DeleteMe review
Independent (Abine, Inc.) · Boston, US · since 2010
Bottom line
DeleteMe is the oldest and most trusted brand in this space, and on the questions of ownership and security it's genuinely strong: independently owned, no data-broker conflict, SOC 2 since 2021 and ISO 27001 certified, with human-assisted removals. The problem is the one that matters most - results. In Consumer Reports' controlled 2024 study it removed only about 27% of test exposures in four months, well behind Optery and EasyOptOuts and below even doing it yourself for free. For a service that starts around $129/year with no free trial, that's a real caveat.
| Owner | Abine, Inc. - independent, privately held, founded 2010 (Rob Shavell still CEO). No conglomerate buyout. Sibling products: Blur/IronVest (spun out) and Block Party (acquired 2026). |
|---|---|
| "Both ends" conflict? | None found. Abine's other products are consumer-privacy tools, not data-selling businesses. |
| Data you hand over | Name, current/past addresses, DOB (optional), aliases, emails, phones; family/employer optional and skippable. SSN never required. |
| Sells your data? | States "we do NOT sell your data." Standard caveat: a business-transaction (merger/bankruptcy) transfer clause exists, which Consumer Reports flagged. Account data kept ~3 years after cancellation. |
| Security | SOC 2 Type 2 (since 2021), ISO 27001:2022, TX-RAMP, public TrustShare portal, AES-256/MFA. But its sibling Blur had a 2019 cloud misconfiguration exposing ~2.4M users. |
| Independent test | ~27% removed in 4 months (Consumer Reports, 2024) - mid-tier, below the free manual control group (~70%). |
| Coverage & method | Claims 750+ brokers (marketing numbers vary widely). Hybrid: automated matching + human-submitted opt-out requests. |
| Price (2026) | No free tier, annual only. Individual ~$129/yr (2-yr ~$8.71/mo); Premium ~$180/yr; Couple ~$229/yr; Family ~$329/yr. Refund policy exists. |
| Affiliate link? | DeleteMe runs an affiliate program, but we're not currently enrolled - our link is a plain link. |
Who owns it - and can you trust them?
DeleteMe is run by Abine, Inc. ("The Online Privacy Company"), an independent, privately held company founded in 2010 by Rob Shavell (still CEO), Eugene Kuznetsov, and Andrew Sudbury. It raised a single $5.2M Series A back in 2011 and has no record of a private-equity buyout. Its other products - Blur (since spun out as IronVest) and Block Party (acquired in 2026) - are consumer-privacy tools, not data-selling businesses.
We found nothing linking Abine, its founders, or its investors to a data broker or people-search operation - the conflict that has damaged trust in some rivals. On the ownership question specifically, DeleteMe is on solid ground.
Does it actually work?
Here's where DeleteMe's reputation and its measured performance part ways. In Consumer Reports' August 2024 study - the most rigorous independent test available - DeleteMe removed roughly 27% of test profiles within four months. That's a mid-level result: better than the very worst services, but far behind Optery (68%) and EasyOptOuts (65%), and below the ~70% that volunteers achieved doing opt-outs manually for free.
DeleteMe's coverage numbers (variously cited as 750+, 950+, or 3,610+ sites) are inconsistent and likely reflect maximum theoretical reach rather than what any single plan actually monitors. The human-assisted process is a genuine plus for hard-to-remove listings; just don't expect the brand name to translate into best-in-class removal rates.
Your privacy & data
To do its job, DeleteMe needs a fairly complete identity picture - name, current and past addresses, aliases, emails and phones - but it never requires your SSN, and family, employer, and government-ID fields are optional. It states clearly that it does not sell your data. The two things to note: its policy contains the standard clause allowing your data to transfer in a merger, acquisition, or bankruptcy (Consumer Reports called this out specifically), and it retains account data for about three years after you cancel.
Security
On paper this is the strongest security posture among the independents: SOC 2 Type 2 maintained annually since 2021, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, TX-RAMP, and a public TrustShare transparency portal, plus the usual AES-256/TLS/MFA/RBAC controls. One honest correction to the "spotless record" narrative some reviews repeat: Abine's sibling product Blur suffered a 2019 cloud-storage misconfiguration that exposed data on roughly 2.4 million users. It wasn't the DeleteMe service itself, but it's the same company, and worth knowing.
Pros
- Longest track record; strong brand trust
- No data-broker conflict of interest
- SOC 2 + ISO 27001; human-assisted removals
- SSN never required; refund policy exists
Cons
- Only ~27% removal in Consumer Reports' test
- No free trial; annual commitment; pricier
- Inconsistent coverage claims
- Sibling product Blur had a 2019 data exposure
Visit DeleteMe
Best if brand trust and human review matter most to you - but compare the value against our top two picks first.
Visit DeleteMe →Plain link - we are not currently in DeleteMe's affiliate program, so we earn nothing from this.
Sources
- Consumer Reports, 2024 people-search removal study (DeleteMe ~27%).
- DeleteMe, about, security, and ISO 27001 announcement.
- Security.org, DeleteMe pricing 2026.
- SiliconAngle, 2019 Blur/Abine data exposure.
Last reviewed July 2026. Spot an error or something out of date? Let us know - we'll correct it.