Levels
Levels Explained
- Basic Safety: We'll attempt to remove your home address anywhere it's discovered freely and publicly through a Google search (does not include wherever your address might exist behind hidden paywalls).
- List Removal: We'll attempt to remove your data from all the people search engines listed here. We'll remove you from a handful of others as well at your request.
- Rep Cleanup: We'll attempt to remove, obfuscate, or bury your personal data wherever it might exist that could be disrupting your work life.
- Complete Delete: We'll attempt to remove every public-facing piece of data on you that we can find when someone searches your name. This is the nuclear option. We'll delete your Facebook, Google, etc. accounts, and remove any caches of these pages from Google.
All fees are one-time only. We'll use every method we can to help you, but there's no guarantee we'll be able to remove everything in all cases, especially where doxing or news articles are concerned.
Manual vs Automated
There are many automated services for removing your data from the internet. In a recent study, it was shown that these services aren't very effective compared to manually removing content, which was expected, but what was more surprising is that they barely did a good job at all.
The researcher, who's put together an awesome list if you'd like to learn more and try your hand at doing the removals yourself, can in good faith only recommend one remaining automated service, EasyOptOuts. For only $20/year, we'd have to agree that you have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
So then what's the point of offering services with PleaseDeleteMe if we're going to list other options, and why so expensive? Because we're taking a quality over quantity approach. We will work with less clients, but give them a much more catered degree of service, one-on-one, and both manually and carefully work on scrubbing their personal data from the internet.
Scary Stuff
One of the more creepy aspects of data removal is that you often have to provide more data that these sleazy services may not have even had in the first place! We'll work carefully to only collect the bare minimum data required (often name, state, and age are all that are needed) to find and remove you from the internet.
And so we're not just perpetuating the problem, we won't store your info in some database that could itself be breached and leaked. We'll use end-to-end encrypted communication methods and delete your data once we're done.
Safety Tips
The most important step to take right now is to stop providing your personal info in the first place. As much as possible, do not use your home address for anything. Use a PO Box, virtual address, or something else instead. When you absolutely must use your home address for something, there's no legal requirement that states you must receive mail/packages in your name. You could simply use your initials, "Postal Customer," "Resident," or virtually whatever you want instead.
FAQ
Why is your service so expensive?
There's nothing particularly difficult about Googling yourself and requesting the removal of your data. While it's a little more complicated than that, no special skills are required and most people could learn to do this. However, the process is time-consuming. You're paying for someone to do the work on your behalf.
Why can't I just contact you for free?
We do not provide free support of any kind and only communicate directly with paying clients. Whether none of the removal levels discussed above fit your needs or you simply have questions first, we do require a one-time consultation fee of $50. If all you need is advice, you'll pay nothing more. If you decide to move forward with one of the existing removal levels or a more custom solution, the $50 will go toward that.
Why is my personal data exposed online?
See our blog post on the topic.