Data Removal: Search and delete info from data-broker sites
Your personal information is a commodity to data brokers. Our Data Removal service scours data brokers and people-search sites to find and remove your details. Currently available to ExpressVPN users in the U.S.
Data Removal: 3 steps to erase your information
While individuals can request for their personal data to be removed from data broker sites and people search sites, our service saves you time and effort by handling the process for you. Here’s how it works:
Step 1
Search for data
Our data scanning tool searches for your personal information on data-broker and people-search sites.
Step 2
Remove data from brokers
Our service handles the time-consuming process of submitting removal requests to data brokers.
Step 3
Ongoing monitoring
We continue to monitor the sites to ensure your data is successfully taken down and doesn’t reappear.
Why use Data Removal?
Data brokers and people-search sites expose your personal information, increasing your vulnerability to identity theft, cyberattacks like phishing, unwanted robocalls, doxxing, and harassment.
You can ask for your personal information to be removed from these sites yourself, but it’s a time-consuming and complex process. You have to contact each one individually, over and over again—a process that can take over 300 hours per year. ExpressVPN’s Data Removal service takes the worry and hassle out of protecting your privacy:
- Feel empowered. Ensure you’re doing all that you can to prevent the sale of your personal information.
- Reduce unwanted solicitation. Stop receiving so many unsolicited offers, spam messages, and junk letters.
- Better privacy. Privacy should be a right. Minimize who knows about your contact details, location, and relationships.
- Prevent identity theft. To pretend to be you, identity thieves first need your information. Stop them from getting it.
- Hassle-free. The service sends deletion or opt-out requests to numerous data-broker and people-search sites on your behalf.
What do data brokers do?
Data brokers collect personal information about individuals and organize the data to create detailed profiles, which are sold or licensed to other third-party companies for targeted advertising, background checks, credit scoring, and other purposes.
Examples of these personal details include your date of birth, home address, buying behavior, relatives, and divorce and marriage records. People often have little knowledge or control over how their data is used.
What are people-search sites?
People-search sites are online platforms that allow users to look up information about individuals, compromising privacy. These sites aggregate and display data from various public records and other sources, providing details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social media profiles, criminal records, property records, and sometimes even financial or employment information. Common uses for people search sites include finding contact information, verifying someone's identity, and conducting background checks.
How to sign up for Data Removal
New ExpressVPN users in the U.S. will be offered Data Removal during checkout. It may be included in your choice of plan or made available for an additional fee. Sign up for ExpressVPN.
Note: Data Removal is only available to U.S. users.
Frequently asked questions
Currently, new ExpressVPN users in the U.S. will have the option to add Data Removal to their subscription during checkout.
At this time, existing ExpressVPN users in the U.S. (who signed up before Oct. 28, 2024) do not have access to Data Removal, but we will be making it available to them soon. Rollout for other regions will be confirmed later.
If you have subscribed to Data Removal, you must first set it up either within the ExpressVPN mobile apps by going to Upgrades > Data Removal, or on your ExpressVPN Account page.
You’ll be prompted to enter some of your personal information so that the service can scan for and remove your data. Please note that the personal information you share for the Data Removal service will be handled in accordance with our Identity Defender Privacy Policy.
We start by asking you to supply some basic information, including your phone number, email address, and date of birth. Next, we scan data brokers and people-search websites for any matches to your data. When a match is found, we promptly work to have it removed.
The time it takes for a data broker to honor our removal request can vary significantly. Some sites act within hours, while others may take weeks or even months. We persistently monitor each site and will let you know when your information is removed. You can track the progress of each removal directly from your dashboard.
Additionally, we keep monitoring these sources to ensure your data stays removed or opted out, and to detect any new information that may appear. If necessary, we resubmit requests or provide guidance to help you maintain control over your data.
The cost of the subscription depends on the plan you choose. If you purchase the two-year ExpressVPN plan, Data Removal is included at no additional cost. With the one-year plan, Data Removal costs $4.39 per month, and with the one-month plan, it costs $7.99 per month.