Protecting your personal data in 2024 is something everyone should be doing, and a range of services have sprung up to help make the job easier. One of those is data removal services, which offer a relatively simple way to keep your data safe online.
Data brokers are legally able to acquire and hold an awful lot of your personal data, and the data of friends and family, in the US, which is one of the reasons that some lawmakers are pushing for federal privacy legislation like the EU's GDPR.
Aura is a great option for anyone trying to boost their online privacy and take control of their data, with a suite of tools that goes far beyond some of its rivals in the data removal industry, including a VPN, antivirus software, and password manager.
We'll get into the details of these features below, but it's nice to see a one-stop-shop offering of cyber-safety tools. While the pricing might be on the slightly steep end, the features are nonetheless impressive and worked well in our testing.
To make sure you're getting the very best data removal service on offer, we recommend checking out our reviews for rival services like DeleteMe, Mozilla Monitor Plus, Kanary, and Optery, especially if there are some more niche features you really need to have.
Aura: Plans and pricing
Aura offers competitive pricing across three plans: family, individual, and couple plans. You can save quite a bit more if you agree to an annual, and not monthly, contract, and users can also utilize the 14-day free offer to test out the services.
In terms of features, there isn't much variation between the Individual and Couple plans. Essentially, you can just take what the Individual plan offers and double it. The family plan provides the greatest value and covers up to five adults, each of whom will have access to all the features offered by the Individual plan.
Additionally, the family plan includes child SSN monitoring to safeguard any children in the household. There is no limit to the number of children you can extend this protection to, as long as they reside with you.
These features are specifically designed for families. For instance, there is parental control software to let parents to monitor and manage their children's internet usage and devices. The Aura app also helpfully incorporates cyberbullying and online predator protection.
Price-wise, Aura’s family plan costs are above the industry average, but again, it offers more than what a typical family identity protection plan provides. Of course, you might not need all those extra features.
Comparing Aura to other ID theft protection services, the auto-renewal option requires your opt-in when you sign up for the service, which is similar to all the other online ID protection services. But unlike some ID theft protection services, Aura’s annual subscription price doesn’t change after the first year.
Aura: Basic features
It's worth saying at the top that Aura offers a huge number of features, far too many to cover in detail in this review, and so we'll be focusing specifically on the data removal side of things, with some privacy stuff sprinkled on top. You can also read our full Aura digital security review.
By using Aura’s monitoring feature, users can actively protect their accounts, like checking and savings, from instances of fraud. In case of identity theft, you are covered up to $1 million in insurance to help you deal with the costs.
One impressive feature of Aura is its ability to monitor the dark web, not only searching for your information online, but also automatically changing your password using Auras password manager. Additionally, it offers a program designed to combat tax refund fraud, and on top of credit and identity monitoring, Aura keeps an eye on data brokers, junk mail providers, and spam providers. If necessary, Aura can even request the removal of your data from these sources.
Everything that Aura identifies will be served to users through alerts and what Aura can search will match what the user entered into the ID theft protection software, which forces users to be thorough and detailed if they want to get the best results. Alerts are divided into categories, giving a quick and easy overview of the activities while also providing tips on how to stay protected.
It's worth saying that the removal of your personal data from the data brokers will depend on the jurisdiction they’re operating in and data laws that possibly compel them to remove your data. Since these entities are usually harder to locate on your own, it is great that Aura offers this option, simplifying the entire procedure.
To see the progress on data removal requests, simply go to the “Vault” and click on the “Data Broker Removal” section. Finally, Aura will regularly reach out to data brokers to remind them that your data must be removed if, for example, they start collecting data on you again, which is possible since this is done via site scrapers or scripts that automate the data collection processes.
Aura: Advanced features
If you need a secure solution for your documents, Aura provides an option for storing a variety of files, ones that you won’t need to access constantly. You can add such documents by simply scanning or photographing them and uploading them to Aura. Uploaded files will be encrypted, ensuring their privacy and inaccessibility to third parties.
Another neat feature that Aura offers is lost wallet protection, where you can use your stored information to quickly cancel credit cards and regain access to important documents you hold in your wallet.
After you have secured your identity, documents, and funds and are tracking all the necessary information through Aura, it is time to secure your Aura account. You are offered an option to turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) on your account, which is a highly effective way to protect your “source of truth.”
Aura: User interface
Overall, Aura features a modern design that is fairly easy to navigate, but it’s not perfect. The alerts are tucked behind a menu and a few clicks away. Aura updated its design fairly recently, and compared to the old version, the new one works much better and is not bogged down by clunky design mechanics.
This updated design allows you to see a list of alerts, which you access through a separate menu, and in the admin web interface, you get a summary of various features as well as tips on which things you should activate or change to improve your protection. With time, you will learn where things are, and the entire navigation process with menus and submenus will be a breeze to use.
The entire focus of the main page seems to be geared towards its ID theft protection services, which is the main reason people subscribe to Aura, with everything else being pushed into the background as bonus features (the VPN, dark web monitoring, etc.).
Aura: Support
Aura is well known for its exceptional customer service, and with the revamp of their presentation, they’ve managed to improve their customer support as well. Live chat is a fairly new option, and if you’re querying it outside of US working hours, you will be talking to a chatbot that covers the basics amazingly well.
Of course, there are also self help options in the form of documents and articles, which you can reach by clicking on the “Get Help” link at the top right part of almost all screens. On the “Digital Security 101” page, you can find Aura’s blog where they cover topics that can be helpful for users to stay protected on and offline.
Moreover, the number of emails you receive from Aura has been significantly reduced, which we see as a positive. In the past, the emails that you would get were mostly marketing and salesy emails, with a small percentage of them being actually useful. Now, the emails you get from Aura are relevant and worth your time.
Aura: Competition
Probably the biggest downside to Aura is that it isn't a dedicated data removal service, and this means that a lot of its rivals offer far more features and tools within the confines of contacting brokers and removing your data.
As part of the broader package, the features are pretty good, but anyone who wants to really get into the weeds of keeping your data out of the wrong hands will want to look at other services.
DeleteMe is one of the longest-running data removal services on the market, having launched in 2011, and that long-term reputation is a big pro in its column, alongside an easy-to-use suite of tools.
Mozilla Monitor Plus, from the makes of the Firefox web browser, is also a strong option and comes as part of a broader set of Mozilla-made features like a VPN. Mozilla as a company is also unlikely to be going anywhere anytime soon.
We also recommend checking out Kanary, Privacy Bee, IDX, and Optery, all of which have their own specialities and pricing of tiers.
Aura: Final verdict
In short, Aura has earned a place among the top identity theft protection services on the market. All of the essential features that you expect from such a service can be found here.
Aura proactively monitors data brokers, junk mail providers, and spam providers while offering assistance in requesting the removal of data from these sources upon request. Alerts are categorized comprehensively to give you an overview of activities along with tips on staying protected. In case of matters, notifications can be delivered conveniently through email or SMS among the communication options available to you.
Furthermore, Aura provides a Safe Browsing extension that ensures web browsing for enhanced safety. In general, Aura Credit Monitoring offers a complete package for safeguarding your identity.
In the end, Aura is not the cheapest identity theft solution out there, but with its complete offer, it stacks well with the competing products in the market. With varying pricing plans and all-encompassing protection, we believe you can’t go wrong with Aura.
