Best data removal services in 2026: 6 compared honestly

The best data removal service is the one that sends requests to the brokers that operate where you live and plausibly hold your data, not the one with the biggest broker count. Every removal request hands a broker your name, email and often your address. Sending hundreds of them to sites that never listed you spreads your details further, so more requests isn't more privacy. Ask each service how it chooses where to send your details, and how you can check what it did.

By that test and by price: DeleteMe says it searches for your listings first and avoids "blind opt-outs", and includes a human expert on every plan. Optery shows screenshots of the listings it finds and is the cheapest way in (a free tier, then $39 a year). Incogni has the longest published country list of the established services. Aura makes sense if you also want identity theft insurance, Kanary is built for public figures, and Serus is an AI agent that finds the brokers where you live and removes you from those, then keeps checking.

We make Serus, so we've kept this to facts each company publishes about itself, checked on October 25, 2026, with a link to every source at the end. Where Serus is the weaker choice, we say so.

What a data removal service actually does

A data removal service sends opt-out and deletion requests to data brokers (companies that collect and sell personal info) and people-search sites on your behalf. Then it checks again, because listings come back. That repeat work is most of what you pay for.

You can do the first round yourself for free. Most people-search sites have a web form, and our guide to removing your data from data brokers shows how. The trouble is keeping it up for months.

Brokers also respond at very different speeds. On Serus, many low-friction brokers clear within 24 to 72 hours, while harder ones can take 30 days or more. Optery says the same thing in its own words: some brokers remove profiles immediately, others take multiple weeks. Any service promising instant or total removal is overselling.

Why more requests isn't more privacy

To ask a broker to delete you, a service has to tell it who you are: full name and email, usually a home address too. If the broker had a profile on you, that's a good trade. If it didn't, a company that buys and sells personal data now has the details it was missing.

Picture someone living in Lyon. A request to a Michigan criminal-records site does nothing for her; she isn't in Michigan's court records. It does put her contact details in that site's inbox. Repeat that across a few hundred US-only brokers and her details now sit with a few hundred companies she'd never dealt with.

The GDPR has a principle for this. Article 5(1)(c) says personal data should be "adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary", known as data minimisation. It's written for the companies handling your data, but it's the right test for a removal service too: send requests where your data plausibly is, based on where you live and what a search finds. Fewer, relevant requests mean less spill. A dashboard that says 400 requests went out hasn't necessarily done more for you than one that says 40.

What any removal service can and can't see

Brokers come in two kinds. Public listings, the people-search sites and anything a search engine indexes, can be checked by anyone with a search, before and after a removal. DeleteMe says it scans for your info and only sends opt-outs to brokers that hold it, and Optery's reports include live screenshots of where it found you. Here, proof is possible.

Private data sets are the other kind: marketing and risk brokers, the business-to-business ones such as Acxiom or LexisNexis. You can't search them, and no removal service has a back door into them. For a private broker, "removed" can only mean "request sent" or "the broker says it complied". That's how this market works for everyone in it. It also means a big removal count made up mostly of private brokers is mostly requests nobody outside those brokers can verify.

Serus is in the same position. We can't see inside private databases either. We send requests only where they're relevant and show you what was confirmed and by whom.

The best data removal services compared

Table: Each company's own published prices and features, as of October 2026

Coverage is the column we left out on purpose, and the "How requests are chosen" column is why. Each company counts differently (Incogni says 420+ brokers with automated removals, Aura 425+ sites, Optery up to 625+ depending on plan), and Serus doesn't publish a count because the list is built from where you live. What matters is whether the sites that actually list you get a request, and the rest don't, so run a free scan or check a site list before you buy.

Optery: best value and best free tier

Optery's Free Basic plan gives you an exposure report with screenshots, a scan of your Google and Bing results, and tools to do the removals yourself. No card needed. Paid plans, as of October 2026: Core at $39 a year (fully automated, monthly scans and removals), Extended at $149 a year (adds a human Privacy Agent and before-and-after screenshot reports about every 90 days), and Ultimate at $249 a year (adds unlimited custom removal requests).

