Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection Review 2024: We Tested The Trusted Brand's Data Removal Service

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection is a data removal service that only identifies where your data has been compromised due to data breaches or what data brokers it could exist on. It does not have the capabilities to send out automatic data removal requests on your behalf.

That said, it does offer a comprehensive overview of where you could begin your quest to lessen your data on the internet. If you're looking for a tool to help you know where to look but don't want to sign away your rights to get the data removed, then this is an interesting option.

We tested Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection with our own data to see how it compares to the best data removal tools on the market. 

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection review at a glance

3.0

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection's website

Identity Protection

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection

• Affordable and educational data removal service
• Data breach alerts
• Doesn't send removal requests for you

Our experience

We hands-on tested Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection using our own information to see if it could help us reduce our digital footprint. What we got was a good and highly educational starting point, but not much else.

While the service was easy to set up and use, we found ourselves wishing there was a bit more automation involved. Other data removal sites, like Incogni, actually reach out to the data brokers itself to remove your information. In comparison, Bitdefender's option needed a lot more heavy lifting.

When you first sign up for Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, you need to enter your full name, email, and phone number. It then uses this information to search the internet for possible data breaches your information has been involved in. 

If you want to track even more information, you can input up to 10 email addresses and five phone numbers.

Once we entered our information, we were directed to the dashboard which gave us a (scary) overview of our current risk.

When we clicked through the Learn more links, we were provided with further detail and educational tips about securing your online accounts.

Data brokers

For the purpose of this review, we were most interested in getting our data removed from data brokers, so we headed over to that tab. Unfortunately, we were quite disappointed.

Most of the tab was just FAQs about what data brokers were, then a list of eight brokers with links to check for our data ourselves. We could also click on the "Remove data" links, which took us to their opt out pages, but some of these links actually 404'd. If you're going to have such a basic function, at least make it accurate.

They do have a callout box that informs us that they're not legally able to access our personal information on our behalf, but we've seen other data removal tools get around this by getting us to sign an authorization form, so it's not much of an excuse.

Incorporating the form would be a huge step up for Bitdefender, but only displaying eight brokers was a let down as well. Other options have more than 170 brokers, and Bitdefender's paltry "We'll add new data brokers soon" message was far from encouraging.

But Bitdefender does have some other features, so we went to check out the other tabs.

Digital footprint

The digital footprint tab showed websites that were openly displaying personal information about us, but the service says it's up to us if we think it's a threat or not.

If you do think it's a threat to have your information displayed on one of these sites, you can click "Manage your data" to get more information. If you wish to delete your information, Bitdefender will find the email address you need and compose a message for you. All you need to do is send the message off and wait.

We sent ours off to Home Chef, a service we’ve never even used, and they responded within a few hours to let us know we’d been removed.

We were happy with this functionality and wish it was applied to the data brokers, since it would be a lot more helpful than broken links.

Data breaches

The data breaches tab lists out breaches your data was compromised in along with what websites the breach was associated with.

From here, Bitdefender will suggest a series of steps you can take to make sure your information is safe. Completing these actions and marking them as done will improve your Identity Protection Score that's displayed on the home dashboard.

Like the other features, while we liked the educational push Bitdefender is doing here, we would like a bit more automation to make it easier to get our online data cleaned up. Going through each account is still a lot of work and really only removes a small part of the process. You could get most of this information from free services as well.

How do you know if Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection works?

As you can see in the screenshots above, we used the recommendation from Bitdefender to contact Home Chef and request the removal of our information from its system. Home Chef responded in fewer than four hours, and we were pleased with the result.

Who is Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection best for?

• Recommended for people who want a step-by-step guide for securing their digital information

While Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection doesn't do much on your behalf, it does provide an easy-to-navigate and trustworthy place to look at all your compromised information, plus details your potential next steps. If you don't like the thought of a service sending out requests on your behalf, then Bitdefender would be a good alternative for you.

With this product, you're in full control of what happens to your information, but it's much easier for you to find the issues and know the next steps.

Bitdefender prices and subscriptions

The price of Bitdefender Digital ID Prevention ranges between $3.33-$7.99/mo, depending on if you go with the annual or monthly plan.

Other than your pay cadence, there are no tiers of features, so everyone who purchases the product gets the same access. It's also a service for one person, so there are no family plans.

