DeleteMe is a paid data-broker removal service operated by Abine, headquartered in Boston. The subscription is around 130 dollars per year for one identity, or 230 for a family plan. DeleteMe submits opt-out requests on your behalf to a list of around 100 data brokers, monitors for re-listing every quarter, and provides a private dashboard documenting which broker held what.
What it means in practice
Data brokers like Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, Intelius and the dozens of smaller players collect public records, scraped social media, and licensed data into searchable profiles tied to your name, address, family, and phone number. The opt-out process per broker is doable manually but takes 4 to 8 hours per round, repeats every 3 to 6 months because brokers re-list on the next data refresh, and requires creating accounts on each broker site (which itself adds you to their internal databases). DeleteMe industrializes this work and does it continuously. Predaxia’s editorial position: DeleteMe is the right choice for journalists, lawyers, divorce clients and anyone whose home address must not be one search away. For ordinary privacy-conscious users without a specific threat, the service is overkill.
Who uses it, and against whom
The customer base spans journalists who have received credible threats, judges and prosecutors with public-facing roles, domestic-violence survivors hiding from a former partner, executives at companies that attract activist attention, and lawyers handling high-conflict matters. The adversary is rarely the broker itself: brokers comply with opt-outs because the FTC requires they do. The adversary is the unknown party who will type your name into a $20 search next month, find your home address, and decide what to do with it. DeleteMe shrinks that public surface, but never to zero, because new brokers spin up faster than removal services can find them.
What you can change today
Before paying for any removal service, run your own name through Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, and Intelius from a clean browser session (incognito, no Google account). Screenshot what comes up. That baseline tells you what an attacker sees today. Then subscribe to DeleteMe or attempt the manual opt-out for the four brokers above (search “[broker name] opt out” and follow the published process). Set a calendar reminder for 90 days to verify the removals have not reverted, because they will.