DeleteMe v Optery v Kanary

[updated: Removaly is no longer in business because of an acquisition]

Comparing data removal services like Kanary and Deleteme

With the rise of personal data breaches and online tracking, it's important to have a reliable privacy service that can protect your personal information. In this blog post, we'll be comparing four competing privacy services: Deleteme, Optery, Kanary, and Removaly. We'll be looking at the number of sites you are removed from, the number of scans you get, the cost, and the support. We'll also discuss which services are independent and which are owned by Venture or Private Equity.

We're updating this comparison on March 14, 2023 because Removaly was taken offline with a vague message from the team. We have some hypotheses about what happened that we’ve written about in depth here: Removaly: What Happened?

More about Deleteme

Deleteme is a privacy service that is owned by the parent company, Abine. Deleteme offers removals and provides a quarterly report that shows which sites your information was removed from. There is no free option and plans can get very expensive (thousands per person per year) you want monthly scans or assistance with removals. Be careful! Some people ask us “Is Deleteme a scam?” because there is another service that owns the url ‘deleteme.com’ which hasn’t been verified as legit… you want to go to ‘joindeleteme.com.’

Optery

Optery is a venture-backed privacy service focused on enterprise clients and individuals. Optery offers removals tiers of broker sites depending on how much you pay them. They also provides a monthly pdf report that shows which sites your information was removed from. The cost of Optery starts at $99 per year for individuals but does not include many important data brokers you want to remove your data from. People like the screenshots provided by Optery to show what was found and confirm removal. They are PC Magazine’s choice for data removal, despite having an issue showing noisy results that they claim are about you when they are not.

Kanary

Kanary is an independent, US-Based privacy service that focuses on removing individual’s personal information from various sites online: data brokers, spam aggregators, breach sites, google search, and social media. Kanary claims to remove your information from over 1,000 sites, which is more than any of its competitors. Kanary offers a free tier with Do-It-Yourself instructions and family plans that are more affordable than most of its competitors. Family plans do have limits on the number of family members you can add at a discounted rate to one account. Kanary is backed by the Mozilla Foundation and other privacy pros fully committed to helping save you time and worry while protecting your privacy.

Finding the right option for you

Whenever you’re considering sharing your personal information with a site, it’s important to do the research. We hope this comparison was helpful to understanding the various options available, as well as highlight the ways to get started. The most important thing you can do is start a maintainable routine for you and your loved ones around digital hygiene, privacy, and security. This makes your security stronger and keeps you protected from the ever-changing ways others can exploit your information.

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