Optery is upfront that it doesn't remove or scan anything on the dark web. Its pricing page lists the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in its country menu.

Pick it if you want to start free, or want proof of each removal.

Incogni: best for readers outside the US

Incogni's support center lists every EU country plus the US, Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, the longest published list among the established services here. Standard is $95.88 a year (or $15.98 month to month), and Unlimited, which adds custom removals and live phone support, is $179.88 a year. The Family plan covers up to 5 people for $191.88 a year.

It's mostly automated. Incogni scans people-search sites and sends requests, then resends them on a schedule to brokers that might hold your data. Reports come monthly. Its US-only Protect plan adds identity theft insurance and dark web monitoring.

Pick it if you're in Europe or Canada, or want a cheap family plan.

DeleteMe: best if you want a person on your case

DeleteMe has been doing this since 2010. Its US plan is $129 a year for one person, $229 for two and $329 for four. Every plan includes custom removal requests and a personal DeleteMe expert. You also get quarterly privacy reports and phone support. Your first report should arrive within 7 days.

It costs more than Incogni Standard, and the US plan is for US residents only (other countries in its menu have their own plans). Pick it if your situation needs judgment rather than automation.

If you've already narrowed it down to these two, we put Incogni and DeleteMe side by side on price, coverage and how each one works.

Aura: best if you want insurance in the same bill

Aura is an identity theft protection suite that includes data removal from 425+ brokers, people-search sites and Google results, by its own count. The Individual plan is $12 a month billed annually, with $1M identity theft insurance and 3-bureau credit monitoring. Antivirus, a VPN and a password manager are included too. All plans have a 14-day free trial, and annual plans a 60-day money-back guarantee.

If you only want broker removal, you're paying for a lot else.

Kanary: best for executives and public figures

Kanary says it was built for highly visible people, such as celebrities and executives. Core is $250 a year and Advanced is $500, with 50% off for family members. Advanced adds social media and AI/LLM sources plus faster scans. There's no free tier. Pick it if you have a real safety risk or you're buying for a team.

Serus: best for location-based removal

Serus is an AI privacy assistant built around sending fewer, relevant requests. The agent works out which data brokers and people-search sites operate where you live and plausibly hold your data, files removal requests there and follows up. Each request still shares your details with that broker; the point is that only relevant brokers get one. When your data reappears, it files again. With Autopilot on, new exposures are queued and removed without you doing anything. It can also get results about you removed from Google search through de-indexing, and it monitors the dark web and breach databases with alerts. (Dark web and breach data can't be removed by anyone. We tell you what to do instead.)

Protection is $14.99 a month or $99 a year, as listed on serus.ai. There's a free plan with a scan and self-service removal from the brokers we assign you, and a 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans.

Our honest weak spots: Serus launched in March 2026, so we don't have DeleteMe's track record. Optery Core is cheaper. And because we don't publish a broker list, you can't check a specific site before signing up; the free scan is how you see what we'd find.

How to choose

Start with how a service picks brokers: ask whether it searches for you first or sends requests on spec, and how you'll see what was confirmed. Then your country and budget. If you're outside the US, check that the service sells plans where you live before anything else. Then decide how much you care about a human on your case versus automation, and whether you want insurance bundled in.

If you're not sure you need a paid service at all, run a free scan first (Serus Protection or Optery's Free Basic) and see how many listings turn up. If it's a handful, do them by hand. If your bigger worry is Google, start with how to remove search results from Google. And if a breach is what started this, read what happens if your email is on the dark web.

Sources

All checked on October 25, 2026. Facts are as of October 2026.

• Optery pricing and Optery home page (removal timing, no dark web scanning, screenshot reports)
• Incogni pricing, Incogni home page (how it picks brokers, including private databases by region), Incogni: countries where it's available and Incogni: plans and prices
• DeleteMe pricing, DeleteMe home page (scans before opt-outs, avoids blind opt-outs) and DeleteMe free scan
• Aura pricing
• Kanary pricing and Kanary home page (FAQ: free tier, refund policy, who it's built for; how it finds exposures)
• Serus Protection and Serus facts for AI assistants
• GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), Article 5(1)(c), on EUR-Lex (data minimisation)