Unlike automated privacy tools, these high-end services combine data removal with continuous monitoring and manual audits designed to reduce both online exposure and physical security threats.
Consumer-focused services such as DeleteMe, Incogni and Google’s free PII removal tool can help limit exposure, but their reach remains restricted. Data brokers often use measures to prevent automated deletion requests. “insert something like a captcha to ensure that a bot can’t come in and wipe out their database,” Tom Aldrich, chief operating officer of digital exposure reduction firm 360 Privacy, told Observer.
Aldrich said his company, which works with 32 Fortune 100 companies, recently took on a wealthy client who had previously used an automated service. The firm discovered 62 profiles belonging to the individual across hundreds of data aggregation platforms. “We found 62 different profiles on them across hundreds of data aggregator sources,” said Aldrich, who added that 93 percent of those profiles included non-public information and could be removed.
Digital exposure is becoming a physical security concern
Security experts increasingly warn that information available online can create risks in the physical world. Threats against senior executives have risen steadily over the past two decades, with attacks in 2025 more than doubling compared with the previous year.
“Physical and digital can no longer be separate,” Brian Hill, field chief information security officer at personal cybersecurity firm BlackCloak, which serves corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals, told Observer.
The connection became particularly evident in the case of Vance Boelter, the Minnesota gunman sentenced in July to two consecutive life sentences plus 40 years for killing Democratic lawmakers in 2025. Boelter reportedly used data aggregator websites to identify his victims.
Growing concerns around executive safety have also pushed security spending higher. The median security expenditure for executives at S&P 500 companies increased 37.8 percent between 2024 and 2025. During the same period, S&P 500 CEOs earned an average annual compensation of $18.9 million.
Meta was among the biggest spenders, allocating more than $25 million toward physical and digital security for CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
For family offices, celebrities and high-net-worth clients, BlackCloak's services can cost between $10,000 and roughly $200,000 annually. Enterprise contracts covering executives, board members and founders can reach as much as $600,000 per year.
A growing market for digital privacy
The expanding digital footprint of consumers has created an entire economy around personal-data protection. Data brokers collect and sell personal information to third parties, contributing to a North American data-broker market estimated at $40 billion.
Removing such information is often difficult and labor-intensive, increasing demand for specialized providers that can continuously identify and eliminate exposed data.
Only California, Oregon, Texas and Vermont currently require data brokers to identify themselves through state registries. More than 4,000 data brokers are estimated to operate across the U.S., with many outside the reach of comprehensive regulation. California alone has 545 registered data brokers.
Premium privacy firms typically remove information from publicly accessible websites while also monitoring the dark web and strengthening security across users' accounts and devices. Connected household technology, including security cameras, may also be included in these security assessments.
Still, complete digital anonymity is difficult to achieve. “Reducing your digital footprint to zero is virtually impossible,” said Hill. “Our goal is anywhere from 70–90 percent removal of data.”
Certain public records, including newspaper archives and campaign donation records, can also remain difficult or impossible to erase.
Affordable services remain an option
While high-end privacy protection is increasingly being adopted by wealthy individuals and corporations, more affordable services can still help ordinary consumers reduce their exposure.
Aura, for example, offers automated data removal alongside other digital safety services for families at $32 per month. “As data breaches continue, data brokers expand, and A.I. makes it easier to exploit personal information, more people are looking for ways to reduce their digital footprint and regain control of their privacy,” Tom Clayton, president and chief operating officer of Aura, told Observer.
Despite the growing number of services available, adoption remains relatively low. Only 6 percent of American adults use data-removal services, while more than half do not know such services exist.
Smaller businesses are increasingly vulnerable as well. “The attackers are…going after the small companies, the local family businesses. They’re now becoming the targets because they’re the easy ones,” Hill said.
Executives and their families continue to face particular risks. According to a 2025 report from BlackCloak and the Ponemon Institute, 51 percent of security leaders said cyberattacks had targeted the personal accounts of executives or their family members.
As personal and professional digital lives become increasingly intertwined, conventional corporate security teams may not fully protect executives' personal information. That gap is helping drive demand for specialized privacy and cybersecurity providers.
Artificial intelligence and emerging technologies could make the problem even more challenging. “With a lot of this technology,” said Hill about A.I. and quantum computing, “you’re going to see a lot more data collection, and it’s going to be easier to go after the people that don’t set up an LLC or trust because they just don’t think they need to.”