Updated
Updated · WIRED · Jun 27
DeleteMe Cuts Spam Calls and Cleans Search Results for About $100 a Year
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Jun 27

DeleteMe Cuts Spam Calls and Cleans Search Results for About $100 a Year

3 articles · Updated · WIRED · Jun 27

Summary

  • DeleteMe, a 2010-founded data-removal service, reduced the reviewer’s unsolicited marketing calls and scrubbed personal details from Google results after several months of use.
  • Services like DeleteMe and rival Incogni work by asking data brokers to remove addresses, phone numbers and email data, but results are uneven because U.S. privacy rules remain fragmented across states.
  • Dashboards at both services track broker requests and removals; Incogni updates more frequently and covers more sites, while DeleteMe issues periodic reports on a narrower list.
  • DeleteMe argues that narrower approach avoids sending users’ data to brokers that may not already have it, framing privacy cleanup as a long-term process rather than a quick fix.
  • At roughly $100 a year, the service is presented as a gradual way to shrink an online footprint as the Do Not Call registry offers little protection against many unwanted contacts.

Insights

With California's new 'one-click' data deletion law, will paid removal services soon become obsolete?
Do data removal services actually increase your risk by confirming your personal information with hundreds of brokers?
While the US focuses on data removal, how does Europe's GDPR prevent your data from being collected in the first place?