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Some people may want custom deletions, while others are fine with automation. Here’s what you need to know about each.
Zachary McAuliffe Editor
Zach began writing for CNET in November 2021 after writing for five years for a broadcast news station in his hometown of Cincinnati. You can usually find him reading and drinking coffee or watching a TV series with his wife and their dog.
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While looking for a data deletion serviceyou may encounter two different types of deletions: automated and custom. Both can help you opt out of data brokers and people search sites, but you might benefit more from one over the other.
According to OneRep, there are thousands of data brokers and people search sites, and many data deletion services claim to delete your data from hundreds of these sources. OneRep also said that some of the largest data brokerage companies are Experian, Equifax, Epsilon, Acxiom and CoreLogic, and that many data deletion services automatically cover at least one of them. If you want to delete your data from certain places, you will need custom deletions.
Here’s how automated and custom deletions differ, and which one might be right for you.
What are automatic deletions?
Automated deletions are standard across all data deletion services.
Roudjan Naglev via Getty ImagesAutomated data deletions are often the basic option for data deletion services. Every company I’ve seen offers automated deletions by default. Some data deletion services, such as Will haveonly perform automatic deletions.
With automated deletions, a service will search the information you provided, such as your name, address, and date of birth, across different brokers and people search sites. If the service finds your information on one of these sites, it will send a request to delete your data. You may receive a report that your data has been found and a deletion request has been made.
Custom deletions, on the other hand, are different and require some action on your part, but they may affect more data brokers and people search sites.
What are custom deletions?
Custom moves can give you more coverage if you work for it.
Nadezhda Buravleva via Getty ImagesRemember how I said earlier that there are thousands of data brokers and people search sites, but some data deletion services only cover a few hundred? Custom deletions can fill this gap.
With custom deletions, if you find your information on a data broker or people search site that isn’t covered by your data deletion service, you can send your service a link to where you found your information. Your service then reviews the link and information for eligibility, and it may attempt to delete your information.
Although automated deletions are standard with data deletion services, not all data deletion services offer custom deletions.
Some services offer both types of moves… for a price
You may find some services offering automated and personalized deletions.
VectorHot via Getty ImagesSome data deletion services offer both automated and custom deletions, but services that do this may charge a little more for them. Unknown sticks to automated deletions on its Standard and Family plans, but offers automated and personalized deletions as part of its more expensive Unlimited and Family Unlimited tiers.
With both types of deletions, you can potentially remove your information from more data brokers and people search sites. For example, Optics The highest tier plan, Ultimate, includes automated deletions for over 635 sites and custom deletions for over 1,120 sites. So this plan could cover around 1,755 sites if you were to send custom requests.
A simple way to think about automated, personalized moves is in terms of pizzas. Automated moves are like cheese pizza. This is the standard across the industry. Custom moves are like a build-your-own pizza. They’re a bit more expensive and you have to do a little work to create your pizza, but if you want your data removed from a wider pool of data brokers and people search sites, this could give you more coverage – if you’re willing to put in the work.
Which is better: automated or custom deletions?
Automated and custom deletions can be useful in removing your information from data brokers and people search sites.
BRO Vector via Getty ImagesIt depends on your needs. Automated deletions make it easy to set and forget. You don’t have to take any additional steps, and these deletions are standard, so you don’t need to go out of your way to find a data deletion service that offers them. If you just want a data deletion service to handle everything for you without your intervention, automated deletions should be fine.
Custom deletions require a little more effort on your part, as you are responsible for finding and sending the information to the service. These deletions are usually part of more expensive plans – which usually include automated deletions – but they offer more potential coverage. If you search for your information on data brokers and people search sites, in addition to your data deletion service sending automated deletion requests, custom deletions can be useful.
To learn more about data deletion services, here is a guide on whether you should or should not pay for them And what you need to know before subscribing to it.
