How to Make Yourself Disappear from Google Searches

When we googled ourselves back in 2020, we didn't have to go past the first page of results to find our home addresses, phone numbers, ages, relatives' names, and every place we'd ever lived. It felt like a violation of our privacy to have so much information out there. And as we dug deeper, we discovered that it was really hard to remove ourselves from Google and other search engines.

We started EasyOptOuts because we thought there should be an easy and affordable way to fix this problem. A few million opt outs later, we've gotten very good at automating the opt-out process. We've also learned that removing yourself from data brokers and people-search sites is just one piece of the puzzle. If you really want to disappear from Google, you need a multi-layered approach.

This guide covers all the privacy precautions we've learned while building EasyOptOuts. Some steps take 5 minutes. Others require ongoing attention. Altogether, they'll dramatically reduce your digital footprint.

1Google yourself to see what you're up against

Before you can fix the problem, you need to see just how bad it is. Searching for yourself is the best way to start.

Try a few different searches:

• Your name in quotes along with your city. For example: "Robert Smith" Dallas TX
• Your full name in quotes: "Robert James Smith"
• Your name in quotes along with your street address in quotes or your phone number, e.g.: "Robert Smith" "1234 Broadway" or "Robert Smith" "415" "123" "4567"
• Variations of your name + your phone number or email address

In the results, you're likely to find yourself numerous times in the first few pages. The most common culprits are:

• People search sites (Spokeo, WhitePages, BeenVerified, Radaris, etc.)
• Your social media profiles
• Old forum posts or comments
• News articles or press mentions
• Professional profiles (LinkedIn, company websites)
• Real estate listings (Zillow, Homes.com, Redfin, etc.)

Keep track of where you showed up.

2Remove yourself from data brokers

If you're an EasyOptOuts customer, congratulations on doing most of the heavy lifting already. Jump ahead to the next step!

This is the big one. Data brokers are why your address, phone number, and relatives show up in Google searches. Data brokers scrape public records, buy from businesses, piece together data breaches, and crawl social media. Then they build profiles on your and sell them to anyone willing to pay, including hundreds of people search sites who make some or all of your information public.

The manual approach (10-20 hours)

You need to search for yourself on each people-search site and request removal.

If you want to do it yourself, here's the process. First, get a list of sites to target (or combine all of the following):

• Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List (BADBOOL): Maintained by privacy researcher Yael Grauer with community contributions, this is a thoughtfully-tailored list that identifies the most prominent sites and provides search and opt-out instructions
• State of California Data Broker Registry: California is developing some of the strongest privacy laws in the nation, which include mandatory registration by data brokers. This list is huge, but still not comprehensive because some data brokers haven't registered despite the penalties.
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse database: A list of data brokers, including many that have failed to register with state agencies.

For each site, find your data and request a removal:

1. Search for yourself using all of your name variations and previous addresses. Search for every name and address combination to find all the records a site has about you. Try to avoid sharing data they don't already have by searching only for your names and cities. Exact address searches, phone searches, and email searches usually aren't necessary to identify your records.
2. Find their opt-out form. It's usually in the footer under something like "Do Not Sell My Information", or hidden in the privacy policy.
3. Submit a removal request using ONLY the information they already display. If they want more than that, in most cases, you can make things up.
4. Do not send them your driver's license or Social Security number. Some brokers claim to require this step, but they'll usually approve your request without it.
5. Use a burner Gmail account (not your personal email) for verifications. Many sites block smaller email hosts and custom domains.
6. Mark your calendar to repeat this process in 3-4 months.

Key sites to start with:

• Ancestry.com
• BeenVerified.com
• CheckPeople.com
• Intelius.com
• MyLife.com
• Nuwber.com
• Radaris.com
• SmartBackgroundChecks.com
• Spokeo.com
• ThatsThem.com
• WhitePages.com

We also recommend submitting opt-out requests to LexisNexis.com and Acxiom.com even though you can't search for yourself first. Both of them provide data to public people-search sites.

After several months, your information may reappear in some of these databases, so it's useful to double check the Google search results for your name and address periodically. And if you really want to stay out of search results, you ought to revisit each of these brokers a few times a year to make sure they haven't re-posted your information.

The automated approach (5 minutes, $19.99/year)

We built EasyOptOuts because this seemed way too time consuming to do manually, and because existing paid services were inaccessibly expensive. Our bots search 200+ sites, identify your records, and submit opt-out requests automatically, all while minimizing the data shared. We re-scan every 4 months to catch sites that re-add your data.

