Why do you need to provide personal information in order to remove your personal information from the web?

It is probably just a technique to make it as hard as possible to get the information off in an attempt to discourage people from even trying.

The answer is so obvious that I’m surprised to see the question. They need to know that it is “really you” who wants to remove the information.

Some people enjoy / want / need / like to be able to be found by friends, family, former associates, classmates, etc. The Internet gives a great way to do that through multiple search engines, for free. Someone without your best interests (if you happen to be that person who wants others to find him or her) could opt you out of all kinds of places – or sign you in to others.

Aside from that, they didn’t “ask” you for your information because it was already a public record of one kind or another. No one is paying data processors to survey neighborhoods and collect and manually input the data – it’s already out there somewhere, and they just used databases to collect and categorize it.