is up to you.
Understanding DeleteMe’s reports
A sample report prepared by the DeleteMe team.
The first detailed report on your online activity is sent to you after 7 days. It includes several crucial details — including, of course, the websites scanned, and the number that your Personally Identifiable Information has been removed from.
Initially, your report may not have reviewed as many as 37,000 listings. But as you can see on the top right, DeleteMe is transparent about when the last scan took place. On the top left, you can access the contact details of the expert who generated the report.
The reports also show you how much time you’ve saved using the service — which is a useful feature for anyone wondering if the costs outweigh the benefits.
Below, all this data is represented visually to offer you more clarity.
Reports continue to be generated quarterly until the end of your subscription. In this time, the organization continues to include new sites into its database.
DeleteMe review: Pricing
DeleteMe offers a few different pricing plans, based on the number of users and the duration of your subscription. Here’s an overview:
- Standard Protection (1 person/1 year): $129.00/year
- Couple Protection (2 people/1 year): $229.00/year
- Family protection (4 people/1 year): $329.00/year
The biennial plans are slightly more economical:
- Standard protection (1 person/2 years): $209 billed every 2 years
- Couple protection (2 people/2 years): $349 billed every 2 years
- Family protection (4 people/2 years): $499 billed every 2 years
DeleteMe also has four business plans: Gold, Diamond, Platinum, and VIP. The pricing differs for each and features are customized as per business requirements.
Each individual plan is feature-rich. But, as you may have noticed, one of the biggest drawbacks is that there’s no option for monthly subscriptions.
For many, two years may seem like a big commitment. And if that’s the case, there are certainly alternatives with more limited coverage and cost-effective packages. Some services, like Optery, even have free packages.
But, DeleteMe promises the widest coverage of any other software, targeting as many as 750 sites. So, while it may be priced more competitively than alternatives, it seems to be worth the investment to have a trusted team of experts on constant look out for you.
With that said, not all packages cover the 750 broker websites listed on DeleteMe. The standard plan removes information from only 89 websites, while the VIP package offers the most coverage. Some websites will only be targeted through custom requests.
On the plus side, the website is very transparent with the list of brokers it covers. A comprehensive list is available on its website, and is updated regularly to include new ones. If you find that your name still pops up on Google searches after, the website can’t do much, but you can safely rule out about a hundred names from the potential suspects.
DeleteMe review: Customer support
The DeleteMe website has a comprehensive FAQ section that answers most basic questions and helps with troubleshooting. However, if you’re looking for a specific answer, you can also reach out to an expert in the customer support team with ease.
To call the service, you can dial 833 – DELETEME (833-335-3836).
Or, you can send an email to “support@joindeleteme.com”.
Alternatively, you communicate with a chatbot on the website. On the scale of “completely useless” to “almost human”, this is one of the more helpful chatbots you’ll interact with. You can even ask it to put you in touch with an expert, and it will oblige.
Note, however, that the customer support team isn’t available around the clock. The team can only be reached between Monday – Friday: 9am and 8pm Eastern Time. The chat with us option is only available during working hours.
Still, considering there are very few things that could go wrong, and that the team is helpful, prompt with their responses, and always willing to help — DeleteMe has a pretty sound customer support network.
DeleteMe review: Security approach
For DeleteMe to be able to remove your Personally Identifiable Information, it must have access to all this data. This includes very sensitive information, like government IDs, and addresses, that you’re trying to remove in the first place.
This may ring some alarm bells. But as you’d imagine, a privacy-focused service like DeleteMe takes security very seriously. Here’s how the company ensures your information remains safe at all times.
- Regulatory compliance: The organization conducts regular audits to ensure compliance with strict regulations.
- Strong data protection: DeleteMe uses strong encryption protocols and takes steps to limit data exposure.
- Continuous threat monitoring: Employs advanced threat detection tools
- Regular training: All employees are given appropriate cybersecurity training to ensure that they are aware of the latest threats.
- Data backup and disaster recovery: In the event that something goes wrong, the organization has a robust data backup to rely on.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, if you’re looking for a service that’s easy to use, something you can pay and forget about, and protect yourself online for long periods — DeleteMe is the right service.
The platform has consistently ranked one of the leading data protection solutions for individuals and businesses alike, since the early days of the internet. It’s been called “excellent” by PC Magazine, and been recommended as a must-have application in Forbes, the New York Times, and more.