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The All About Cookies editorial team strives to provide accurate, in-depth information and reviews to help you, our reader, make online privacy decisions with confidence. Here's what you can expect from us:
Best Overall Data Removal Service
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Removes your data from the web to avoid scams, spam and stalkers
100+ million successful opt-out removals
Provides continued removals every three months
Best for Bundled Protection
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Easy to use and set up
Up to $25,000 in fraud insurance
Data removal services like DeleteMe and Hogo Privacy Defense can help track down and remove your information from data brokers, and DeleteMe won this comparison. We compared these two services, focusing on pricing, features, compatibility, and more to determine the best data removal service for you.
At their core, DeleteMe and Hogo Privacy Defense identify and remove your information from data brokers, but both services also offer additional features.
DeleteMe offers email, card, and phone masking for improved online security, while Hogo Privacy Defense offers additional identity theft insurance and credit monitoring. Let’s look at these plans, how they differ, and which is best for you.
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| Star rating | ||
| Price | $8.06–$32.25/mo | Free or $5.99/mo |
| # of site removals | 750+ | Not specified |
| Privacy reports | Yes — every 3 months | |
| Family plan | ||
| Recurring removals | ||
| Custom removal requests | ||
| Encryption | AES-256 and TLS 1.2 | AES-256 |
| Extras | Email masking, phone masking, card masking | Credit monitoring, financial account monitoring, identity theft insurance |
| Learn more | Get DeleteMe | Get Hogo Privacy Defense |
To review data removal services, we sign up for the service anywhere from a week to a month in advance. This allows it time to gather our data, scrub it from the data broker and people search sites, and send us reports on its process.
With so many data broker websites, you’ll want to make sure the one you choose sends requests to a lot of them, as well as follows up and searches for more.
Once we've spent some time with the service, we calculate our editorial rating by taking into account key features, prices, security measures, and other criteria.
To learn more about how we test, check out our full data removal testing methodology here.
Our Pick |
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| Number of people covered | 1-2 | 1 or the entire household |
| Paid monthly | N/A | $5.99/mo |
| Paid annually | $16.13/mo (billed annually) | N/A |
| Paid every two years | $13.06/mo (billed every two years) | N/A |
| Money-back guarantee | ||
| Best value plan | 2 Years, 2 People for $13.06/mo (billed every two years) | Hogo Privacy Defense Premium for $5.99/mo |
| Learn more | Get DeleteMe | Get Hogo Privacy Defense |
DeleteMe offers a free scan that shows where your information is, but to remove your information, you need a paid plan. All three DeleteMe plans offer the same features, so the only differences are the number of people covered and the coverage duration.
DeleteMe doesn’t offer a free trial, but you can request a full refund before your first privacy report. You can request a pro-rated refund if you’ve received a privacy report and decide DeleteMe isn’t for you.
Hogo offers two plans: a free version and a premium subscription. The free option covers all the basics, such as scanning data broker sites for your information and sending removal requests. The premium plan offers data removal services, identity theft insurance, and real-time credit monitoring.
However, Hogo doesn’t offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee.
Our Pick |
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| Free scan | ||
| Data broker opt-out | ||
| Data broker site scans | ||
| Number of data brokers covered | 750+ | N/A |
| How often is data rechecked? | Quarterly | Bi-weekly |
| Monthly report | ||
| Marketing list removal | ||
| Email privacy | ||
| Privacy reports | Yes — every 3 months | |
| Real-time alerts | ||
| Social media account monitoring | ||
| Dark web monitoring | ||
| Credit monitoring | ||
| Fraud monitoring | ||
| Learn more | Get DeleteMe | Get Hogo Privacy Defense |
When comparing data removal services, it’s important to examine the breadth of scanning. The more data brokers your data removal service scans, the more you can clear your information from the internet. DeleteMe offers more robust monitoring, scanning over 750 data brokers for your information. Hogo Privacy doesn’t specify the number of brokers, so we can’t compare exact numbers. We can say, however, that DeleteMe scans more data broker sites than many other data removal services we’ve tested.
DeleteMe sends regular reports, while Hogo doesn’t provide any reports. Granted, all the information is available on the dashboard, but getting a summarized activity report is nice.
