How to remove your data from people-finder sites

This article was last updated on February 24, 2025.

Many people are unaware that a significant amount of their personal data is readily accessible online. This includes sensitive information like your name, age, address, contact details, relationship status, and even court records. Numerous websites, often for a fee, compile and provide this information. While removal is possible, it can be a challenging process.

Websites like Spokeo, Intellius, MyLife, and BeenVerified (known as data brokers or people-finder sites) often display this personal information. But how do these sites obtain this data?

According to Gennie Gebhart, associate director of research at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, much of this information is gleaned from publicly available records. Real estate transactions, for instance, are often public record. These sites also utilize data from various sources.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse highlights that social media profiles, warranty registrations, and sweepstakes entries also contribute to the information compiled by these sites.

While it's unsettling to see your personal information readily available, it's crucial to manage expectations. Completely removing yourself from the internet is practically impossible. While you can remove data from some sites, new ones constantly emerge and re-scrape information. This ongoing cycle makes the effort akin to a game of whack-a-mole.

Gebhart emphasizes that proactive measures are most beneficial when facing targeted harassment or if you're a semi-public figure with heightened privacy concerns. For others, the effort may outweigh the benefits. However, if you have the time or specific privacy needs, there are two main approaches.

The Manual Opt-Out Method:

The free, albeit time-consuming, option is to manually opt out from each site individually. Each site has a unique process, and providing instructions for every site would be impractical and quickly outdated. Fortunately, resources like the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and DeleteMe offer updated guidelines and step-by-step instructions for many common people-finder sites.

Ironically, some sites require you to provide even more personal information to verify your identity before removing your data. Radaris and WhitePages, for example, request your phone number. Others may require a phone call with your address or even a mailed copy of your driver's license. Account creation is sometimes a prerequisite for removal.

While this might seem manageable individually, repeating this process across numerous sites quickly becomes overwhelming. Furthermore, the constant re-scraping of data by these sites renders the effort potentially futile.

Removing Search Engine Results:

You can also attempt to get search engines to remove results containing your personal information. However, this doesn't eliminate the source data. Google, for example, may delist links with personal details like phone numbers or addresses, but this requires a request and often involves providing further personal information. The same challenges apply: you address one search engine at a time, and re-scraped data on different URLs necessitates repeating the process.

The Automated Opt-Out Service:

Alternatively, you can subscribe to a service like DeleteMe, which handles the opt-out process for you. You provide your information, and they report on their progress. However, these services are expensive (DeleteMe costs $129 annually per person), and the effect is temporary due to the continuous re-scraping of data.

Gebhart suggests that such services are most valuable for public figures facing urgent risks, such as doxing. Academics, particularly professors of color, have recently experienced increased doxing incidents.

In conclusion, completely removing your data from the internet is extremely difficult. These methods aim to make your information harder to find, but it's a continuous and resource-intensive process.

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