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Guides · updated 2026-08-27

How do I remove my personal information from the internet?

You cannot remove all of it, and anyone promising that is selling something. Four things do work, in this order. Californians file the state's free deletion request, which reaches every registered data broker at once. Everyone opts out of the people-search sites one at a time. Then ask Google to drop the results that carry your address, phone number or email. Then go back to the source, because removing a search result leaves the page itself online.

Step one, and only in California: the free state request

Since 1 August 2026 California runs a single deletion request that every registered data broker must honour. Of the 503 sources we track, 398 are registered, so one free request covers most of the commercial layer at once. It also carries the part a private service cannot promise: the broker must keep you off the list afterwards. How the state request works.

Step two: the people-search sites, one at a time

Outside California this is the main work, and inside California it still catches the 99 sources that never filed with the regulator. Each site publishes an opt-out, and the pattern is the same on nearly all of them. The opt-out pattern, and the sites that need more.

Step three: ask Google to drop the result

Google removes results that carry your home address, phone number or email address from Search when you ask through Results about you. It does not delete the page, which is why it is step three and not step one. What the Google tool does and does not do.

Step four: the source, and the AI answer

A profile aggregator, an old employer page or a conference bio is not a data broker and will not appear on any broker list. Those need a request to whoever runs the site. The model answers are a separate route again, with three providers publishing a removal process. What the AI providers actually offer.

What no service can do

Court records, property deeds, professional licences, company filings and published journalism stay. 4 of the sources we track also defeat automation completely: they need a posted form, an account only you can open, or a link only you can click. We name them rather than quietly skip them. The full list of what we remove and what we do not.

Common questions

Can everything about me be removed?
No. Court filings, property records, professional licences and company registrations are public by law, and a news archive is protected speech. Any service that implies otherwise is describing a result it cannot produce. What can be removed is the commercial layer: the broker profiles that collect those records into one page about you.
What is the single largest step?
For a California resident, the state's own deletion request. One authenticated submission reaches every registered data broker, they must check it and act, and they must keep you off afterwards. Nothing a private company sells matches the last part.
How long does it take?
The people-search opt-outs take an evening for the twenty largest, and each site takes between a day and six weeks to act. Statutory deadlines are 45 days in California and 30 days under the GDPR.
Will it stay gone?
Only where a suppression obligation exists. Elsewhere expect profiles to reappear within three to six months, because brokers rebuild from the same public records and from each other. Repetition is the actual work, which is what a subscription buys.
Do I have to pay someone?
No. Every step here is one you can do yourself, and our guides give the routes. Pay for repetition and for the sites that defeat automation, not for the list itself.
What about search engines and AI answers?
They are separate steps and they come after the source. Removing a Google result leaves the page online; removing the page eventually clears the result. AI models are a third case: they answer from training data and from what they can retrieve today.

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.