This may have been answered before, but are these services only useful for Americans or worldwide?
We have only evaluated these tools from a US perspective. Data brokers are a worldwide issue, but them being allowed to publish the collected information on the open internet is a relatively US-centric phenomenon, and that is the main threat we are focused on addressing.
This might be out of the scope of this test but is there any plan to check back in another three months? I would be interested to see how much of the data that is removed from these sites is already back on them by the next quarterly check.
It’s only been about 2 months since collecting the data from the 3 month test in that article (so ~5 months from initial purchase), but I’ve just checked and the results are still the same as that final table, nothing has changed.
EasyOptOuts says they run a scan every 4 months, which means I don’t really expect any data to come back while subscribed to the service.
It might be interesting to see how much of the data returns after unsubscribing (which I still haven’t done with either of these two participants’ accounts), but that is not really in the scope of this review.
Yeah understandable. I agree its out of the scope. I do think it would be interesting especially for people who want to do this data removal manually as it could give them an idea of how often they may need to go through the process.
The amount of data remaining publicly accessible is a very manageable amount that can be manually dealt with afterward.
From my experience with the service this is how its been for me. The main source of data I have to try and manage now, is usually from homeowner sites (homes.com, zillow, etc) listing all my info.
Love the review! I have been using EasyOptOuts and they have done a great job of removing my data. I have a hard time finding it myself after they were done with the first round.
It seems to me that if 10% still remains, then the service doesn’t really provide much privacy protection. A search will still find useful results.
Unless it’s 100% the service seems useless.
This seems to be a pretty unrealistic expectation. Based on the consumer reports even doing it manually results in only 70% success rate.
I would recommend using a combination of EasyOptOuts, free tools, and manual cleanup.
Yes, it’s unrealistic to expect 100%. That’s why I don’t think the service provides much value. If you are able to find personal information from one source what good does it do to clean up the 90% of the others, especially when it requires a subscription to keep stuff from reappearing?
Sadly, our personal information is out there and a service like this will only give users a false sense of privacy. It doesn’t work because anything less than 100% is not helpful or “good enough”
Not all these sites provide the same level of information. So even by containing just the majority you are still reducing the amount of information available. You are also making it harder for someone to access this information by reducing the amount of sites its available on.
I think its a mistake to allow dozens of sites to parade your PII throughout the internet just because there might be a few leaks here and there. Especially when you can use these services in conjunction with other tools to reduce the amount of data even further.
It does not require that. You could always do this all manually, depending on if the time required to do that is worth less then paying a service to do it for you. At $20/year it seems like you would have to be pretty efficient doing it yourself.
EasyOptOuts is USA only.
You should choose a service that has wide coverage coz what’s the point of removing 1-2 results from Google when there are 3 showing? Someone with malicious intent will just click on the 3rd result and get the info they need, never knowing you deleted the first two results.
So data removal service + manual removals from the remaining sites. If you don’t want to do any manual removals yourself, then choose a data removal service that supports unlimited custom removals.
That’s the point I’ve been trying to make, but people giving pushback. It’s whack a mole forever
I’m glad that you now only recommends providers you have tested. I remember when there was a few ones recommended and it felt as if some may not be trustworthy.
Thank you for having reviewed it in depth.
I am wondering if they are some EU people search. I am an EU resident and whenever I search myself on people search sites there I don’t find myself or my relative.
It seems those only cover US citizens which is great but at the same time I am sure me or my relatives are on some people database still.
Our guides regarding this are only focused on publicly searchable databases, which is a pretty uniquely American problem. Data brokers are still an issue in other regions, but unfortunately there is nothing you can really do to guarantee your data is removed.
Even in this case the data brokers in the US likely retain all of your information forever. Our goal is not to delete your information from their records permanently, just to keep it inaccessible as much as possible from stalkers and other potential attackers you might face in the US.
Your data might still be leaked in a data breach of one of these providers wherever you are in the world, unfortunately. The best solution here is to make these data brokers illegal in the first place, which is not something you can do with individual action.
In the EU basically anyone, incl. data brokers with your private info needs to delete it if you request it. Even if they aren’t based in the EU.
I am not saying they can’t lie but it would be illegal for them not to comply, so there is real value in asking deletions.
That being said, GDPR also hides the problem. People search sites MIGHT be illegal in the EU, but that just hides the problem.
I am not sure I agree but definitely it shouldn’t be the wild-west like rn. Make anual 3rd party-audits mandatory. If any sustained failures, shut them down and have execs banned for 5 years for running any data broker.
Plus of course US wide privacy regulation to close any loopholes.
Like I said though, the threat we are addressing is not data brokers having your information, it is: stalkers online easily finding your information.
You’re asking about a whole different topic, and it’s really one I haven’t seen a lot of research done on. If there are some resources about how this works in the EU, it might be best to create a new Site Development post with them, if we want to look into this issue further.
Ah, got it.