Are you an internet user that’s trying to clean up your digital footprint by deleting your information with data brokers?
Knowing that your personal information can be collected and used WITHOUT your consent can be extremely scary. What’s more, as a result of your data appearing in data aggregating websites – it is probable that some of your personal information may appear in search results online.
This can hurt your privacy, and your security can be endangered by providing hackers with some information necessary to perform social engineering attacks.
Under the worst circumstances, your data could even be used to perform a fraud or identity theft.
What Is Deleteme?
Deleteme helps users remove their personal information from websites that collect data from public records and are accessible to the general public to conduct people searches.
DeleteMe is the go-to solution for people who want to get their personal information removed from data broker websites.
Launched in 2010, DeleteMe is a privacy service that helps users remove their personal information from data broker websites. Many of these brokers, such as Whitepages.com, store and sell data on you.
You can manually go through and request the removal of your data from these broker sites – and they are obligated by law to comply – but it is a tedious process.
What Are Data Brokers?
Unfortunately, no matter how much you’ve wisened up about online privacy, it’s likely that your information has already been posted on Data Broker websites like Whitepages, BeenVerified, or Spokeo.
Data brokers are corporations that collect huge amounts of personally identifiable information (PII) and package it all together to create ‘profiles’ or ‘listings’.
These listings could include your full name, home address, past residences, email address, vehicle registration number, birth date, phone number, lists of your relatives’ names, or even photos of your home.
It can be extremely difficult and time-consuming to get your information off of all of these sites — and there are essentially countless numbers of data brokers.
How Can I Protect Myself?
Each data broker typically has its own unique opt-out policy. Unfortunately for us, many of these opt-out policies are difficult to find, so it can take hours to remove yourself from every website.
Data brokers want to make it as inconvenient as possible for you to remove your information–forcing you to fax them opt-out forms or mail them a copy of your ID.
What’s worse, is that even after you have gone through the effort of removing your information, it could be re-posted as the data broker continues to crawl the web and create personal listings.
How to use Deleteme
Using DeleteMe is extremely easy. Once a user has subscribed they must start by providing all the data about themselves that they want to have removed from aggregator databases.
The firm asks users for details such as their name, address, date of birth, phone numbers, and any aliases they have, or names they have previously been known by (maiden name, common misspellings, etc.)
Users can add as many addresses, names, emails, and phone numbers relating to themselves as they like, and if they forget any details they can start another campaign once the first is done.
Following that, users must upload, email, or fax DeleteMe a picture of their driver’s license, passport – or another state-issued ID – in order to verify that they are who they say they are.
DeleteMe needs this redacted version of your ID (you can hide the photo and ID number) in order to remove you from some services.
Handing your sensitive personal data to DeleteMe may seem somewhat counterproductive to the final aim of gaining privacy. However, this is the only way that the firm can delete your data so it seems reasonable to provide DeleteMe with PI if you actually want the service to function.
What kind of data do they remove?
Anybody who decides to subscribe to DeleteMe can expect information about themselves to be removed from leading data brokers. This includes the removal of their name, address, age, phone number, email address, photos – and even photos of their home – from databases.
Below is a screenshot of what you can find out about the average person if you search for them online. This is the kind of entry that DeleteMe is designed to get rid of.
Thus, as a result of using DeleteMe, subscribers’ data will not appear in online search results.
DeleteMe | Pros vs Cons
Now that you’ve seen how the service works, I’m going to move this DeleteMe review into my analysis of the pros and cons. First, the pros:
- Saves hours of time
- Data removal works
- Privacy advisor
Of course, there are a few important cons to note for a service like this:
- Pricing & Structure
- Requires trust
- Limitations
- Not a “quick fix”
Overall, the pros outweigh the cons – at least for me – and I’m satisfied with my experience. I value my time as much as I value my privacy so for me, it was worth the expense. If this has been helpful, you can try my affiliate link for the DeleteMe service here.
Is Deleteme Safe?
DeleteMe has a consumer rating of 4.75 stars from 803 reviews indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases.
Consumers satisfied with DeleteMe most frequently mention personal information, customer service, and great job. DeleteMe ranks 1st among Privacy sites.
Conclusion on is Deleteme Legit
In conclusion, the above information concerning Deleteme is comprehensive enough for anyone even a newbie. Now make sure to go through the steps provided in this post, and you will surely come out with the desired result.
Additionally, it is important to carefully follow through with the information above to come up with the desired result.
Be sure to share this post with friends and family.
Robomin is a freelance writer and blogger who covers topics related to Account Creation, gadgets, Refunds, and how to delete An Account. He has a passion for new and innovative technology and enjoys sharing his knowledge with others