Up until a few weeks ago, my iPhone was constantly ringing with scam calls. You know the kind: the ones that say "Scam Likely.”

But since I scrubbed my personal data from the internet using a service called Incogni, the calls have all but stopped.

Surprisingly, this affordable data removal service seems to have made all the difference.

— Leander Kahney, EIC

Scam calls, texts and emails seem like an inescapable fact of modern life. But scammers target people whose personal data is listed with data brokers.

Data brokers collect, organize and sell personal information about hundreds of millions of people, including their names, phone numbers, addresses, demographic details, interests and behavior patterns.

The more personal information about you that’s available online, the easier it is for scammers to target you.

Incogni is one of several services that help remove your personal information from the internet, alongside DeleteMe, Optery and Privacy Bee. Developed by Surfshark, it stands out for its coverage — targeting hundreds of data brokers and websites — and ease of use. (Disclosure: Incogni advertises on Cult of Mac and in our newsletters.)

Incogni automates the process of removing your personal information from data brokers and people-search sites. It sends hundreds of removal requests, follows up to make sure they’re honored, and keeps working to prevent your data from reappearing.

Just a month after I started using the service, Incogni has sent removal requests to 410 data brokers and people-search sites. My information has been successfully removed from 163 of them, and 247 are in progress.

More importantly, scam calls and texts dropped off a cliff. Previously, I might have gotten up to a dozen “Scam Likely” calls a day (and no, I’m not exaggerating). I now get perhaps one scam call every few days, and maybe even less than that. It’s hard to say whether Incogni’s data scrubbing is directly responsible for this, but the timing strongly makes me think it is.

I’m pretty impressed. I thought scam calls were just something I had to live with. And don’t get me started on email, which I’ve largely abandoned.

Incogni appears to be making a difference — and its work isn’t over. The service continues to monitor the web for my personal information, which can resurface unexpectedly. When it does, Incogni steps in to request its removal again.

During the Black Friday shopping season, you can save 58% on annual plans until December 4. Incogni starts at $6.79 per month for a standard plan. Family plans (covering up to five members) start at $12.74 a month.

Cult of Mac readers can use code CULTOFMAC to get 58% off. 

Incogni provided Cult of Mac with an activation code for this article. See our reviews policy, and check out more in-depth reviews of Apple-related items.