How to Remove Your Information From the Internet: The Data Broker and People-Search Playbook
A step-by-step playbook for getting your name, address, phone number, and relatives off data broker and people-search sites, plus what Google, court records, and news coverage will not budge on.
See what is published about you before you read on
The scan checks the data brokers and people-search sites in our catalog for your name and shows what each one publishes. No account needed.
No account needed. Adding a city and state is what lets us tell your record apart from everyone who shares your name.
Removing your information from the internet mostly means opting out of the data broker and people-search sites that resell your name, address, phone number, and relatives, then asking Google to drop the search result and getting any site that copied it to take the page down directly. There is no single button for this. It is a checklist, and the checklist is longer than most people expect, but every item on it is something you can actually do yourself, today, for free.
Why the same address keeps reappearing
Data brokers do not usually collect information directly from you. Most of it comes from public records: voter registration rolls, property deed transfers, court filings, marriage and divorce records, and business licenses, all of which are public by design in the United States. Brokers scrape or buy this data, merge it with other sources, and resell it to each other and to background-check and marketing companies. That is why opting out of one site rarely fixes the problem for good: a different broker can rebuild the same profile from a fresh data purchase a few months later, and the original site can relist you if it refreshes its own source data.
The people-search sites to start with
A small number of sites account for most of the exposure people find when they search their own name. Each typically compiles a public profile with your age, current and past addresses, phone numbers, relatives, and sometimes email addresses, most of it pulled from the public records above:
- Spokeo, one of the older and more widely indexed people-search sites
- Whitepages, originally a phone directory, now a full people-search profile service
- BeenVerified, marketed mainly for background checks
- TruePeopleSearch, a free-to-view aggregator with no login required
- Radaris, another aggregator that frequently ranks high for name searches
- MyLife, which combines a public profile with a paid "reputation score" report
This is a starting list, not a complete one. There are dozens more, and the honest answer is that a thorough manual sweep means checking your own name against each one individually.
How to opt out of a people-search listing
The mechanics are similar across most sites, even though the exact form changes:
- Search your own name plus your city and state on the site to find your listing. Many sites index you more than once, under a maiden name, a middle initial, or an old address, so check for duplicates.
- Copy the exact profile URL. Most opt-out forms ask for it directly, and giving them the precise page speeds things up.
- Find the site's opt-out page, usually linked from the footer as "Do Not Sell My Info," "Opt Out," or "Privacy."
- Submit the form with the profile URL. Some sites confirm by email; a handful still require a fax or mailed letter, which is a deliberate friction tactic, not a technical limitation.
- Wait for the listing to actually disappear. This can take anywhere from about a day to several weeks depending on the site's stated policy, so do not assume submission equals removal.
- Recheck periodically. Because these sites resell and re-scrape their own inventory, a listing that is gone today can be rebuilt from a fresh data purchase months later.
Data brokers beyond the people-search sites
People-search sites are the visible layer, but there is a second, less visible layer of data brokers who sell address and household data to advertisers and list buyers without ever showing you a public profile page. California's data broker law (see below) requires brokers who meet its definition to register with the state and publish an opt-out method, which at least gives California residents a starting point. Outside California, coverage is patchier, and a written opt-out request to the broker is often the only option. Background-check and tenant-screening companies sit in a related but separate category, since in the US they are also regulated as consumer reporting agencies, which comes with its own dispute and correction rights.
What to do about Google itself
Removing your listing from a broker's own site does not automatically clear it from Google search results right away, since Google is working from its own crawl of that page. We cover the exact tools for that, including Google's Results about you feature and its outdated content removal tool, in our companion guide on how to remove personal information from Google search results.
The parts of the internet that will not come down
No opt-out request, however well written, reaches these categories, and it is worth knowing that up front so you do not spend hours on something that legally cannot move:
- News articles that report on you, even ones you strongly dislike, since journalism is specifically protected
- Court filings, dockets, and other government records, which exist independently of any company's database
- Social media content posted by other people, which a privacy request to a data broker has no power over
- Cached copies or reposts on unrelated blogs, forums, or archive sites that are not the original source
How long it actually takes, and why it comes back
| Site type | Example | Typical opt-out method | Typical wait |
|---|---|---|---|
| People-search sites | Spokeo, Whitepages, TruePeopleSearch | Online form with the profile URL | About a week to a month, varies by site |
| Marketing data brokers | Address and mailing-list resellers | Written request, or a state registry opt-out where one exists | Several weeks; some require periodic renewal |
| Background-check and tenant-screening | Aggregated public-record reports | Written dispute or opt-out request, sometimes with ID verification | Weeks, since these are regulated similarly to consumer reports |
Doing this across fifty sites by hand is the part people give up on
A data removal service like Deindex runs the scan, finds every site actually publishing you, and files each opt-out or erasure request under its correct legal basis, then rechecks on a schedule so a relisting gets caught in weeks instead of sitting there for another year. See personal data removal service plans for one person or a whole household, or start with our data broker opt out guides for a specific site.
The household problem
One detail that trips people up: removing your own listing while a spouse, parent, or adult child still shows up at the same address can re-expose you, since a shared address is exactly the kind of link these sites are built to surface. If more than one person in your household is dealing with this, it is worth treating the address as the unit to protect, not just your individual name.
A few things that make the process go faster
None of this is complicated, but a handful of habits save real time across dozens of submissions:
- Keep a simple log. A plain spreadsheet with the site name, the date you submitted, and the profile URL you opted out is enough to know when it is reasonable to follow up, and it is the difference between "I think I did that one" and actually knowing.
- Use one dedicated email address for opt-outs. Confirmation and follow-up emails from a dozen different sites are easy to lose in a normal inbox. A separate address, or a plus-addressed variant of your regular one, keeps them together and easy to search later.
- Screenshot the listing before you submit the opt-out. If a site claims it never had your information, or disputes that you submitted a request, a dated screenshot of the original listing is the simplest way to settle it.
- Search variants of your name, not just the exact spelling. A middle initial, a maiden name, or a shortened first name can each surface a separate, undiscovered listing on the same site.
- Set a calendar reminder to recheck in a few months. Because these sites resell and re-scrape their own inventory, the single most common reason people feel like "it didn't work" is that a listing quietly came back after the first sweep, not that the original opt-out failed.
None of this requires a lawyer to get started, but knowing which law actually backs each kind of request helps you write a firmer opt-out email and know what a site is obligated to do versus what it is merely being polite about. See is it legal to remove your information from the internet for the GDPR and CCPA specifics.