Right now, there are hundreds of websites selling your home address, phone number, and even your relatives’ info to anyone with a few bucks. In this video, I break down the five things you need to know before you pay for a data broker removal service—because a lot of services love to claim “coverage” without actually fixing your problem. I walk through how this market works, why manually opting out can take months, and the three factors that separate a legit service from one that’s just taking your money: how many removals they complete, how they complete them (AI, manual, or hybrid), and what you get beyond takedowns. I also share what we found in our testing across Optery, DeleteMe, Incogni, and Aura. DeleteMe has the biggest stated coverage (around 850 sites), but they prioritize high-risk sites first, so removals can look slower early on. Incogni focuses on removal volume, but it’s hard to verify what’s actually being taken down. Optery is my top pick if you want data removal only, mainly because they’re the most transparent—free scan, screenshots, and proof of removal (we saw 385 verified instances removed for one researcher). And if your goal is overall online safety—not just deleting listings—Aura is my hands-down recommendation because it’s a full suite with monitoring, VPN, password manager, insurance, and data broker removal in one plan.