Bitdefender is a bit cheaper than its alternatives, which is good since it doesn't have as many automated features as other services. For example, Incogni sends out recurring automatic takedown requests, and its price is basically double, coming in at $14.98/mo for its monthly plan and $7.49/mo (billed annually) for its annual.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection security features

You can think of Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection as a one-stop shop for finding and fixing your compromised information. Though there's not a lot of automated features, someone who cares about the details will be happy to have a trustworthy guide as they scrub their data from the internet.

Types of data removed

Bitdefender Digital Identity monitors the following information:

• Name
• Multiple email addresses
• Multiple phone numbers

This is not as much as other data removal tools, which typically also ask for your physical addresses, or identity theft monitoring services, which also check for your SSN, credit cards, credit report, and more.

Data broker and people-search sites covered

• # of sites covered: Eight

Bitdefender gives you quick-links to only eight data brokers, which include:

• Spokeo
• BeenVerified
• White Pages
• Instant Checkmate
• Addresses
• Intelius
• Radaris
• PrivateEye

This is a very small number compared to Bitdefender's competitors, like DeleteMe (which covers over 750 brokers) and Incogni (which covers over 180).

Alerts

Something Bitdefender does do is send you reports when there's been a data breach that could affect your data.

We received an email the day we signed up with a link to the data breach tab so we knew to check if any important data had been compromised. 

It's been almost a month since this email and we haven't received another one yet, but we would assume they'd send another when they detect new data breaches.

Bonus features

While Bitdefender may not offer automatic data removal requests, you do get a bunch of insight into your online information. Here's a list of other features you'll find with this service:

• Digital Identity Protection Score to give you an idea of how safe your data is online, compared to other users
• Digital footprint tab to point you to sites that are displaying your information publicly
• Data breach alerts and step-by-step guides to secure your information
• Impersonation check to keep an eye on people creating new social media accounts under your name

Does Bitdefender keep your data safe?

This is not a remediation or recovery service. Most of what Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection does is monitor your name, phone number, email, and other information you provide to find where you are on the web. You can then use its data removal suggestions to get your information removed as well as request that the service remove your data from broker sites. We had success with having our data removed from Home Chef using the suggested form letter.

As far as protecting the data you input, the service does have some cookies listed in its privacy policy, but nothing too egregious. When you pay for a product, you tend to have more privacy and protection with your personal information than if you were using it for free. As far as Bitdefender’s privacy policy goes, we’re not upset about it.

Bitdefender customer support

Bitdefender's customer support page was more of a menu of help-yourself concerns and FAQs than an actual support tool. If you can navigate the maze of guides, you'll be able to find where you can access 24/7 chat, call their support phone line, or send an email.

We reached out to their support team to clarify if this tool is available in any country. Some data removal services, like Aura, are only available in the United States, so we wanted to ensure this wasn't the case.

After fighting with the chat robot a bit, we were able to get through to Vlad, who let us know that it's available in "most" countries.

Top alternatives

Whether you’re looking for a data removal service or a more comprehensive identity protection service, there are several options like the ones listed below. We’ve reviewed each of them for you and given you a look at prices and features.

Starting price	From $10.75/mo (billed annually)	From $7.49/mo (billed annually)	From $9.00/mo (billed annually)
Max # of people covered	4	4	5
Data broker opt-out
# of site removals	750+	180+	30+
Privacy reports
Real-time alerts
Learn more	Get DeleteMe	Get Incogni	Get Aura

Bitdefender FAQs

Bottom line: Is Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection good?

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection isn’t a bad product. As far as data protection and data broker removal services are concerned, it’s comprehensive but very manual. If you’re looking for a more robust type of protection that can monitor your identity and credit scores, this may not be for you. The service itself doesn’t provide a lot of interaction, but it will monitor and send you real-time alerts if it finds you online.

If your goal is to reduce your online footprint, this may be a good place to start. We were impressed with the design, tools, and educational elements available to us. Overall, we would be comfortable with recommending this product to someone wanting to roll up their sleeves and remove a bunch of excess information of themselves that's online.

If you want your data to be removed automatically, you should instead opt for something like DeleteMe or Incogni — both of which rank high on our best data removal services list.

3.0

AllAboutCookies writers and editors score products based on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence how we rate products.

Editorial Rating

Learn More

On Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection's website

Identity Protection

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection

• Affordable and educational data removal service
• Data breach alerts
• Doesn't send removal requests for you

Author Details

Mary James

About the Author

Mary is a seasoned cybersecurity writer with over seven years of experience. With a B.S. in Liberal Arts from Clarion University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Point Park University, she educates audiences on scams, antivirus software, and more. Her passion lies in educating audiences on helpful ways to protect their data.

Kalleigh Lane