Remove yourself from data brokers — the DIY opt-out guide

Data brokers sell your home address, phone number, relatives, and income to anyone who pays. Here's how to opt out of the biggest ones yourself, for free, broker by broker — and how to decide whether a paid removal service is worth it.

March 5, 2026 · Updated June 12, 2026 Medium2–3 hours

Search your own name and city. The results that show your home address, age, phone number, and a list of your relatives don’t come from some shadowy hack — they come from data brokers: legal companies that vacuum up public records, purchase history, and app data, then package and sell it. People-search sites like these are how stalkers find addresses, how spam calls find your number, and how scammers make their pitch sound convincing.

You can get removed. Most brokers are legally required to honor an opt-out, at least in some states, and many offer one nationwide because it’s easier than sorting who lives where. It’s tedious but genuinely effective. Set aside an afternoon, put on something to listen to, and work the list below.

Before you start: protect the process

Use an email alias, not your main address. Some opt-out forms ask for an email to “confirm” — and a few brokers are sketchy enough to add you to marketing lists. Create a throwaway alias first (see the email aliases guide).
Keep a simple tracker. A spreadsheet with columns for broker, date submitted, confirmation link, and reappeared? Brokers routinely re-list you months later; you’ll want to recheck every 6–12 months.
Have a screenshot ready. Some sites make you point at your own listing to remove it. That’s normal.

The heavy hitters: opt these out first

These aggregators feed a lot of the smaller sites, so start here.

Spokeo

Search your name, open your listing, and copy its URL. Go to Spokeo’s opt-out page, paste the listing URL, enter your alias email, and confirm via the email they send. Removal is usually quick.

Whitepages

Find your listing, copy the URL, and use their suppression/opt-out request. Whitepages typically requires a phone verification with an automated call or code — annoying, but it’s a one-time step.

BeenVerified, TruthFinder, Intelius, PeopleConnect

These share infrastructure. Each has its own opt-out page where you search your name, select your record, and confirm by email. Do them one at a time; a removal on one doesn’t clear the others.

Radaris

Find your profile, then use their control/removal flow. Radaris is notorious for reappearances, so flag it in your tracker for rechecking.

That’s not the whole list

There are dozens more — PeopleFinders, Instant Checkmate, US Search, MyLife, FastPeopleSearch, and others. The mechanics are the same every time: find the listing, submit the opt-out, confirm by email or phone. Work them in batches so you don’t burn out.

The one that’s worth extra effort: Acxiom, LexisNexis, Oracle

Beyond the consumer-facing people-search sites sit the big commercial brokers that feed marketers and, in some cases, background-check and risk products. Acxiom and Oracle offer marketing opt-outs. LexisNexis and similar risk brokers offer a more formal suppression request (sometimes tied to your rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act). These matter more than a random people-search site because their data is more accurate and more widely resold. Prioritize them.

Use your state privacy rights as leverage

If you live in a state with a comprehensive privacy law — there are 20 of them in effect as of 2026 — you have a legal right to deletion and, in several states, a right to opt out of the sale of your data. Some states (notably California and, increasingly, others) are building one-stop deletion mechanisms that hit many brokers at once. Turning on Global Privacy Control in your browser also sends a legally recognized “do not sell” signal in those states. It won’t remove existing listings, but it slows the refilling.

Kill the source: your phone’s advertising ID and app data

Removing listings is bailing water; also turn off the tap:

Reset or delete your phone’s advertising identifier and disable ad personalization (steps in the phone privacy audit).
Deny location access to apps that don’t need it — location data is a huge input to brokers.
Opt out of your carrier’s data-sharing program; U.S. mobile carriers have sold location and usage data.

Do it yourself, or pay a service?

Doing it yourself is free and, honestly, the initial pass isn’t hard — just long. The catch is maintenance: brokers re-list you, and staying clear means rechecking dozens of sites two or three times a year, forever. That’s where paid removal services come in. They automate the submissions and re-submissions across hundreds of brokers.

Whether that’s worth it depends on you:

Higher stakes (you’ve been harassed or stalked, you’re a public figure, a healthcare or domestic-violence situation): the time saved and the breadth of coverage can be well worth the yearly fee.
Ordinary risk and some patience: the DIY pass above covers the brokers that matter most, and a calendar reminder every six months keeps it maintained for free.

If you do consider a paid service, look for one that publishes the full list of brokers it covers, removes you from the data-broker side (not just search results), and doesn’t itself resell your data. We’ll cover specific services honestly on this site as we evaluate them.

Recheck, because they come back

The single most important habit: set a recurring reminder to re-search your name every 6–12 months and re-submit to anything that reappeared. Brokers rebuild profiles from fresh public records constantly. A one-time cleanup fades; a maintained one doesn’t.

This is the most tedious guide on the site, and also one of the most valuable. When you’ve made your first pass, check it off in the privacy checklist so future-you knows where you left off.