Data-broker removal services are the most heavily marketed privacy product there is. Here is the only rigorous independent test of them, and it is not flattering.
Consumer Reports tested seven paid services against a control group of people who simply did it themselves by hand. Thirty-two participants, thirteen people-search sites, four months.
| Service | Price / year | Removed after 4 months |
|---|---|---|
| Doing it yourself, by hand | $0 | 70% |
| Optery | $249 | 68% |
| EasyOptOuts | $19.99 | 65% |
| IDX | $139.92 | 40% |
| Kanary | $179.88 | 34% |
| DeleteMe | $129 | 27% |
| ReputationDefender | $99 | 6% |
| Confidently | $120 | 4% |
Two things fall out of that table.
The free option beat every paid service. Doing it yourself scored higher than all seven, and higher than the 35% average across them.
And price predicts nothing. The $19.99 service scored 65%. The $179.88 service scored 34%. Two services charging around a hundred dollars scored 6% and 4%.
Do the thirteen highest-traffic sites yourself. It is an afternoon, it works better than anything you can buy, and you learn where your information actually is.
If you would rather pay, the evidence points at the cheapest one. EasyOptOuts at $19.99 a year scored within three points of a service costing twelve times more, is the only one whose coverage claim we could verify against a published list, and has held that price for two years.
Watch the claims that cannot be checked. One service advertises coverage of 68,000 sites and publishes no list. Another advertises 1,125 brokers plus 185,264 "custom sites," publishes no list, was not in the Consumer Reports study, and has fourteen reviews on Trustpilot. Coverage numbers nobody can audit are marketing, not measurement.
And prices move more than the reviews do. Kanary now lists at $250 a year with a $500 tier above it. Most affiliate reviews still quote it at $9.99 a month.
Removal is never permanent. Brokers re-acquire data continuously. California now requires them to re-check deletion requests every 45 days, a rule written precisely because one-time deletion does not hold. Anyone selling you permanence is selling you something.