Frequently asked questions

Yes. The exposure scan costs nothing and requires no account or credit card. Enter your name and city, and we search 934 data-broker, people-search and background-check sites. We show you every listing we find (including a screenshot of the actual page) and tell you honestly which ones we can request removal from and which are legally exempt. Run your free scan.

No. You can run a full exposure scan without creating an account or entering payment details. An account is only required if you want to start the removal process and track progress over time.

The initial scan typically returns results within a few minutes. We search across 934 sites simultaneously, and results appear as they come in. You can start reviewing findings before all sources have finished.

At minimum: your full name and current city or state. More information (past addresses, name variants, aliases, phone, or email) improves scan coverage because brokers index records across address history and multiple name forms. Every optional field is labelled optional, and you choose what to provide. See our How it works page for a full breakdown of what we collect and why.

For each removable broker, we submit an authorized data-deletion request using that broker's own required process (their opt-out form, email, or API). We only send the fields that broker explicitly requires. We log every field we send. After the broker's statutory compliance window closes, we independently re-scan the original source and capture a before-and-after screenshot as proof. See How it works for the full step-by-step process.

Data brokers are only legally required to honor removal requests from an authorized agent acting on your behalf. Before we take any action, you sign an authorization (your Mandate) that designates Redacted as your agent under applicable privacy law. This is the legal basis for everything we do. Without it, brokers can ignore requests.

Most US privacy laws (CCPA and state equivalents) give brokers 15–45 days to comply after receiving a valid removal request. Your dashboard shows an expected-time range for each broker. Removals are not instant. Once the window closes, we independently verify and update your status.

No. Any service that claims otherwise is not being honest with you. We can submit authorized requests, escalate non-compliant brokers, and pursue every legal avenue available. But some brokers are slow, some data is legally exempt from removal, and some brokers re-list people after removal. What we guarantee is that we won't call something removed unless we've independently verified it.

Verified removed means we re-checked the original broker source after the removal window, confirmed the listing is gone, and captured a before-and-after screenshot as evidence. This is the only status where we claim the data is actually removed.

Confirmed by site means the broker reported your data was removed, but we have not yet independently checked the source. These two statuses are always displayed differently in your dashboard.

Four categories are legally protected from general opt-out requests:

• —Public records and court filings: arrest records, civil filings, property records. Protected by state public-records law.
• —FCRA-covered data: credit bureaus and background-check firms used for employment or housing decisions operate under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which provides a separate opt-out regime.
• —GLBA (financial) and HIPAA (health) data: financial institutions and healthcare providers have their own federally mandated privacy opt-out processes.
• —Sites you have an active relationship with: your employer's directory, social media you've signed up for, or vendors you do business with.

We label these Legally exempt and explain which specific exemption applies. We never pretend we can remove something we can't. See How it works and Coverage for more detail.

Data brokers aggregate records from public data sources (voter rolls, property filings, marketing lists) that are refreshed continuously. A broker can re-list you any time a new data batch includes your records. Redacted runs continuous re-scans: when we catch a re-listing, we restart the removal cycle and tell you what happened.

No. Redacted is a people-search and data-broker removal service. We do not monitor the dark web, credential dumps, or breach databases, and we don't provide identity-theft insurance or credit monitoring. We'll tell you exactly what we cover on the Coverage page.

All PII is encrypted before it's saved. We use envelope encryption with a per-account data key wrapped through Postgres pgcrypto. This means even a database breach doesn't expose your raw data. For a full technical breakdown, see our Security page.

Only the fields a specific broker explicitly requires to process a removal request, and nothing more. Optional fields (for example, an alternate phone number a particular broker requests) require your explicit approval each time before we send them. We log every field sent to every broker, and that log is available in your dashboard.

Account deletion is a real crypto-shred. Your per-account data key is destroyed, which makes your PII unrecoverable: we can't read it and can't restore it. We retain a non-PII audit log (which removal requests were filed, when, and with what result) for integrity purposes, but it contains no personal information.

$5 per month, billed monthly. No annual lock-in. The free scan is always free with no account required. See Pricing for the full breakdown, including household and family options.

Yes. Cancel whenever you want. No cancellation fee, no questions required. Your removals and monitoring stop at the end of the billing period you've paid for.

Yes. If you're not satisfied within the first 30 days, contact support and we'll refund your first month in full, no questions asked.

Yes. Household and family members can be added to your plan at a reduced cost. Each person gets their own scan, their own removal requests, and their own dashboard. See Pricing for current household rates.