Get your details off people-search sites
Everything so far has been about what sites learn while you browse. This last lesson is about information that’s already out there: your name, address, phone number and relatives, gathered by data brokers and sold to anyone who searches. You’ll find where you’re listed, take the results off Google, and remove yourself from one site start to finish.
In this lesson
- Search for yourself the way a stranger would
- Ask Google to remove results that show your contact details
- Opt out of a people-search site, and keep track so it stays done
You’ll need: a computer or phone, a Google account for part 2, and ideally a spare email address for opt-out confirmations. Allow 25 minutes; you’ll finish one opt-out today and can do the rest later.
Where these listings come from
Data brokers collect personal information from public records (property, court and voter records where they’re public), old phone books, social media, shopping and app data, then combine it into profiles. People-search sites are the shop window: type a name and you get an address, a phone number, an age, sometimes relatives and past addresses, often for free or a small fee.
It’s mostly legal, especially in the US, but many of these sites will remove you if you ask, and some laws require them to. The catch is that there are hundreds, and listings can come back, so the trick is to start with the ones that matter most and keep a record.
Try it yourself · part 1
Search for yourself like a stranger would
- Open a private window (Lesson 4), so the results aren’t shaped by your own account.
- Search for your full name in quotes, with your town:
"Ana Popescu" Brasov. Then try your phone number in quotes, and your email address in quotes. - Look at the first two pages of results. Note every site that shows your address, phone number, age or relatives. Those are people-search sites.
- Open each one and copy the address of the page that lists you. You’ll need those exact links for the opt-outs.
- Found nothing? Good, but try a previous address or a maiden name too. In much of Europe there are far fewer of these sites than in the US.
Try it yourself · part 2
Take the results off Google
- Signed in to your Google account, open Results about you: search for it in the Google app, or go to
myactivity.google.com/results-about-you. - Add the details you want Google to look for: your name, phone number, home address and email address.
- Google shows search results containing them, and keeps watching for new ones. For each unwanted result, request removal. Google reviews requests, usually within a few days.
- Know what this does and doesn’t do: it removes the result from Google Search. The page itself is still on the people-search site, and still in other search engines. That’s what part 3 is for.
Try it yourself · part 3
Opt out of one site, start to finish
- Open our Delete Yourself opt-out directory and find one of the sites from part 1 in Priority 1: people-search sites. Each entry links straight to that site’s opt-out page.
- Paste the link to your own listing, the one you copied in part 1, into the opt-out form.
- Use your spare email address for the confirmation, not your main one. Some sites send a link you have to click before the removal goes ahead.
- Give only what the form needs to find your listing. If a site asks for much more than it already shows, such as a photo of your ID, you can skip it and come back to it later.
- Never pay. Opting out of a people-search listing is free. A site that wants money to remove you is selling you something else.
- Take a screenshot of the confirmation and note the site and the date.
Bigger sweeps
- In California? Since 1 August 2026, the state’s free Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) sends one deletion request to every registered data broker at once, and they have to keep processing it.
- In the EU or UK? Data protection law gives you the right to ask a company to delete your personal data. Most brokers have a privacy request form or email address on their privacy page.
- Not in either? Work through the directory’s Priority 1 sites first, then the large brokers in Priority 2 that supply them.
- Paying someone to do it. Removal services send these requests for you and repeat them over time. They save hours, but they cost money and you’re giving them your details too, so it’s a judgement call.
Try it yourself · part 4
Make it stick
- Keep a simple list: site, date you opted out, confirmation (yes or no), date to re-check.
- Set a reminder for three months from now. Brokers buy fresh data, and listings sometimes come back.
- When the reminder goes off, repeat part 1. Anything new goes on the list.
Key takeaways
- People-search sites build profiles from public records and bought data, then show them to anyone.
- Searching your name, phone and email in quotes shows you what a stranger would find.
- Google’s Results about you removes results from Google only, not from the site itself.
- Opting out of a people-search listing is free; use a spare email and keep a record.
- Listings can come back, so re-check every few months.
Check yourself
Three questions. Pick one answer each and you’ll see why.
1. Google approves your removal request. Where is your listing now?
2. A people-search site asks you to pay $9.99 to remove your listing. What should you do?
3. You opted out of five sites in January. Why re-check in April?
That’s the course. You can now see what a website learns in one visit, check what your provider sees and encrypt your lookups, count and block trackers, use private browsing for what it’s good at, measure what a VPN really changes, test it for leaks and take your details off people-search sites. Go back to the course page and try the opening quiz again to see how far you’ve come.
More free courses are on the Learn page.
This lesson is part of the free course Privacy and VPNs, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use, with credit to ExamineIP and a link to the original.