People Search sites are invasive as they sell and trade your private information for a few bucks.
They accumulate a bewildering amount of information about people from social media, commercial sources, and public records to create personal profiles that sell.
A quick search on these sites can reveal your past and present addresses, social media posts, any criminal records or bankruptcies, and even details about your relatives and where they live.
They may have even more sensitive data than what appears on the first page of the search results.
Unfortunately, there are not currently any federal laws that give consumers the right to decide their privacy preferences regarding People Search sites.
In this guide, we’ll be talking about what steps you can take to delete your information from People Search sites to prevent identity theft and scams. Let’s begin!
What Are People’s Search Sites?
People search sites operate and earn money by buying and selling personal information.
This can include your name, phone number, email address, criminal records, marriage records, education records, and a lot more.
These sites collect this information from state, local, and federal data, courthouses, social media, online forums, and other similar sources.
Depending on your chosen site, you might be able to obtain information for free or might be asked to pay a small fee. Usually, for a comprehensive report, you will need to pay.
There are simpleminded reasons to use such sites. Perhaps a person wants an update on his/her ex; maybe someone wants to get in touch with their old friends, etc.
However, the presence of your personal information online also makes it easier for identity thieves and hackers to harm their victims.
These data brokers are very loosely regulated, and there is no law to prevent them from selling and collecting your information.
But there are a few things that you can do to prevent your information from getting into the hands of these dangerous people.
Is it Possible to delete Information from People’s Search Sites?
While you have no federal right to dispute the information available on People Search Sites, you can still ask them to remove your information from their database.
Every People Search site has a manual process to opt out or requests the removal of your information.
You probably can’t keep your information completely confidential, but it would help you make it more difficult to find on the People Search sites.
It’s important to know that data removal from People Search sites is tricky, and you may find your data will reappear even if you have it deleted.
Removing information from these sites is a periodic task, not a one-time project.
How to Delete Information from People Search Sites?
Deleting your information from such sites won’t necessarily be quick and easy and may vary from one site to another.
You can either take a do-it-yourself route or pay someone to do it for you. Here’s how it works:
Do-it-Yourself Route
- To get started, create a new email account that would specifically be used for this purpose only.
- Search for your information on all the popular People Search sites, such as TruthFinder, PeopleLooker, Intelius, BeenVerified, etc. or try using a search engine to look for your name and address. Use quotes before and after your name to find the exact match.
- Find the dedicated opt-out pages on the People Search websites, follow the instructions and submit your request. Some sites may also ask you to share a specific page’s URL to request the opt-out.
- If you get multiple results with your name, you may need to submit a separate request to have each profile deleted.
Use a Paid Service
You can also use a paid service to get your information removed from People Search Sites on your behalf.
Deleting your information can be a time-consuming and ongoing process, and some of your information might remain in the public records after you have opted out.
That’s why it is better to pay someone else to take care of the task and continue to do if your information reappears in the future.
Some of the paid services you can use include DeleteMe, OneRep, and Kanary.
How To Protect Your Data in the Future?
Here are a few things that you can do to keep your personal information safe:
- Make your social media profiles on various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc., private. This will keep a lot of your information, including your pictures, from going out.
- Avoid filling in your information or signing up on any random websites and platforms. Do it only when it is necessary.
- You can hire identity to protect services which will notify you in case your information appears on the dark web or on other databases or if they see a suspicious change in your credit reports. Early notification will allow you to react immediately to your data getting stolen.
- Keep a tab on different people’s search sites and get the information removed if you see any new information about yourself.
Top 9 People Search Sites & Process To Remove Your Data
There are a plethora of people search sites that you can find. Some are good, while some are not so much.
Here’s how you can remove information from the top nine people’s search sites.
1. Removing yourself from BeenVerified
- Go to https://www.beenverified.com/app/optout/search
- Now enter your name details, select your state, and hit search.
- When you find yourself in the search result, select it and click on opt-out.
- Now enter your email address to receive a verification email.
- Open your email, and click on the verification link to confirm opting out.
- Now after some days or maybe weeks, your information will vanish.
Removing yourself from BeenVerified
2. Removing yourself from Intelius
- Go to this page.
- Now click on “Manage suppression rules.”
- Now enter your email Id, select the check box, and click on submit.
- Open the email inbox for the email id you just entered. Here you will receive a confirmation link.
- Click on the link received. Now you will be directed toward a confirmation page.
- Wait for a few days for the information to get removed.
Note: By following these steps, you can remove your information from all people search sites in the PeopleConnect family, including Intelius.com, TruthFinder.com, USSearch.com, and InstantCheckmate.com.
3. Removing yourself from StateRecords
StateRecords provides information on municipal, state, and county records. Here’s how you can remove your information from StateRecords:
- Go to staterecords.org/optout.
- Enter your first name, last name, state, and city, and click on submit.
- Now select remove data, and you will be prompted to enter your email address.
- Fill in your email address, perform the captcha, and click on submit.
- Check your email; you will receive a verification link.
- Click on it to confirm.
- Wait for a few days for the information to get removed.
4. Removing yourself from Mylife
5. Removing Yourself from Truepeoplesearch.com
6. Removing Yourself from Whitepages.com
Wrapping Up
People’s search sites can be really useful and annoying at the same time.
It can help you get in touch with your loved ones, but it can also make you a victim of identity theft, data breach, and other serious crime.
Removing your information from these platforms is possible, but it requires a lot of time and effort.
We hope you found this article on how to delete your personal information from People’s Search Sites useful.
FAQ’s
How to find out if someone is searching I am being searched?
To find out you are being searched. Sign in to your Google account, and go to google.com/alerts.
Now enter your name in the box and click on create an alert to receive notifications.
How to stop appearing in Google search results?
To make your name stop from appearing on Google search results, you need to:
- Opt out from people’s search sites like Intelius, TruthFinder, Spokeo, etc.
- Make your social media profiles private on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
- Go to your phone’s privacy settings and turn on cookies.
- Close accounts you do not use anymore.
- Do not take uncessary surveys.
Shefali Jain is a Content Writer & Editor at USWorkforce.org
After completing her graduation in hospitality, Shefali decided to follow her passion and started writing. Shefali has been writing for two years now and contributes to our website as a skilled editor and content writer with strong research skills. Writing product and service reviews, biographies, and book reviews are some of her key areas, among many others in which she specializes. In her time at the organization, she has written and edited content on a range of topics, including employment law, human resources, and business management.
