Abine DeleteMe

DeleteMe Console

You interact with Abine DeleteMe through this online console. Once you've signed up, DeleteMe's operators get busy opting you out of the most popular personal data aggregation sites.

Data Aggregator Results

When someone searches for your personal data on an aggregator site, they typically get partial information, perhaps an address and a partly-redacted phone number. The site gives just enough detail to ensure you've found the person you wanted.

Pay for Details

Once you've found your target on an aggregator site, you'll find that getting the details you wanted costs you money. That's how these sites stay afloat.

Results in Google

When your data is exposed on these aggregator sites, a simple Google search on your name will probably turn up an offer to dig for details.

Personal Info

The first step in getting DeleteMe to opt you out of aggregator sites is to fill in the personal information you want removed. This includes your name and any alternate names, as well as phone numbers and addresses.

Identity Card

For the DeleteMe operators to prove they're opting out on your behalf, a redacted ID card is often required.

First Report

Shortly after you sign up, you get an initial report showing nearly 30 aggregator sites and indicating that DeleteMe sent an opt-out request. In testing, only one site did not contain the specified personal data.

Privacy Protection

While DeleteMe works right away and continues to monitor your personal data, it only reports its progress each quarter. The notice "Protection Inactive" simply means that the test account is not configured for automatic renewal.

Info Recaptured

In testing, the final report showed personal data absent from all but one of the aggregators. Checking that holdout revealed that the opt-out request already succeeded; the specified data wasn't found.

About Our Expert

Neil J. Rubenking

Principal Writer, Security

My Experience

When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years since that fateful meeting, I’ve become PCMag’s expert on security, privacy, and identity protection, putting antivirus tools, security suites, and all kinds of security software through their paces.

Before my current security gig, I supplied PCMag readers with tips and solutions on using popular applications, operating systems, and programming languages in my "User to User" and "Ask Neil" columns, which began in 1990 and ran for almost 20 years. Along the way, I wrote more than 40 utility articles, as well as Delphi Programming for Dummies and six other books covering DOS, Windows, and programming. I also reviewed thousands of products of all kinds, ranging from early Sierra Online adventure games to AOL’s precursor Q-Link.

In the early 2000s, I turned my focus to security and the growing antivirus industry. After years of working with antivirus, I’m known throughout the security industry as an expert on evaluating antivirus tools. I serve as an advisory board member for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), an international nonprofit group dedicated to coordinating and improving testing of anti-malware solutions.

The Technology I Use

Much of the testing I do, particularly testing with real-world ransomware, is just plain dangerous. To perform such tests safely, I sequester them inside virtual machines managed by VMWare Workstation. For cross-platform testing, I use a MacBook Air, a Google Pixel 4, and a 6th-generation iPad.

I rely on my Delphi coding skills to create and maintain small applications. These include programs to check whether an antivirus correctly handled the malware it detected, launch dangerous URLs and record the security program’s reaction, and analyze the malware that I collect for use in testing. I also wrote a tiny browser and text editor for use in testing security apps that have predefined reactions for known products.

I do my writing and research on a Dell OptiPlex desktop, relying on Microsoft Word (my fingers know all the shortcuts). Many of my articles include charts and analysis; Excel is my go-to for those. When work hours end, though, I escape the bounds of Microsoft and Windows. There’s an iPhone in my pocket, I relax with my oversized iPad, and my Kindle Oasis is always loaded with the best science fiction and fantasy.

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