How to remove your information from people-search sites

A people-search listing is a single web page that gathers what public records and commercial data files say about one person: name and approximate age, the current address and a list of old ones, phone numbers, email addresses, likely relatives, and sometimes neighbors. Anyone can bring it up by typing a name, a phone number or a street address. Most of these pages show a teaser for free and sell the "full report".

If you arrived here looking for one of those pages, the useful thing this guide can give you is the other side of the counter: how to find the listings that are about you and how to get them taken down. The short version takes four steps.

1. Search your own name, with your city, on the big sites listed below.
2. Use each site's own opt-out page to request removal. It is free on every site in this guide.
3. Write down what you submitted, when, and how it was confirmed.
4. Check again in about three months, because listings can come back.

The rest of this page is the long version, written the way I would have wanted it when I worked in compliance at a consumer lender: what to prepare, what to expect at each site, how long it takes and how to keep it from undoing itself.

What you are removing, and why it is worth an evening

Here is what a typical listing looks like. The person is invented, but the layout is close to what you will see.

Jane Example, age 40s, Sampleton, OH Current address: 123 Sample St, Sampleton Previous addresses: 4 (Sampleton, Exampleville, two more) Phone numbers: 2 (one landline, one mobile, partly hidden) Email addresses: 1 (partly hidden) Possible relatives: 3 names Button: "View full report"

Every line on that page came from somewhere. Addresses usually trace back to property records, change-of-address data and marketing lists. Phone numbers can come from old directory listings (our page on phone directories and unlisting explains how that happened), from forms you filled in, or from data sharing between companies. Relatives are often guesses, built from people who shared an address with you at some point. Court records and, in states that allow it, voter files fill in more.

Why bother taking it down, when the underlying records stay where they are? Because the listing is the convenient version. A county recorder's search screen makes you know what you are looking for and where. A people-search page hands a stranger your address history, your phone and the names of your relatives in one place, for anyone who wants to sound credible in a scam call, show up at a door, or post your details to harass you. Removing the listing does not erase the public record. It makes you much harder to assemble.

Be clear about what an opt-out does and does not do:

• It removes or hides your listing on that one site, and sometimes on its sister sites.
• It does not change the source records at a county office, a court or a state agency.
• It does not stop a different company from building a new listing from the same sources.
• It does not remove results from Google by itself, although the result usually disappears once the page is gone.

If you are not sure how exposed you are yet, the exposure quiz takes a few minutes and tells you where to start.

Before you start

Twenty minutes of setup saves a lot of confusion later.

A separate email address

Almost every opt-out form asks for an email address so it can send a confirmation link. Make a new free address used only for removals. That keeps your main inbox out of these companies' files, and it keeps every confirmation in one place. Do not use a work address.

A removal log

A log is what turns this from a one-time chore into something you can maintain. I suggest a spreadsheet or a notebook page with these columns:

Keep the confirmation emails in a folder in that separate inbox. If a listing comes back, the log tells you what you already did and when, which matters if you need to write to the company. Our opt-out checklist works as a ready-made version of this log, and it saves your progress in your own browser.

What never to send

A people-search opt-out should never need much. As a rule:

• Never send your Social Security number, a photo of your driver's license or passport, a bank or card number, or any password to a people-search site.
• Never pay to be removed. If a page asks for payment to hide your listing, you are on an upsell page, not the opt-out form.
• Give only what the listing already shows. If the form asks for an address, use the one on the listing, not a newer one it does not have.
• Reach the opt-out page by typing the address yourself or using the links in this guide. Search ads for "remove my info" sometimes lead to paid services or look-alike pages.

Marketing and risk data companies are a partial exception, because they have to match you across records. More on that below.

The big people-search sites first

Start with the names that tend to come up first when you search for yourself. The routine is the same for almost all of them:

1. Search the site for your name and city. Check the age, past cities and relatives to make sure the listing is yours.
2. Open your listing and copy its address from the browser bar.
3. Open the site's opt-out page (table below) in a new tab.
4. Paste the listing address or enter the details the form asks for, and give your removals email.
5. Finish the confirmation step: a link in an email, or on Whitepages, a phone call with a code.
6. Write it in your log.
7. Search again after the wait in the table. If the listing is still there, look for a second listing under an older city or a name variant.

