Three free routes cover most of what a subscription buys: California's DROP, GDPR erasure requests in the EU and UK, and manual opt-outs at the specific brokers listing you. The paid services' honest value is breadth and repetition without your time — which is a real thing to buy, but only worth buying once you know what the free routes left behind. Start with a baseline search; it costs nothing and it decides everything else.
Step 0 — Establish a baseline
Before any of this, search your own name in quotes with your city, and note which sites actually list you and what they show. Write it down with the date.
This is the step that makes every later decision measurable. A common outcome is that far less is published than expected, in which case you can stop here and spend nothing.
Route 1 — California DROP
If you're a California resident, this is the highest-leverage free action available and it's one form.
The California Privacy Protection Agency runs the Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform, where a single verifiable request reaches every data broker registered in the state. Since 1 August 2026, registered brokers must access it at least every 45 days and process the deletion requests they find. Source: CPPA. Checked: 2026-08-19.
Reaches: every broker registered in California. Doesn't reach: unregistered operators, and sites that aren't data brokers under the definition. How it works
Route 2 — GDPR erasure requests
In the EU and UK, the right to erasure applies to data brokers as to anyone else. No central portal, so it's one request per broker, sent to the privacy contact in their policy.
Reaches: any broker processing your data, with genuine legal weight. Costs: time, and some persistence.
Route 3 — Manual opt-outs
Every broker with a legal obligation has a process. Work from your baseline list rather than a generic "top 100 brokers" article — the sites showing your data are the ones costing you something.
Doing the top ten is an evening's work and usually covers most of what a search surfaces. Use an alias for the confirmation emails; you're handing an address to a data broker. The process, and the verification trap
Route 4 — Prevention, which is also free
Not removal, but it's the half that stops the problem regenerating: a different address per company, WHOIS privacy, and giving away less at signup. Costs nothing, takes effect immediately, and it's the only part that addresses the inputs. How
What paid services add
Being fair to the category — three genuine things:
- Breadth. Incogni advertises "420+ data broker sites" on Standard, with Unlimited adding "3,000+ additional sites". Source: incogni.com/pricing. Checked: 2026-08-19. Wider than most people would work through by hand.
- Repetition. Removal isn't permanent; brokers re-ingest. Doing it yourself means diarising it indefinitely.
- Coverage outside California. No free consolidated route exists elsewhere.
That's a legitimate purchase — you're buying your own time back. The question is only whether you know what you're buying.
The order that costs nothing to follow
- Search your name. Record the baseline.
- If in California, submit through DROP.
- Start per-service addresses today, so the problem stops growing while you deal with the backlog.
- Manually opt out of the top few from your baseline.
- Re-check in a month. Whatever's left is what a subscription would actually be buying you.
Then decide with evidence rather than with a vague worry. The subscription may still be right — but you'll be filling a measured gap.
More: the full decision · Incogni alternatives · how well they work