We publish our removal rate. Nobody else in this industry does.
Every company in this category asks you to pay in advance for an outcome you cannot verify. When an independent researcher finally measured them, the results were bad enough to explain the silence.
What Consumer Reports found
Four months, 32 volunteers, 13 people-search sites, 332 individual exposures tracked at one week, one month and four months.
The best paid service removed 68% of listings. The cheapest service tested came second at 65%. The most recognised brand in the category, charging $129 a year, removed 27% — the worst result of the seven services measured.
People who did it themselves, by hand, removed 70% — beating every paid service in the study.
Without exception, information about every participant still appeared on some of the tested sites at the four-month mark.
Source: Consumer Reports, “Data Defense: Evaluating People-Search Site Removal Services”
Share of listings actually removed after four months
Consumer Reports, “Data Defense: Evaluating People-Search Site Removal Services” — 32 volunteers, 13 people-search sites, 4 months.
- Optery68%
- EasyOptOuts65%
- DeleteMe27%
- ScrubMyInfoPUBLISHED MONTHLY
View as a table
| Service | Removed after 4 months |
|---|---|
| Optery | 68% |
| EasyOptOuts | 65% |
| DeleteMe | 27% |
| Doing it yourself, by hand | 70% |
| ScrubMyInfo | Published monthly from launch |
Source: Consumer Reports Innovation Lab. Kanary and IDX were described as mid-level performers without a published figure, so they are omitted rather than estimated.
What we will publish here, every month, starting at launch
This section is deliberately empty. We have not run at scale long enough to have an honest figure, and we are not going to print an aspiration and let you read it as a result.
The methodology we will publish with it
- 01Every listing is evidenced before and afterA screenshot, the HTTP response, a content hash and a timestamp — captured at filing and at each re-check.
- 02Re-verified at fixed intervalsT+7, T+30, T+90, then every 45 days for as long as you are a customer. The 45-day cadence matches the interval California requires brokers to poll DROP.
- 03A removal counts only when the listing is goneNot when we filed. Not when the broker acknowledged. When the page no longer returns your record.
- 04Reappearances count against usA listing that comes back reduces the rate until we get it down again. Most of this industry describes its process as suppression rather than deletion, which is exactly why this metric matters.
- 05The denominator includes everything we filed againstIncluding the brokers that refuse. No quiet exclusion of the hard cases, which is the standard way a number like this gets massaged.
- 06Published as an open datasetAggregate, anonymised, with the methodology, under a licence that lets journalists and researchers use it. If our numbers are bad, that will be visible here first.
The industry's own numbers, which it has to file by law
We cannot publish our removal rate yet. We can publish theirs — every data broker registered in California must file a sworn annual disclosure including how many deletion requests it received, complied with and denied.
Highest denial rates
Brokers that received at least 500 deletion requests and denied 20% or more of them. If you sent one of these a polite opt-out form, this is why nothing happened.
| Broker | Requests | Denied |
|---|---|---|
| DTN, LLC | 6,218 | 100% |
| Effyis, Inc. | 1,609 | 100% |
| Keyword Connects LLC | 5,201 | 100% |
| Live Data Technologies, Inc. | 45,865 | 100% |
| Online Advertising Network sp. z o.o. | 6,879 | 100% |
| VRTCAL Markets Inc. | 812 | 100% |
| 33 Mile Radius LLC | 62,584 | 99% |
| Moody's Corporation | 1,533 | 99% |
| Convex Labs LLC | 35,214 | 98% |
| DealerX Partners LLC | 11,541 | 97% |
| MarketOps LLC | 11,541 | 97% |
| Globicom Inc | 529 | 95% |
| Jun Group Productions, LLC | 684 | 94% |
| Apollo Interactive, LLC | 15,040 | 90% |
| HealthWise Data | 98,275 | 90% |
| Sterling Data Company LLC | 7,390 | 90% |
| eContext.ai LLC | 1,340 | 83% |
| Key Marketing Advantage | 2,297 | 82% |
| 33Across, Inc. | 10,478 | 81% |
| Zeta Global | 137,625 | 80% |
A removal receipt for every single listing
Not a dashboard that says 'complete'. Evidence you could hand to a lawyer.
- Before screenshot
The listing as it appeared, with the URL and the timestamp.
- The filing itself
Which instrument we used — DROP, a statutory demand, or the broker's own flow — and when.
- After screenshot
The same URL, no longer returning your record.
- Content hash
So the evidence can be shown not to have been altered.
- Re-check history
Every subsequent verification, with its own timestamp.
Why this matters beyond reassurance
If you are seeking a protective order, documented online exposure and its removal is evidence. If a broker re-lists you after a statutory deletion demand, the receipt is what an attorney general’s office needs to act.
And if you ever want to leave us, you take the archive with you. We are not going to hold your evidence hostage to a subscription.