Did you know your address and personal information, such as what you buy online or salary, can easily be found on Google?
It’s true and quite shocking to some people how criminals can use this information to target victims.
Take Cathy, for example. She ended up getting her house robbed while she was visiting her sister. Data brokers sold her address and the fact that she bought plane tickets, which got posted on Google. So the thieves knew precisely her address and when she would be gone.
They took everything from Cathy! She was devastated. She fortunately had home insurance that covered some of the damage, but she is still emotionally distraught.
This is why it is important to ensure that your information is not on Google. But how do you do this?
Unfortunately, it is not very easy. There are over 400+ data brokers in the US, and new ones are opening all the time. If you tell one of the data brokers to stop posting your information, they legally have to honor your request. But contacting every single data broker and following up to ensure they have honored your request months of work and more data brokers pop up all the time.
I started the process myself using this list.
After a long afternoon of work, I had only done 15 sites! It was taking forever.
There had to be a better way to get my information away from data brokers and off Google.
I spoke to a few local lawyers about doing the work and was provided with 3 different quotes: $4,000, $1,200, and even $7,000 by one larger firm! They said this was a lot of work, and the price would not come with any guarantee of service.
That kind of price was certainly not within my budget, so I kept looking for more options.
Searching online, I found a few different services that claimed they could provide the service I needed for much less money. My two co-workers and I tried three of the services that I found, ranked them, and reviewed them as best we could.
1. Privacy Guardian
4.7/5
- Data Removal – Fastest and best data removal – my name disappeared from Google
- Price -By far the lowest pricing at under $7 a month for the yearly plan.
- User Interface – Very basic with less information, the only thing lacking about Privacy Guardian
- Conclusion – Privacy Guardian was the clear winner as it performed the job I got it for and at the best price
2. PrivacyBee
3.2/5
- Data Removal – Numerous listings are still appearing on Google even 4 months after signing up. I’ve been told I must contact some of them directly myself.
- Price – Only a yearly plan at $196/yr is currently available.
- User Interface – Lots of colors and information that is not very useful.
- Conclusion – PrivacyBee did get some of my information off of Google and compared to hiring a lawyer it was a good deal.
3. DeleteMe
2.8/5
- Data Removal – Some listings were removed but some have remained up with my phone number and address on Google.
- Price – Yearly plans only start at $129/yr
- User Interface – Shows which sites you are exposed on but does not seem to get the information removed very quickly. They send me an inaccurate privacy report.
- Conclusion – DeleteMe got some listings removed and cost less than any lawyer but was unable to get much of my information off of Google.
We had a pretty clear winner with Privacy Guardian and would suggest them to all our readers.
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