It’s extremely discouraging to find myself all over these sites, specifically the ones listed on the Data Removal Services page (I haven’t even made it to the giant BADOOL list). I decided to go the manual route for opting out, after an ArsTechnica article showed that a lot of data removal services didn’t work great, though EasyOptOut was the best by far.
What I’ve learned is that most of the companies will just…not allow you to do so. They will often cite “technical issues.” Been Verified for example never sends the verification email (and yes, I checked spam). InfoTracer sends the verification email, but no matter when you click it, what browser you click it from, whether or not you have Tailscale, DNS, VPN, uBlock enabled or disabled, it always says “You clicked it too fast. Wait 5 seconds.”
The other sites have a host of hilariously pathetic excuses as well, so these dirtbag companies can continue to host your personal data. It’s the most frustrating thing, and I wish that we had more push in a legal sense to block this stuff.