Last fall, I set out on a journey of my own. As I prepared to publish my second book, I began removing myself from these databases, only to discover that sites like WhitePages. My first book, "Unnatural Selection," dealt with abortion and annoyed a small but vocal set of people, including a man who sent me a threatening Facebook message, promising to physically confront me at a reading. I expected that it might also upset some people. And I was living in the United States, where a trail of public records made me much easier to find.
They present profound safety issues. As Tunon found, concealing yourself from public view is complicated and time-consuming. In most states, data brokers are not even legally obligated to allow people to opt out of such tracking. It is far easier to buy the criminal records of all your neighbors than it is to scrub your personal details from these sites. The WPF and other organizations have published information to help people get started deleting their data from many services.
I filled out online forms and sent off a slew of emails, starting with the larger data collection companies. One major player, Acxiom, combines publicly available information with details gleaned from online surveys, purchase histories, and website registrations. It also analyzes consumer data and sells it to companies. To track my efforts, I kept a log on opting out as I worked. A few even required me to pick up the phone, send snail mail, or—get this—fax in my request.
Where do you even find a fax machine these days? No two of these convoluted procedures seem to be alike. I made opting out a hobby, picking it up whenever my work was slow, and the process ended up spanning months. Grauer told me that opting out is so arduous, in the days before the coronavirus she considered hosting opt-out parties, where attendees would remove themselves from people-search sites while socializing and listening to music.
You never asked for your real estate prices to be posted online, your address, age or other personal details, but they are there. The good news: Most of the sites will let you remove the data through an opt-out click, although it's not easy.
For example, MyLife requires you to call in and make the request personally. And it's really a game of whack-a-mole because when you remove info from one site, it can reappear on some new site.
How did my info even get there? Reselling your personal data pays off for Spokeo. Your phone tracks you: What your wireless carrier knows about you. It's the easiest of the sites to work with and most responsive, but it's still a five-click process to remove your data.
At the bottom of the page, in small letters, is Opt-Out. Click that, type in the URL you copied and your e-mail address. Spokeo says it will then quickly remove the data. In our tests, it was gone within a day. Spokeo does provide information in its Help Center on how to remove your information from the site.
BeenVerified is another data broker that collects your information. Fortunately, opting out of this service is relatively easy. And when you do it, you also opt out of the PeopleSmart search engine. ZoomInfo is a business-to-business people search site, which means it collects information about business people and companies and then sells this data to sales, marketing, and recruiting professionals.
Instant Checkmate advertises itself as a public records search that lets you run online background checks instantly on anyone in the country. Want to remove yourself from this search service? Here are the steps:.
Intelius is one of the bigger people search sites, one that also includes the related site ZabaSearch. If you opt out of Intelius, you'll also be removing your information from ZabaSearch.
FamilyTreeNow is a combination of a standard people search site and genealogy tool that you can use to research your ancestry. Pipl is another people search site. Fortunately, removing your information from this site is a fairly simple process. Companies use Apollo. If you don't want them finding information about you, you can remove your information from Apollo's database.
Removing this information is a bit of work compared with the process at other people search sites. With FastPeopleSearch. With these searches, you can find the owner of a phone number, location of a friend from your past, or contact information of a distant relative.
If you don't want your information included in this search site, you'll have to go through its opt-out process. PeekYou is another in the long line of people search services available online. To remove your information from the site, follow the steps below:. You can use PeopleFinders. If you opt out of PeopleFinders, you'll also be removing your information from Private Eye, another people search site that the company owns. Here's how to remove your profile from these sites. Radaris, which advertises itself as a public records deep search, is another people search site.
Fortunately, removing your information from this site is a simple process. TruthFinder is another public records search. It promises some salacious content, too. When you first visit the site, a pop-up message warns users that they might not like what they find out about loved ones. Removing your name from TruthFinder is, fortunately, a fairly quick process.
True People Search lets users run a people search that brings up the addresses, phone numbers, relatives, and email addresses of search subjects. The site claims to have search data on nearly every U. To remove yourself from this site, follow the steps below. As its name suggests, USA People Search is another people search site giving users the opportunity to search for people in the United States.
You can search this site by a person's name, address, or phone number. US Search says that it specializes in people data. It offers a people search, reverse phone lookup, social network search, email search, property records search, criminal records search, and background check service. Requesting the removal of your personal details from people search sites is a good way to boost your online privacy.
And, if they remove your information, they can put the information right back up. Also, these sites pull your information from public records data. This means that others can find your information, too, even without using a people search site.
If you do value your privacy, limit what you post online. Be especially careful with what you post on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The more information you post on these sites — including comments about your employment, photos of recent vacations, and messages about your family members — the easier you make it for people search sites to compile data on you.
All rights reserved. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Firefox is a trademark of Mozilla Foundation. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Alexa and all related logos are trademarks of Amazon. Microsoft and the Window logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.
How To. April 8, How are free and paid searches different? How can I remove my personal information? Unfortunately, opting out of Whitepages is a bit complicated. First, visit Whitepages. This will bring up one or more search results, depending on how common your name is.
Copy the URLs for all your listings. Next, go to the Whitepages opt-out page. Paste the URLs of your listings here and then click the "Opt-out" option. Verify the record that you want to remove and click the "Remove me" button. This will bring up a new screen that will ask for the reason you want to remove your listing.
Choose one of the reasons from the drop-down menu. You'll then have to enter your phone number to receive an automated confirmation call. Click the "Call now to verify" option, which will send you to a new page with a confirmation code. Wait for a robocall to your phone and then follow the prompts. You'll need that confirmation code to finish the opt-out process. You start the opt-out process in the same way.
It takes roughly 24 hours to process your opt-out request. You might need to clear your browser history in your browser to see the change. If your information is still appearing, you can contact BeenVerified at privacy beenverified. The removal process may take a few days. If your information is still appearing after a week, you should email support clustrmaps.
Unfortunately, getting people-search sites out of your life is more complicated than simply issuing a few removal requests. These sites have a vested interest in making it as hard as possible to truly get your information removed, and there are a few pitfalls you need to watch for:. As you can see, protecting your privacy from people-search sites requires a fair amount of sleuthing and ongoing monitoring. The amount of time involved is discouraging for many people.
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