Hogo Privacy offers bundled protection by providing real-time reports, credit and fraud monitoring, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance for premium subscribers. These features certainly aren’t necessary for a data removal service plan, especially if you have that coverage in a different insurance policy, but it’s nice to have for some users.
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It’s worth noting that while DeleteMe lacks some of the identity theft and credit monitoring features offered by Hogo Privacy, it comes with its own set of security-enhancing features. DeleteMe provides email, card, and phone masking to bolster your online anonymity.
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Email masking allows you to create alternate email addresses that are linked or routed to your regular inbox, keeping your personal email address private. Card and phone masking work similarly, creating proxy numbers for you to use and keeping your personal information safe.
Data removal services collect a fair amount of data, which we expect. How else are these programs supposed to scour the internet for your information? With so much valuable information, we like to see top-notch encryption and enhanced security measures like two-factor or multi-factor authentication.
Our Pick |
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| Encryption | AES-256 and TLS 1.2 | AES-256 |
| Two-factor authentication | ||
| Multi-factor authentication | ||
| Collects data | Minimal | |
| Shares data with third parties | Minimal | |
| Learn more | Get DeleteMe | Get Hogo Privacy Defense |
We were pleased to see DeleteMe and Hogo Privacy Defense both offer military-grade encryption, which is virtually uncrackable using brute-force methods. While no encryption system is completely secure, we can rest easy knowing both services use exceptional encryption.
With Hogo Privacy Defense, however, account credentials lack some of the same security. When guarding such sensitive information, we would love to see advanced security measures like a minimum of two-factor authentication. While we would love to see multi-factor authentication, we were satisfied with DeleteMe’s two-factor authentication to improve account security.
Our Pick |
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| Windows | ||
| macOS | ||
| Android | ||
| iOS | ||
| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Customer support options | Phone, live chat, email | Email, online guides, blog |
| Learn more | Get DeleteMe | Get Hogo Privacy Defense |
DeleteMe was easy to install and use. We input our information, and DeleteMe got to work searching its database of 750+ data brokers for it. The DeleteMe dashboard is intuitive and easy to use, displaying information about our last report and subscription.
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We entered our information on Monday morning and received our first report on Saturday morning. This report is also available on the dashboard under “Reports,” showing how many data brokers have our information and how many listings were reviewed.
Signing up for Hogo Privacy Defense was easy, but it’s worth noting that Hogo is only available in app form now. After signing up, the app walks you through setup step-by-step. As part of your account creation, you’ll rate your privacy concerns and choose an animated character to help guide you through the process.
Within the app, you’ll see the main dashboard with tabs for Privacy, ScamAssist, and Fraud Insurance. Hogo utilizes gamification, rewarding users with coins for every action in the app. These coins can be redeemed for rewards like a stuffed animal, Amazon, Starbucks, or Target gift cards.
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DeleteMe and Hogo Privacy Defense offer data removal and other features. For removing info from data brokers to its two-factor authentication and email masking, we think DeleteMe is a better choice for bolstering your online security.
DeleteMe helps users remove sensitive information from the internet. While you could delete your data manually, it could take countless hours. DeleteMe automates the process and does the legwork of finding your info and requesting it be removed. Our first scan took 11 hours, reviewing over 2,000 listings and removing 41. If you want to confirm your information is removed, we recommend manually checking well-known data sites like LexisNexus or WhitePages for your data.
Hogo Privacy Defense offers a free plan that searches the internet for your personally identifiable information and lets you remove your data from five sites monthly. The free plan also provides up to $25,000 in identity theft insurance.
Hogo Privacy Defense is the better choice if you’re looking for basic data removal service features coupled with some identity theft insurance fraud protection. Hogo Privacy uses gamification and reward points to attract users, which also may incentivize them.
Overall, we prefer DeleteMe, with its staggering number of data brokers, enhanced security features, and intuitive user interface. We appreciate the email, card, and phone masking, too, which adds an added layer of privacy to our personal information.
Removes your data from the web to avoid scams, spam and stalkers
100+ million successful opt-out removals
Provides continued removals every three months
We think DeleteMe is a solid data removal service, but there are quality DeleteMe alternatives. If you’re in the market for bundled cybersecurity services, want a hands-off approach, or simply need a lower price point, here are top-tested alternatives.
Removes your data from the web to avoid scams, spam and stalkers
100+ million successful opt-out removals
Provides continued removals every three months
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