Consumer Reports found us to be just about as effective as manual removal, for 1/10th the cost of competitors (most of whom CR found to be considerably less effective). Tens of thousands of Americans prefer to handle opt outs through us, but if you want to do it yourself and have the time, the manual approach above will get it done.

What any data removal service needs from you:

• Full name and name variations
• Current and past addresses
• Age or birth date
• Relatives' names (helps distinguish you from people with similar names)
• Phone numbers and email addresses

Whichever approach you choose, keep in mind that Google can take several weeks to recrawl people search sites and remove your information from results. If you still see yourself in search results AND you confirm you're no longer on a given people search site, you can ask Google to recrawl the search site and update its index using Google's outdated content removal tool.

3Lock down your social media

Social media is often the first thing that shows up when someone searches for you. Many platforms default to making your info public, so if you've changed your privacy settings, you're probably exposed.

Here are links to instructions for locking down some of the worst offendors:

• Facebook - You can remove your Facebook profile from Google search results within a few weeks and make it harder for people you don't know to access your personal information through your Facebook profile. You can also untag yourself in posts and photos. Review old posts and delete anything with location data or personal details
• LinkedIn - This one's tricky because LinkedIn is meant to be public for professional networking. But it's worth making sure you're comfortable with your exposure on the platform and that you're not sharing too much information with third parties (or search engines).
• Instagram
• Pinterest - maybe you want your pins and boards to be public, but your real name doesn't need to be on there.
• Twitter/X - you can decide, post by post, what's public.
• TikTok

Generally, if you don't need it to be public, make it private or delete it. For old platforms, make similar adjustments or delete old accounts you don't use anymore (like on MySpace, old forums, dating apps, etc.)

4Ask Google to stop showing results about you

It's more effective to start at the root of the problem with data sources themselves, but Google offers to remove results that allow someone to identify you personally (PII) or information that violates your privacy. There are, however, two caveats:

1. You have to request data to be removed result by result.
2. This step may not remove the actual search result, and it does not remove your info from the underlying website or broker.

The good news is that once your request is processed, Google will no longer show your PII in its result, and it may no longer show the result at all. Overall, this is a good step to take for information that's published by a non-broker or some other entity without a removal process.

You can request removal of:

• Doxxing content (personally identifiable information shared to harass)
• Personal contact information (phone numbers, physical addresses, email)
• Financial information (bank account or credit card numbers)
• Images of minors
• Non-consensual intimate images

For each result, you'll need:

• The URL of the page containing your info
• An explanation of why it violates Google's policies

Remember, you'll still need to contact the website separately to actually remove your PII.

5Special cases and persistent results

Some information is harder to remove because of who published it or where it lives.

News articles and press mentions

The reality is that you usually can't remove these. They're protected by the First Amendment and journalistic privilege. You may have some success with:

• Contacting the publication and asking them to remove your personal details (address, phone) if they're not relevant to the story.
• If it's defamatory, consulting a lawyer about your options.
• If you're mentioned in a crime report but charges were dropped or you were found not guilty, some jurisdictions have "right to be forgotten" laws, especially for crimes committed by minors.

Court records and public documents

These records are public for a reason and almost never get removed, unless someone is a victim of a crime or needs additional privacy protection. You may consider:

• Checking to see if your state allows expungement or sealing of certain records like arrests without convictions, juvenile records, or minor offenses. Expunging will likely require the help of a lawyer.
• Some states let you request removal of your address from court records. Contact the court clerk in the jurisdiction where the proceeding took place.
• Google's removal tool (linked above) may remove specific info if it's doxxing or harassment-related.

Old forum posts, comments, blog posts

If you still have access to the account:

1. Log in and delete the posts manually.
2. Edit posts to remove personal information before deleting (Google may have cached the old version).
3. Delete the entire account when you're done.

If you don't have access, contact the website owner to request removal.

Also note that your information from these or other sites could still be in Google's cache or stored in archives like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (Archive.org). For the Wayback Machine, email info@archive.org with the URL you want removed and explain why.

6Monitor and maintain

Data brokers constantly import new information. Social media settings change. Old accounts resurface. Unless privacy laws change, you'll never be done. This may sound a little bleak, but there's some reason to be optimistic about the future. The GDPR in Europe has been very effective in protecting Europeans' privacy, and California leads the way among US states with CCPA and DROP.

