How to Get Your Personal Information Removed from Data Broker Sites

Have you ever searched your own name online and found your home address, phone number, relatives' names, and even your estimated age listed on a website you never signed up for? Those sites are called data brokers, and they make money by collecting and selling your personal information to anyone willing to pay.

Data brokers gather their information from a wide variety of public records — voter registration databases, property records, court filings, census data, and more. They also purchase data from loyalty card programs, apps, and other companies. The result is detailed profiles of millions of Americans that are available for purchase by marketing companies, background check services, private investigators, and unfortunately, anyone else with a credit card.

The information they hold can vary but typically includes your full name, current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, age, relatives' names, estimated income range, and sometimes criminal or court records. Some sites also include photos pulled from social media.

The good news is that most data broker sites are required to provide an opt-out process. The bad news is that each site has its own process, and there are hundreds of them. The most commonly visited ones to tackle first include Spokeo (spokeo.com/optout), WhitePages (whitepages.com/suppression-requests), BeenVerified (beenverified.com/opt-out), Intelius (intelius.com/opt-out), Radaris (radaris.com), PeopleFinder (peoplefinder.com), and MyLife (mylife.com).

Each opt-out process is different. Some require you to find your listing, submit an opt-out form, and then verify via email. Others require you to mail a written request. Most take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to process.

If doing this manually sounds overwhelming, paid services like DeleteMe (joindeleteme.com), Kanary, and Incogni will handle the opt-out process across dozens or hundreds of sites for you. These services typically cost between $100 and $200 per year and send you reports showing which sites they have contacted.

One frustrating reality: your information will likely reappear. Data brokers re-scrape public records regularly, and new sites pop up all the time. Removal is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Running through the major sites once a year — or using an automated service — is the most practical approach.