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Guides · updated 2026-08-27

How do I remove myself from people-search sites?

Every people-search site publishes an opt-out, and the pattern is nearly always the same: find your own listing, give them its URL, then click a confirmation link they email you. Allow an evening for the twenty largest. Expect to be re-listed within three to six months, because these sites rebuild from public records and from each other, and outside California nothing obliges them to keep you off.

The pattern

Find your own listing on the site and copy its address. Open the opt-out page, which is almost always linked from the privacy policy in the footer rather than from the navigation. Submit the listing address with an email you can read, then click the confirmation link. That is the whole procedure on the large majority of these sites, and an evening covers the twenty that matter most.

Do the aggregators first

A small number of sites feed listings to many others. Clearing those reduces what the smaller sites can rebuild from, though it never removes their existing copies. We track 503 sources and publish what we know about each one, including whether the removal route has ever actually been used. The directory.

The ones that defeat automation

4 of the sources we track cannot be automated by anybody: they require a posted form, an identity check only you can answer, or a confirmation link only you can click. A service that lists them as covered is either not doing them or not saying so. We publish the exact instructions instead. Doing the whole list yourself.

Then keep doing it

Re-check every three months. If you live in California, file the state request as well, because it is the only instrument that obliges a registered broker to keep you off rather than to delete you once. The California route.

Common questions

What is the pattern that works on most sites?
Search the site for yourself first and copy the URL of your own listing. Open the opt-out page, which is nearly always linked from the privacy policy in the footer. Paste the listing URL, give an email address you can read, then click the confirmation link they send. Without the listing URL most forms cannot find the record to delete.
Which email address should I use?
One you control and can check, but not your main one if you can avoid it. The confirmation step is real and you must be able to click it. Some sites then add the address to their own suppression list, which is the outcome you want.
Do I have to give them more data to be removed?
Often they ask for a name, city and date of birth to match the record, which is uncomfortable and reasonable to dislike. Give only what the form requires. Never send a photograph of an identity document to a people-search site that has not published a documented verification process.
Why does my profile come back?
Because the site rebuilds from public records, marketing data and other brokers. An opt-out in most states suppresses the record you pointed at, not the sources behind it. Three to six months is the usual interval.
Is there a way to make it stick?
In California, yes. A registered broker must check the state deletion list and keep honouring it, which is a standing obligation rather than a one-off deletion. Elsewhere the honest answer is a diary reminder every quarter.
Are the aggregators worth doing first?
Yes. A handful of sites supply listings to many smaller ones, so removing yourself there thins the long tail. It does not clear it: the smaller sites hold their own copies.

Sources

Every figure on this page is either taken from a source above on the date shown, or measured by Cartograph on 2026-08-27. If something here is out of date, write to support@usecartograph.com.