In the meantime, you'll need to do some ongoing work to keep your personal information off of Google.

Set quarterly reminders (1 hour every 3 months)

1. Google yourself again with all name and address variations.
2. Check the top 10-20 data broker sites manually (or let an automated service handle this).
3. Review your social media privacy settings. They sometimes change without warning.
4. Search your email for "verify your email" or "welcome to" messages from accounts you forgot about or created recently.

Paid options:

• EasyOptOuts ($19.99/year) handles 200+ data broker removals and re-scans three times a year.
• Other data removal services ($100-200/year) if you prefer different features like identity theft insurance or data breach alerts.
• Some law firms can help with more involved takedowns.

See ratings for EasyOptOuts and links to evidence-based reviews of data removal services here.

7Prevent future data leakage

Once you've cleaned up the past, you might want to make things easier for yourself in the future. Here are some of the most effective things you can do to keep data brokers from getting new information about you and surfacing it in Google results.

Some of these recommendations are simple best practices. Others can be time consuming or expensive. Managing your privacy is about risk versus convenience, and we want you to understand all of your options:

When you move

How you handle a move determines whether your new address ends up on data broker sites. Do this:

• File a temporary change of address with USPS, not permanent. Permanent changes get sold to marketers.
• Or, don't file a change of address at all if you can coordinate with individual senders.
• Notify important contacts directly (bank, employer, utilities).

If you're buying property, consider purchasing through an anonymous LLC (costs $2,000-3,000 to set up) to keep your name off public property records. If you'll be renting, ask your new landlord not to share your information.

Shopping and package delivery

Use alternative addresses when possible:

• Get a PO Box or private mailbox (like a UPS Store mailbox).
• Use Amazon Locker or similar pickup points.
• Use package forwarding services that give you an alternate address.

For online shopping:

• Read the privacy policy before buying (Do they sell your data? Many do.).
• Use virtual credit cards (e.g. Privacy.com) that let you use a fake name and billing address.
• Use email aliases (e.g. addy.io, SimpleLogin).
• Use phone aliases (e.g. MySudo, Google Voice, Burner apps).

Limit what you share

Going forward, be stingy:

• Don't give retailers your real phone number at checkout
• Don't enter online contests or giveaways that require detailed personal info.
• Read privacy policies' data sharing sections before creating accounts.
• Use a different email alias and password for every account. An alias service and password manager make this easy.
• Use a made-up date of birth whenever you can get away with it. Jan 1 1970 is popular if you want to blend in.

8Extras to reduce spam and junk

These next steps won't keep you off Google, but they'll reduce unwanted contact that often results from your information being public.

Your cell carrier's built-in spam blocking (5 minutes)

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon now include highly-effective spam blocking with your cellular plan. You might need to turn it on or make it stricter, but it will block almost all spam calls.

• AT&T
• T-Mobile
• Verizon

Your cell phone's built-in screening (2 minutes)

Modern iPhones and many modern Android phones have their own additional layers of spam detection and blocking along with AI-powered call screening features. Your phone's digital assistant can answer and vet calls for you. In our experience, spammers usually give up and move on if they don't reach a real person.

• iOS
• Samsung
• Google Pixel

National Do Not Call Registry (2 minutes)

If you're an EasyOptOuts customer, we handle this for you. Otherwise, complete the registration process on donotcall.gov

This stops most legitimate telemarketers from calling you. It won't stop political calls, charities, surveys, or companies you've done business with in the last 18 months.

If you still receive illegal calls, you can also file complaints at donotcall.gov. It probably won't help immediately, but the FTC uses this data to pursue enforcement.

Junk mail opt outs (10 minutes)

There are various ways to declutter your physical mailbox.

• dmachoice.org reduces junk mail from companies that participate in the Direct Marketing Association's mail preference service. Registration is good for 10 years and costs $8.
• catalogchoice.org is for specific catalog opt-outs.
• optoutprescreen.com allows you to opt out of most credit card and insurance offers.

Email hygiene (ongoing)

Stopping spam emails is harder. Your email address has probably been leaked over and over in data breaches and once it's leaked, it can't be taken back. You'll have to rely on your email provider's spam filters, which aren't perfect. Seeing a few spam emails is inevitable, unfortunately.

If you're getting unsolicited emails from a business you've given your email address, unsubscribe and mark them as spam. For political emails, you may need to reply to ask where they got your info from in the first place, to get removed from the national organization selling your data to local campaigns.