Why Data Broker Removal Isn't Permanent (And What to Do About It)
You spent hours opting out of data broker sites. You confirmed every removal. You checked back a week later and your listings were gone.
Three months later, they're back.
This is the most frustrating reality of data broker removal: it doesn't stick. Not because you did something wrong, but because the system is designed to re-collect your information continuously. Understanding why this happens — and what you can realistically do about it — is the difference between a one-time cleanup and actual long-term privacy.
Why Your Data Comes Back
Data brokers don't collect your information once and stop. They operate continuous collection pipelines that pull from the same sources on a recurring basis.
Public records refresh constantly. Property transactions, voter registrations, court filings, and license renewals generate new public records throughout the year. Data brokers purchase updated bulk feeds from government agencies on weekly, monthly, or quarterly cycles. Every time a new feed comes in, it can re-populate a profile you already deleted. Data broker networks share and resell. When you opt out of Spokeo, your data might still exist in the upstream source that Spokeo purchased it from. That upstream source sells to other data brokers too. So even after Spokeo deletes your record, the same data can flow back in through a different pipeline the next time they refresh. Not all opt-outs create suppression records. The best data brokers maintain a "suppression list" — a permanent record that says "don't re-add this person." But not all of them do. Some simply delete your current record without flagging your information for future suppression. The next data refresh treats you as a new record. Affiliate networks complicate things. BeenVerified, PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, and Ownerly share a parent company. Opting out of one should cascade to the others — but the timing isn't always synchronized. You might opt out of BeenVerified, have it cascade to PeopleLooker a week later, but miss NeighborWho entirely because the sync failed. New data brokers emerge. The barrier to entry in the data broker industry is low. New companies launch, purchase bulk data, and start publishing profiles. A site that didn't exist when you did your initial cleanup can have your full profile within months.How Fast Does Re-listing Happen?
Based on our experience processing removals for Dark Scrub clients, here's what we typically see.
Most opt-outs are processed within 24-72 hours for the major people-search sites. But re-listing can begin as early as 30-60 days later on sites without robust suppression lists.
The most persistent re-listers tend to be the sites that source directly from public records — property records and voter rolls are particularly sticky because they're updated frequently and are difficult to suppress at the source.
Facial recognition databases follow a different pattern. PimEyes processes opt-outs within 48-96 hours, but since they continuously scrape the internet for new face photos, any publicly accessible photo of you can result in re-indexing. Clearview AI has re-scraped and re-indexed individuals after deletion, particularly if the source photos remain online.
What Actually Works Long-Term
One-time removal is a necessary first step, but it's just that — a first step. Maintaining privacy over time requires a combination of ongoing monitoring and source reduction.
Ongoing monitoring means regularly re-checking the sites you've opted out of and re-submitting when your data reappears. At minimum, this should happen every 90 days. Monthly is better. Some people automate this with services that continuously scan and re-submit on their behalf. Source reduction means cutting off the pipelines that feed data brokers in the first place. This is harder but more durable. It includes locking down social media to private, using secondary phone numbers and email addresses for online accounts, removing your phone number from public directories, and — where your state allows it — suppressing your voter registration from public lookup tools.The combination of both approaches creates a compounding effect. Each cycle of monitoring and re-submission is faster because there are fewer re-listings to address. And each source you cut off means fewer future re-listings to deal with.
The Monitoring Options
There are three realistic approaches to ongoing monitoring. Each has tradeoffs.
DIY monitoring costs nothing except time. Set a quarterly calendar reminder, re-search yourself on the major sites, and re-submit any opt-outs that have lapsed. This works if you're disciplined about it, but most people aren't — life gets busy, the calendar reminder gets dismissed, and six months later you're fully re-listed everywhere. Automated monitoring services like DeleteMe and Incogni run continuous scans across hundreds of data brokers and automatically re-submit opt-outs. They're effective for breadth and consistency. The tradeoff is that they rely on scripts that can break when sites change their opt-out processes, and they don't cover facial recognition databases, social media privacy settings, or sites requiring manual intervention. Human-verified monitoring is what we offer at Dark Scrub through our subscription tiers. A real person checks your listings, verifies that removals have held, handles re-submissions, and flags new exposures. This catches things automation misses — sites that change their opt-out flow, listings that partially reappear (different address, same phone number), and new data brokers that automated services haven't added to their scan list yet.Our Watchdog plan ($14.99/month) covers monthly re-listing checks on all sites where we've submitted removals. Our Overwatch plan ($49.99/month) adds facial recognition monitoring — ongoing PimEyes alert tracking, quarterly full re-scans, and re-submission of Clearview AI deletion requests every six months.
A Realistic Expectation
Complete, permanent disappearance from the internet is not achievable with current tools and laws. As long as public records exist and data brokers can legally purchase them, some version of your information will circulate online.
What is achievable is meaningful reduction. After an initial removal round plus 90 days of monitoring, most people see their exposure drop by 80-90% across the major people-search sites. Facial recognition opt-outs remove you from the most commonly used search engines. Social media hardening cuts off the most prolific source of new photos and personal details.
The remaining 10-20% is usually information embedded in public records that can't be suppressed — property ownership, certain court filings, professional licenses. These are harder to address and may require legal strategies beyond what a privacy service can offer.
But getting from "anyone can find your home address, phone number, family members, and face in 30 seconds" to "someone would need to put in real effort and know where to look" is a meaningful difference. For most people, that's the difference that matters.
The Bottom Line
Data broker removal is not a one-time event. It's an ongoing practice, like changing your passwords or locking your doors. The companies that profit from your data are not going to stop collecting it just because you asked once.
Whether you monitor your exposure yourself or have someone do it for you, the important thing is that you don't treat your initial removal as the finish line. It's the starting line.
Dark Scrub is a privacy consulting service based in Anchorage, Alaska. Our Watchdog and Overwatch subscription plans provide ongoing monitoring so your data stays removed. Learn more at darkscrub.com.
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