How Do Data Removal Services Actually Remove Your Data?

While looking for a data removal service, you might come across two different types of removals: automated and custom. Both can help you remove yourself from data brokers and people-search sites, but you could get more use out of one over another.

According to OneRep, there are thousands of data brokers and people-finder sites, and many data removal services tout that they remove your data from hundreds of these sources. OneRep also said that some of the largest data brokerages are Experian, Equifax, Epsilon, Acxiom and CoreLogic, and many data removal services automatically cover at least one of them. If you want to remove your data from certain places, you'll need custom removals.

Here's how automated and custom removals differ, and which one might be right for you.

What are automated removals?

Automated removals are standard across data removal services.

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Automated data removals are often the base-level option for data removal services. Every company I've seen offers automated removals by default. Some data removal services, like Aura, only perform automated removals.

With automated removals, a service will scan for information you've provided -- such as your name, address and date of birth -- across different brokers and people-finder sites. If the service finds your information on one of those sites, it will send a request to remove your data. You might receive a report indicating that your data was found and a removal request has been made.

Custom removals, on the other hand, are different and require some legwork on your part, but they can cover more data brokers and people-finder sites.

What are custom removals?

Custom removals can give you more coverage if you put in the work.

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Remember how I said earlier that there are thousands of data brokers and people finder sites, but some data removal services only cover a couple hundred of them? Custom removals can fill that gap.

With custom removals, if you find your info on a data broker or people-finder site that isn't covered by your data removal service, you can send your service a link to where you found your info. Your service then reviews the link and information for eligibility, and it might attempt to get your information removed.

While automated removals are standard with data removal services, not every data removal service offers custom removals.

Some services offer both kinds of removals… for a price

You can find some services that offer automated and custom removals.

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There are some data removal services that offer both automated and custom removals, but services that do so might charge a little more for them. Incogni sticks to automated removals on its Standard and Family plans, but offers both automated and custom removals as part of its pricier Unlimited and Family Unlimited tiers. 

With both kinds of removals, you can potentially remove your information from more data brokers and people-finder sites. For example, Optery's highest-tier plan, Ultimate, includes automated removals for over 635 sites and custom removals for over 1,120 sites. So that plan could cover about 1,755 sites if you were to send in custom requests. 

An easy way to think of automated and custom removals is in terms of pizzas. Automated removals are like a cheese pizza. It's standard across the industry. Custom removals are like a build-your-own pizza. They are a little more expensive, and you have to do a little work to create your pizza, but if you want your data removed from a wider pool of data brokers and people-finder sites, this could provide you more coverage -- if you're willing to put the work in.

Which is better: Automated or custom removals?

Both automated and custom removals can be helpful in removing your info from data brokers and people-finder sites.

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That depends on your needs. Automated removals make it easy to set it and forget it. You don't have to do any extra legwork, and these removals are standard, so you don't have to go out of your way to find a data removal service that offers them. If you just want a data removal service to handle everything for you without your input, automated removals should be fine.

Custom removals require a little more effort on your part because you're responsible for finding and sending the information to the service. These removals are usually part of more expensive plans -- which typically include automated removals -- but they offer greater potential coverage. If you're going to look for your info on data brokers and people-finder sites, in addition to your data removal service sending automated removal requests, custom removals can be helpful.

For more on data removal services, here's a guide to whether you should or shouldn't pay for them and what you should know before you subscribe to them.