Your data is on sale. Take it back.
People-search sites publish your address, phone number, and relatives to anyone who looks. We research how to get it down, and which removal services are worth paying for.
PEOPLE-SEARCH RECORD PUBLIC · INDEXED
The three picks that cover most people
Last verifiedWe evaluate every service on broker coverage, pricing, removal cadence, family plans, transparency, and refund policy, using official pricing pages and published documentation. These three resolve most situations.
Best for most people
Incogni: continuous removals from 420+ brokers at the lowest price among the major automated services.
$7.99/mo billed annually ($95.88/yr)
Best budget option
EasyOptOuts: one no-frills plan that covers 200+ high-visibility sites with scans every 4 months, backed by a 150-day refund.
$19.99/yr flat
Best full identity suite
Aura: data removal bundled with credit monitoring and identity-theft insurance, if you want one subscription for all of it.
$12/mo billed annually
Two more worth knowing: Optery
pairs a genuinely free exposure report with before-and-after screenshot proof on paid
tiers from $39/yr, and
DeleteMe
adds human privacy operators for difficult footprints at $129/yr.
The full ranking of all five, with the comparison table:
Best data removal services in 2026 →
Do you even need to pay?
Honest answer: not always. Every people-search site is legally required to offer an opt
out, every opt out is free, and our guides walk through each one in about
5–10 minutes. If only a handful of
sites list you, do it yourself and keep your money.
The case for paying is scale and recurrence. Hundreds of brokers hold the same public
records, and listings routinely return after database refreshes. Removal services
automate the requests and re-check continuously, from
$19.99/yr.
There is no universally right answer, only a right answer for your exposure, your budget, and your patience for repeating paperwork. We lay out both paths and let you pick; the guides below cost nothing either way.
Free vs. paid, explained honestly →
New to this? What data brokers are and how they got your data →
Free DIY opt-out guides
Step-by-step removals for the six people-search sites readers ask about most, verified against each broker's live opt-out flow.
What a people-search listing actually exposes
A typical listing aggregates your full name and age, current and past home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates, and sometimes court or property records, all assembled from public sources and sold to anyone curious enough to search. None of it required a breach. County records, voter rolls, and commercial data feeds are simply collected, cross-referenced, and republished at scale.
That is why removal is maintenance rather than a one-time fix: the records that feed these sites refresh on a cycle, and suppressed listings can be rebuilt months later. Whether you handle it yourself with our free guides or pay a service to keep watch, the work is the same; the difference is who repeats it. The full background is in what are data brokers.
01
Search yourself
Search your name plus your city on Google and on one or two people-search sites. Note every site that lists you.
02
Clear the big six
Work through the free guides below. Each takes minutes and removes the listings most people actually find.
03
Decide about the long tail
If listings keep returning or the smaller brokers pile up, compare the paid services and let one keep watch.
Head-to-head comparisons
Most readers arrive deciding between two specific names. These pages settle each matchup with verified pricing and a committed verdict, including where the loser is still the right choice.
Individual reviews: Incogni · DeleteMe · Optery · Aura · EasyOptOuts
Primary sources
Every price, plan, and coverage count comes from official pricing pages and support docs, not other review sites.
Dated verification
Each page carries a "Last verified" stamp so you know exactly how fresh its facts are. Stale pages get re-checked quarterly.
Honest verdicts
Where the free route is the better answer, we say so. Our methodology is public.