At the time of writing, these are the opt-out pages and what they ask for. Forms move, so if a link stops working, look for "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information", "Privacy" or "Opt out" in the site's footer.

The waits are what the sites state or what is commonly reported, not a promise. Some of these sites block visitors from outside the US or show a "verify you are human" check. If a form will not load for you, the site's privacy policy lists a privacy email address you can write to with the listing URL.

Notes, site by site

Whitepages. The form walks you through five steps. The phone call is the step people trip on: the system calls the number you enter and asks you to key in the code shown on screen. If you cannot take the call, use the help center's contact form and ask for the listing to be removed.

Spokeo. Each listing needs its own request, and Spokeo can have several for one person (one per city you have lived in). Spokeo's own page also notes that a listing can reappear when it receives updated records, which is why the log and the recheck matter.

BeenVerified and its sister sites. BeenVerified's parent company runs a group of related sites, including PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly and NumberGuru. Do not assume one opt-out clears all of them. After your BeenVerified removal goes through, search each related site and use its own form if you still appear.

The PeopleConnect group. One request through the PeopleConnect Suppression Center covers name searches on TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search. The center itself says what it does not cover: it does not apply to Classmates, and your name can still show up in phone, address or email reports on those sites. If you find yourself in one of those reports after suppressing, contact them through the same center. The page also has a separate route for judges, officers and other protected persons in states with laws that cover them.

MyLife. The older privacy request address no longer works. The current form is at mylife.com/privacyrequest. Have your profile URL ready before you start.

FastPeopleSearch and TruePeopleSearch. Both are free to search and have a similar removal flow: start with your email, find your record, confirm from the email. Do the email step promptly, because the confirmation links can expire within a day.

That's Them. A single form, but it matches on what the listing shows, so copy the details from your listing rather than typing what is current.

Radaris. You will see Radaris on older removal lists. In late August 2026 a New Jersey court ordered the radaris.com domain transferred to a privacy company in a case brought under the state's Daniel's Law, and at the time of writing the address shows a court notice rather than listings. There is no form to use there. Keep an eye out for the same data turning up under other names.

Marketing and risk data brokers

Some of the largest data companies never show you a public profile. They sell or license data to marketers, insurers and businesses that need to check identities. Opting out of them will not change what a stranger sees in a name search, but it can cut down on targeted mail and ads, and it reduces how many companies hold a file about you.

Acxiom. The privacy request page at acxiom.com/optout covers access, deletion and opt-out of sale. The online form needs an email confirmation. Acxiom says it processes a request within two weeks after you respond to the confirmation email, and that an opt-out does not reach data already given to marketers before your request.

Epsilon. Its Consumer Privacy Request Form is at legal.epsilon.com/dsr. Pick your country, then the request type. US consumers who prefer not to use the form can call the number listed on that page.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The opt-out page at consumer.risk.lexisnexis.com/opt lists three choices: its direct marketing services, the prescreen lists used for firm offers of credit and insurance, and an opt-out for people facing a threat to their personal safety. It also explains how to make requests under state privacy laws. Because LexisNexis matches people across records used for identity checks, its forms ask for more than a people-search site does, and some request types ask for a Social Security or driver's license number. Fill in only what your specific request needs, and only on its own site.

Two related steps are worth doing in the same sitting. The FTC explains that you can stop prescreened credit and insurance offers based on the major credit bureaus' lists for five years, or permanently with a signed form, through the official opt-out site described on its prescreened offers page. And if you live in a state with a privacy law that gives you a right to delete, a short written request often gets further than a web form; our request letter builder drafts one for you.

California residents: DROP

If you live in California, you have a tool nobody else has yet. Under the state's Delete Act, the California Privacy Protection Agency (which now calls itself CalPrivacy) runs the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, or DROP. One request goes to every data broker registered in the state.

At the time of writing, this is how it works, according to the agency's own pages:

• DROP opened to consumers in January 2026. It is free.
• Registered data brokers had to start processing requests on August 1, 2026, and must check for new requests at least every 45 days after that.
• You first confirm that you live in California through the state's identity gateway (you can use an existing Login.gov account), then give your name, phone numbers and email addresses. A vehicle identification number (VIN) and a mobile advertising ID are optional extras that help brokers match you.
• Each broker's answer shows up as a status: deleted, exempt, opted out of sale, record not found, or pending. The agency says status updates can take up to 90 days to appear.
• You submit once. Brokers must keep honoring the request as they receive new data.

