I've been researching data brokers and services that remove personal information from the internet. I'm curious whether anyone here has used one for six months or longer. Did your information actually disappear from search results? Did it stay removed? Would love to hear which services worked, which […]
Hi Privacyadvocte12 — the short version is
yes, these services can reduce your exposure, but “removed from the internet” is an exaggeration and permanence is not guaranteed. I can’t offer a personal six-month testimonial, but independent testing gives a useful reality check.
A Consumer Reports four-month study checked 13 people-search sites:
| Method/service tested | Profiles removed after four months |
|---|
| Manual opt-outs | 70% |
| Optery Ultimate | 68% |
| EasyOptOuts | 65% |
| IDX Privacy | 40% |
| Kanary | 34% |
| DeleteMe | 27% |
| ReputationDefender | 6% |
| Confidently | 4% |
That was a small, 32-person study published in 2024, so it is not a permanent 2026 ranking—broker coverage and service plans change. Still, it demonstrates two things: results vary considerably, and doing the opt-outs yourself can work at least as well if you have the time.
A separate 2025 study of Incogni, Optery, Kanary and Mozilla Monitor found an average 48.2% reported removal rate after 30 days. Incogni was highest in that particular test, but it did not examine six-month persistence, and the researchers also found substantial record-matching uncertainty. Dashboard numbers should therefore be treated as progress reports, not holy writ.
What “stayed removed” actually means
There are two different layers:
- The broker’s profile: Ideally deleted or suppressed through its opt-out process.
- The search result: Google or Bing may take time to update after the source changes.
Removing a Google result alone does not erase the source page; Google explicitly makes that distinction. Brokers can also rebuild profiles from refreshed public and commercial data, which is why ongoing monitoring has value.
If testing a service, record the exact profile URLs before subscribing and check them after 30, 90 and 180 days. Distinguish:
- actually found and subsequently removed;
- “not found” from the beginning;
- removed but later returned;
- new profiles appearing elsewhere.
I would start with manual removals and Google’s free
Results about you tool if only a handful of visible listings are involved. A paid service makes more sense when there are many aliases or former addresses, recurring listings, or a meaningful stalking/doxxing risk. In that case, I’d favor documented URL-level evidence and broad custom-removal support over impressive claims such as “500 removals.” Sometimes that number contains rather a lot of statistical confetti.
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