I Built a $1 Alternative to DeleteMe and Incogni — Here's How It Works

Data brokers are selling your personal information right now. Your name, address, phone number, email, relatives, employer — it's all on sites like Spokeo, WhitePages, Radaris, and TruePeopleSearch. Anyone with $1 and five minutes can find it.

Services like Incogni ($7.49/month) and DeleteMe ($10.75/month) will find and remove this data for you. They're good products. But they cost $90-130/year, and most of what they do is search public websites and submit opt-out forms — something you can do yourself if you know where to look.

So I built a tool that does the detection half for $1.

What the Tool Does

The Personal Data Exposure Report scans 20+ data broker and people-search sites for your name, email, and phone number. For each site where your data is found, it gives you:

• A direct link to your profile on the broker site
• What types of data are exposed (address, phone, email, relatives, etc.)
• Step-by-step removal instructions specific to that site
• A direct link to the site's opt-out page
• What you'll need to complete the removal (email, phone, profile URL)
• Estimated time to complete the removal
• Whether the site is part of a group (one removal covers multiple sites)

Plus a summary with your exposure score, breakdown of easy vs hard removals, and all data types exposed across all sites.

How Detection Works

The actor uses multiple detection methods to maximize coverage:

1. Brave Search — searches for your name across 29 known data broker domains, finding indexed listings with direct profile URLs
2. Direct HTTP scanning — checks 6 broker sites that respond to direct requests
3. Proxy scanning — checks 13 additional protected sites using residential proxies
4. DataBreach.com — checks if your email appears in known data breaches
5. Have I Been Pwned — checks email breach exposure (optional, requires API key)

Sites Covered

Tier 1 — Free people-search sites (richest data)

Site	Data Exposed	Removal	Time
TruePeopleSearch	Name, address, phone, age, relatives	Online form	2 min
FastPeopleSearch	Name, address, phone, email, relatives	Online form	2 min
ThatsThem	Name, address, phone, email, IP	Online form	2 min
Nuwber	Name, address, phone, email, age	Email link form	3 min
USPhoneBook	Name, address, phone	Online form	2 min
SearchPeopleFree	Name, address, phone, age	Online form	2 min

Tier 2 — Paywalled sites

Site	Data Exposed	Removal	Time
Spokeo	Name, address, phone, email, social, court records	Profile URL + email confirm	3-5 min
WhitePages	Name, address, phone, relatives, age	Phone call verification	5-10 min
Radaris	Name, address, phone, email, court, property	Account + phone verify	10-30 min
PeopleFinders	Name, address, phone, age, relatives	Online form	3 min
Intelius	Name, address, phone, email, relatives	PeopleConnect suppression	5-10 min

Breach databases

Site	What It Checks
DataBreach.com	Whether your email appears in known data breaches
Have I Been Pwned	Email breach exposure (needs API key — $3.50/month)

The PeopleConnect Trick

Here's something most people don't know: Intelius, ZabaSearch, Instant Checkmate, AnyWho, and Addresses.com are all owned by PeopleConnect. One removal at suppression.peopleconnect.us covers all five sites.

The report flags these automatically so you don't waste time submitting five separate removals when one will do.

What the Output Looks Like

For each site where your data is found:

{
    "site": "Spokeo",
    "found": true,
    "profileUrl": "https://www.spokeo.com/John-Smith/California",
    "dataTypes": ["name", "address", "phone", "email", "social media"],
    "removalUrl": "https://www.spokeo.com/optout",
    "difficulty": "easy",
    "removalSteps": [
        "Find your profile on Spokeo and copy the profile URL",
        "Go to https://www.spokeo.com/optout",
        "Paste your profile URL into the form",
        "Enter your email address",
        "Complete the CAPTCHA and click Submit",
        "Check your email and click the confirmation link",
        "Removal takes 24-48 hours"
    ],
    "removalTime": "3-5 minutes",
    "removalRequires": ["your Spokeo profile URL", "email address"]
}

And a summary at the end:

{
    "type": "summary",
    "sitesScanned": 23,
    "sitesWithData": 9,
    "exposureScore": 39,
    "easyRemovals": 4,
    "mediumRemovals": 3,
    "hardRemovals": 2
}

The Removal Workflow

Step 1: Run the report ($1). Review your exposure score.

Step 2: Handle PeopleConnect sites first. If you're found on any PeopleConnect site, one removal at suppression.peopleconnect.us covers all of them. 5-10 minutes removes you from 5+ sites.

Step 3: Do the easy removals. Sites with difficulty: easy have simple online forms. Most take 2-3 minutes each.

Step 4: Tackle medium removals. These need email or phone verification. Budget 5-10 minutes each.

Step 5: Handle hard removals last. Radaris and VoterRecords have deliberately difficult processes. The report includes fallback options.

Step 6: Re-scan in 30 days. Data brokers re-add data regularly. At $1/scan, monthly monitoring costs $12/year.

Cost Comparison

Feature	This Tool	Incogni	DeleteMe
Price	$1.00 one-time	$7.49/month	$10.75/month
Sites covered	20+ direct + 29 via search	180+	750+
What you get	Exposure report + removal guide	Automated removal	Automated removal + monitoring
Removal included	No (step-by-step guide)	Yes (automated)	Yes (automated)
Annual cost	$12 (monthly scans)	$89.88	$129
Profile URLs	Yes	No	No

When to Use This vs. Incogni/DeleteMe

Use this tool when:

• You want to know where your data is exposed before paying for removal
• You prefer to handle removals yourself
• You want a one-time check, not a subscription
• You're evaluating whether paid services are worth it for your situation
• You're a business running privacy reports for clients

Use Incogni/DeleteMe when:

• You want fully automated removal with no manual work
• You need coverage of 100+ sites
• You need ongoing monitoring and automatic re-removal

Limitations

• Detection + guide, not automated removal. You follow the steps yourself.
• US-focused. The sites scanned are primarily US-based people-search engines.
• Point-in-time snapshot. Data brokers continuously update. A clean result today doesn't mean clean forever.
• Common names. Very common names may show false positives.

Try It

The tool is live on the Apify Store. Enter your name, optionally add email/phone/state for better coverage, and get your exposure report in under a minute.

Full documentation: ApifyForge

---

Built by ApifyForge — we build data intelligence tools on the Apify platform. More tools at apify.com/ryanclinton.