DeleteMe Review: control your digital footprint

Even with all the top-rated security tools, like a VPN, antivirus, or password manager, data brokers still have access to your personal information. This sensitive data can be readily available online without your consent, so data removal tools are integral in protecting your privacy.

This is where DeleteMe comes in – a subscription service that removes your information from data broker sites, including names, addresses, email, age, phone numbers, and more. DeleteMe was created in 2010, owned by Abine, and is based in the US, meaning most features are available for US citizens only.

We thoroughly tested the DeleteMe service for this review according to its capabilities, price-to-value ratio, and effectiveness in removing your data that appeared on data broker sites without your consent.

🌎 Available in:	United States
💵 Price:	$10.75/month
🔢 Number of data brokers:	750+
📆 Data removal process duration:	7 days for initial report-undetermined amount of time

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DeleteMe pros and cons

DeleteMe plans and pricing

DeleteMe offers 4 plans in total, and then the price for each plan changes depending on the plan’s duration – you can pick between 1-year or 2-year options.

Plan	1-year subscription	2-year subscription
For 1 person	$10.75/month ($129/year)	$8.71/month ($209/2 years)
For 2 people	$19.08/month ($229/year)	$14.54/month ($349/2 years)
Family plan (for 4 people)	$27.42/month ($329/year)	$20.79/month ($499/2 years)
Business plan	Have to contact DeleteMe

Throughout all plan options, the long-term subscription offers better deals. While the difference is not as significant with a 1-person plan, it’s much clearer with 2-people and family plans. Additionally, the family plan covers up to 4 people only. Luckily, to save up on your DeleteMe subscription, you can use our discount code CYBERNEWS20 for a 20% discount.

If you want to purchase DeleteMe for business, you’ll need to contact the company directly since the business plan prices aren’t public.

DeleteMe doesn’t offer a traditional money-back guarantee, no matter which plan you’ll pick. You can get a full refund of your subscription before your first Privacy Report is completed. Alternatively, you can get a refund based on the time left for your subscription anytime after the first completed report.

Setting up DeleteMe

Firstly, DeleteMe is based in the US and mainly works with US-based broker sites. So if you’re trying to use this site from anywhere else, it’s less likely that this service could successfully remove your information from public databases.

To start setting up DeleteMe, you will first need to pick a subscription plan to use. Once you’ve finished your purchase, you’ll be asked to provide quite a lot of information about yourself to identify the public records available online without your consent.

However, don’t be alarmed; DeleteMe’s privacy policy clearly states that your information will be secure. After all, to request your data’s removal, DeleteMe first has to have that information. The only instance where a third party may be involved with your information is for a particular purpose:

“Professional advisors. We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors, and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.“

This simply explains that DeleteMe will only share your information if it’s necessary to have that information removed.

On the other hand, DeleteMe is based in the US, which isn’t one of the privacy-friendliest countries since the US is a part of the 5-eyes Intelligence Alliance. Therefore, government surveillance and information request are sore topics. It’s even mentioned in the privacy policy:

“Government Requests. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this policy, we may preserve or disclose your information if we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or legal request or to protect the safety, property, or rights of DeleteMe or others. However, nothing in this policy is intended to limit any legal defenses or objections that you may have to a third party or government request to disclose your information.”

To get the full scope of DeleteMe capabilities, you can also set up additional privacy features this service provides. There are options to hide your credit card information, email, and phone number online to enhance your privacy.

Email masking allows you to generate random email addresses instead of using your real one. However, you cannot customize the email name that you’ll get.

However, you can select whether you want all of the letters forwarded to this “fake” email to be sent to the one email address associated with your DeleteMe account.

Phone masking allows you to create disposable phone numbers. You can use these numbers when you need to sign up for new apps or sites but want to avoid being spammed with telemarketers or marketing surveys.

This feature does have some limitations. First, to set it up, you must provide your phone number. Then, you only get $3 worth of calls and text messages per month, and you need to pay a fee of $7 to create every single disposable phone number through DeleteMe.

Credit masking, like phone masking, allows you to create disposable credit card numbers so you don’t have to provide your real one. This way, you can protect your financial information, greatly reducing identity theft risks.

To set this feature up, you’ll need to pre-load any amount of funds from your attached card to the one DeleteMe has created for you.

How does DeleteMe work?

DeleteMe works with over 750 brokers, a significantly higher number than most competitors. The brokers' list includes ussearch.com, wellness.com, thebluebook.com, checkmate.com, gofundme.com, peoplefinder.com, and many more. The complete list containing all/most data brokers is here.

DeleteMe agents contact these broker firms for you, requesting the removal of your personal data. That information includes:

• Name
• Age
• Address
• Email address
• Relatives associated with you
• Marital status
• Spouse’s name
• Occupation
• Property value
• Social media accounts

Additionally, to confirm your identity, you will have to provide a copy of your ID, license, or any other identification document. You are allowed to censor certain information, like your photo and ID number.

After filling out your data form, it will take around a week to get the first report. This report will include all the instances where your data has been found on broker sites.

The removal process itself has no clear timeline for how long it will take. Due to all broker sites having different response times, each instance can take from a couple of days to even months. However, DeleteMe will keep you updated on the status of the requests.

Following your first report, DeleteMe will check broker sites every three months for new logs of your data. In turn, you’ll also receive quarterly reports about the data that DeleteMe has found on the broker sites.

Additionally, there’s a Custom Removal Request feature. This feature lets you submit a custom request if you notice your information on a broker site. You can request this custom removal from the privacy advisor team at any time, even during the currently happening removal process, except it’s available after your first Privacy Report is delivered.

Lastly, there’s a free scan option available. DeleteMe provides this limited free option that scans their database and returns with fewer results than the paid subscription would provide. This feature only scans the pool of 40+ data broker sites, and DeleteMe will not request your data removal for you.

You only need to provide your name and state that you resign for this scan. After the scan is finished, DeleteMe will provide you with only the basic facts about your records found on broker sites. To see the full report, you’ll need to subscribe to one of the available plans.

Getting data removed with DeleteMe

DeleteMe takes care of the difficult part of removing your data from broker sites. After you set up your account, pay for your subscription, and provide all the necessary information for this service, DeleteMe agents take over and start looking for your data that’s available online without your consent.

It takes around a week to prepare your initial report that provides a list of all cases where your data was found on the broker sites. Here are the main points covered in the report:

• Total amount of records reviewed
• The number of brokers that had your records before removal
• The number of records removed
• The number of total personal data points found
• Time saved using DeleteMe services

The report also includes the progress DeleteMe has done to remove your data records. Two status updates are available – “Removal in Progress” or “Clean! – News scan in 90 days.” Once the removal status changes, your report is updated as well.

If at any point you have any questions or inquiries, you can always reach out to DeleteMe’s customer service representatives. The live chat option is limited; agents are only available Monday to Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM EST. Alternatively, you can head to the Help Center, with detailed FAQs available.

Is DeleteMe worth getting?

DeleteMe provides comprehensive service to those that require data removal from broker sites. This provider works with over 750 data broker sites and takes the burden off of you for requesting this data removal from the ever-growing list of broker sites.

This service simplifies the entire process of controlling your digital footprint. It scans online spaces for your data and then enforces existing licensing and privacy laws applicable to the situation to have the data taken down.

DeleteMe is an excellent addition to everyone already using different security tools to protect themselves online, like a VPN or an antivirus. However, there’s still space to grow – it would be great if DeleteMe could broaden its service outside of the US or provide more detailed reports about the data found on broker sites.

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