What DROP does not cover matters too. Information you gave a company directly is outside it, and so is information that is publicly available, like a public record. Since much of a people-search listing is built from public records, a DROP request can come back "exempt" for parts of it. Use DROP and do the site-by-site opt-outs above; they work on different things. The official starting point is privacy.ca.gov/drop, and our colleague Hannah's piece on California's Delete Act and DROP explains the law behind it.

Google's Results about you

Opting out at the source is the main event, but most people find these listings through Google. Google's "Results about you" tool watches Search for results that show your phone number, home address or email address, notifies you when it finds new ones, and lets you ask for them to be removed from Search. Since February 2026 it can also monitor for government ID numbers, such as a driver's license, passport or Social Security number, starting in the US.

Two things to keep in mind. Removal from Google Search does not remove the page from the site, so the listing is still there for anyone who searches the site directly. And Google will not remove results from some kinds of sites, such as government and educational sites and newspapers. Google's help page on finding and removing personal info in Search has the current steps, and my own piece on what Results about you removes and what it can't walks through it screen by screen.

How long it takes

Here is what to expect if you do the big sites in one evening.

• The first sitting. Most people need an evening to search the sites in the table, find every listing and submit the forms. People with many past addresses or a common name need longer.
• Days 1 to 3. Most email-confirmed removals go through in this window. Some go faster. Check each one against your log.
• The first two weeks. Slower sites and the marketing brokers. Acxiom's stated window starts when you confirm the email, not when you submit.
• The following weeks. Mail and offers taper off gradually. The FTC notes that prescreened offers can keep arriving for several weeks after an opt-out, because some companies already had your name.
• Up to 90 days. DROP statuses can take this long to show.
• Every three months after that. A short recheck, described next.

Keeping it off

The most common disappointment is a listing that comes back. It usually happens for ordinary reasons:

• New source data. A move, a refinance, a new phone line or a new account can create fresh records that a site treats as a new person.
• Sister sites. The same company runs several brands, and an opt-out on one does not always carry over.
• Name variants. A listing under a middle initial, a maiden name or a misspelling is a separate listing.
• Old addresses. A record tied to a city you left years ago may sit apart from your current one.

A maintenance routine fixes most of this. Every three months, and after any move, search your name on the sites in your log, with your current city and your previous one. Repeat any opt-out that did not hold and note the date. Keep Google's notifications turned on so new results find you rather than the other way around. When a listing returns more than twice on the same site, write to its privacy address with your earlier confirmation dates from the log.

If you are dealing with stalking, domestic violence or threats, go further than opt-outs. Many states run address confidentiality programs that give survivors a substitute mailing address for public records, and some states let judges, police officers and other protected people demand removal of their home address. A local victim advocate or your state attorney general's office can tell you what applies where you live.

Paid removal services, and when they make sense

Paid services do the same work on a schedule. They submit opt-outs to a list of brokers on your behalf, recheck periodically and send you a report. Services such as DeleteMe and Incogni describe on their own sites which brokers they cover and how often they recheck.

What they cannot do is just as important:

• They cannot change public records at the source, or remove news stories.
• They only reach the sites on their list. Compare that list with your own log.
• To file opt-outs for you, they need your details, which makes them one more company holding your file. Read their privacy policy before handing anything over.

When does one make sense? If you have lived at many addresses, if your listings keep coming back, if you need ongoing coverage for safety reasons, or if you simply will not do the quarterly recheck, a service can be worth it. If your listings are few and you keep the log, doing it yourself works fine. For questions we get about this, including whether we can remove a listing for you (we cannot, but we answer why), see questions and contact.

Your first evening

1. Make the separate email address.
2. Start the log, or open the opt-out checklist.
3. Search yourself on Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, one PeopleConnect site, MyLife, FastPeopleSearch, TruePeopleSearch and That's Them.
4. Submit each opt-out and finish every confirmation step before you close the tab.
5. Turn on Google's Results about you notifications.
6. If you live in California, file your DROP request.
7. Put a recheck date three months out in your calendar.