How We Rank Data Removal Services
We haven’t run our own removal test, so we don’t publish scores or stars. The ranking orders services by the evidence below, in this priority.
1. Independent effectiveness evidence
We use two independent studies. Consumer Reports, “Data Defense: Evaluating People-Search Site Removal Services” (August 2024) had 32 volunteers in New York and California sign up for seven services between May and September 2023, then checked 13 people-search sites four months later. Across 332 profiles, 35% had been removed. Manual opt-outs did best at 70%. He, Snyder, Haddadi, Bustamante & Tyson, “Measuring the Accuracy and Effectiveness of PII Removal Services”, Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2025(4) followed 71 participants using Optery, Kanary, Mozilla Monitor and Incogni. The average removal rate after 30 days, as each service reported it, was 48.2%, and participants judged only 41.1% of the records found to be accurate.
Limits: the Consumer Reports test is from 2023, its prices are from July 2024, and its sample was small. The PoPETs rates rely on each service’s own status reports. Neither study tested Aura, Privacy Bee or OneRep directly. Services without an independent result rank below those with good results.
2. Price for one person for a year
We use the lowest price listed on the official pricing page on 2026-10-18, and say when a figure is approximate or we worked it out from a monthly rate.
3. Coverage and transparency
We use the site counts each service publishes. More sites isn’t automatically better: the study authors found many covered brokers aren’t registered with any government, and that extra matches are often the wrong person. Proof of removal, such as screenshots, counts in a service’s favor.
4. Refunds, trials and renewal terms
We use the official pricing and policy pages. If a term isn’t published, we write “not stated”.
5. Trust and complaint patterns
We read recent one- and two-star Trustpilot reviews and Reddit threads for each service, and summarize recurring themes with links. We don’t rank by Trustpilot score, because scores there depend heavily on how actively each company invites customers to leave reviews. Documented ownership conflicts (OneRep) count against a service.
What never affects the ranking
Commissions. Our #1 (EasyOptOuts) has no affiliate program, and Kanary has none we could find. Current affiliate status:
- EasyOptOuts: No affiliate program; the company says it never pays reviewers.
- Optery: Affiliate program exists (30% for 12 months, per Optery); we applied on 2026-10-18 and have not been approved.
- Incogni: Affiliate program exists (via Surfshark); we applied on 2026-10-18 and have not been approved.
- DeleteMe: Affiliate program exists; we applied on 2026-10-18 and have not been approved.
- Kanary: Not stated; we found no public affiliate program.
- Aura: Affiliate program exists; we have not been approved.
- Privacy Bee: Affiliate program exists; we applied on 2026-10-18 and have not been approved.
- OneRep: Affiliate program exists (linked in OneRep’s footer); we have not applied.
Updates
We recheck prices and terms periodically, and update the date at the top of each page only when its content changes.