Removing yourself from people-search sites is a great way to improve your online privacy. Some opt-out processes are straightforward, but many aren't. Some are intentionally confusing. It's not unusual for there to be multiple records about a single person, all requiring removal. And some are just broken.
These guides are based on the same processes we use to automatically remove our customers. They're full of the tips and tricks we've learned and implemented to make removals thorough and reliable.
General tips
It can be hard to find all the records containing your information, and records might have surprising combinations of data. On most sites, to make sure you don't miss anything, you need to search for every name you've ever used in combination with every city you've ever lived in. For example, suppose your name is now "Elizabeth Doe", your name used to be named "Elizabeth Smith", your friends call you "Liz", and you've lived in Tulsa, OK, and Chicago, IL. Most people-search sites let you search for yourself by entering your name and city. You should search for all of these combinations:
- Elizabeth Doe in Tulsa, OK
- Elizabeth Doe in Chicago, IL
- Liz Doe in Tulsa, OK
- Liz Doe in Chicago, IL
- Elizabeth Smith in Tulsa, OK
- Elizabeth Smith in Chicago, IL
- Liz Smith in Tulsa, OK
- Liz Smith in Chicago, IL
When people-search sites import your data from the original sources, it's incomplete and they can't make one perfect profile of you. It's likely there are multiple records all containing different portions of your information.
Some people-search sites present a single, unified opt-out process despite there being multiple types of data about you that need to be removed in different ways. It's usually not clear when a site's opt-out process isn't comprehensive. In our guides, we'll call out the extra steps you need to take.
There are also unexpected technical barriers. Some people-search sites limit the number of searches or opt-outs you can do for a given IP address or confirmation email address. You may need to be patient while you wait for your IP address to be unblocked and having multiple email addresses ready to go will help.
Don't give the people-search sites information they don't already have. If they want to know your address, for example, and the address on the listing you found is slightly wrong, share that slightly wrong address with them to avoid giving them any new, accurate information. Most people-search sites aren't very scrupulous and they might suffer a data breach in the future. The less of your data they have, the better.
Check out our guide to disappearing from Google search results for more of the lessons we've learned along the way.