People Search.
How to remove your personal information from people-search sites and data brokers.
If you search your name online and find your home address, relatives, age, and phone number all packaged together on some random website, you are looking at one of the most obnoxious industries on the internet.
People-search sites and data brokers exist to aggregate as much information about you as possible, then make it searchable for strangers. Some of them hide behind the pretense of "public records," some pretend they are helping with background checks, and some are so transparently slimy that the only honest description is that they are digital stalker utilities.
This should be one of the first areas you attack if your goal is privacy, because it directly connects your online identity to your physical location.
Aggregators
A small concentration of data aggregators powers the majority of the privacy ecosystem from behind the scenes. Opting out at the root means that all the downstream applications will no longer have access to your information
My Experience
An unverified match on PeopleConnect couldn't be suppressed through the portal based on my authenticated information, so I had to email them directly and request that they handle it manually.
The automated call verification for Whitepages never came through, despite five attempts. I found another form and submitted a request under the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act of 2024, a state law requiring that they actually delete my information rather than merely hide it.
BackgroundCheckers claimed my Captcha verification failed (even when it absolutely did not), including after retrying across browsers, so I sent them an email complaining and manually requested removal there too.
Guidance
Keep a list of every site you find, every request you submit, and every confirmation you receive. These companies make the process deliberately annoying, and if you do not document your work you will end up doing the same shit twice.
A simple tracking document is enough. Use something like this:
If you want to save even more time, make yourself a reusable removal request template:
When a self-service form fails, do not assume you are stuck. Find their privacy contact, support address, or legal request form and send the request manually. Include the profile URL, identify exactly which record belongs to you, and be explicit that you are requesting suppression or deletion of your personal information.
Also understand that this is not a one-time process. Broker sites ingest fresh data constantly, and profiles can reappear later. You may need to revisit these searches periodically to keep your information buried.
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