How to Opt Out of Visiting the Most Popular Search Sites

People finder websites are good for finding almost someone else’s personal information, but not so good if you don’t want your own information, including your past and present addresses, the names of your family members and known acquaintances, to be available. for everyone to see. … Many of these services are free or very cheap to use, and they provide a really detailed picture of a person without knowledge or consent. To hide information from them, you will have to work hard.

Here’s how to protect yourself from Family Tree Now, Whitepages, Spokeo, and other popular search engines like them.

Family tree now

Fortunately, deleting your information from Family Tree is now quite easy, provided they actually fulfill your complete deletion requests from their database:

1. Go to the opt-out page and click the “Start opt-out procedure” button after you prove that you are not a robot.
2. Find yourself using your name and date of birth and select your list of entries from the results.
3. Make sure it’s really you and not someone with the same name, then click the big, red opt-out button at the top of the page.

It will take 48 hours to delete your information, but that’s all you need. If you have multiple lists, repeat the process for each entry.

White Pages

Whitepages is one of the most popular search engines that also provides information for other search engines. As a result, the rejection process becomes a little more complicated:

1. Go to the site and find yourself. Copy and write down the URL for all your ads. They should look something like “ http://www.whitepages.com/name/John-Doe/Seattle-WA/6u3wkef”.
2. Go to the Whitepages opt- out page.
3. Paste the URL of your ad. Then click “Unsubscribe”.
4. Confirm the entry you want to delete and click the “Delete me” button. On the next screen, select the reason for deletion from the drop-down menu.
5. You will then need to enter your phone number to receive an automatic confirmation call. Click “Call for confirmation” to go to the page with the confirmation code.
6. Wait for the confirmation of the robot call and follow the instructions. Be aware that some call blockers can interfere with dialing or alert you to possible spam. You will need a confirmation code to complete the deletion request.

The above process will remove you from all free searches, but Whitepages Premium subscribers can still search for you. To remove data from Premium search results, you submitted a support ticket:

1. In the search results, find the Premium entry for the report you want to delete — it’s a list with a blue View Full Report button next to it.
2. Right-click the button (or CTRL + click) and select Copy Link Address.
3. Go to the Whitepages support request page.
4. Select “I need to edit or delete an ad” from the drop-down menu and fill out the form. You will need to include your first name, middle name, last name, city, state, and ad URL.

The process will take about 72 hours. Like other search engines on this list, removing your information from Whitepages does not remove it from public records.

Said

The Spokeo people search engine collects publicly available information from third-party sources, so deleting your entry does not necessarily result in your entry being deleted elsewhere. However, you should still opt out of Spokeo so that your information is not delayed. Here’s how to do it:

1. Find yourself with Spokeo and copy your ad url.
2. Go to the Spokeo opt-out page and paste the url in the first text box.
3. Enter your email address in the second second text box. This is necessary so that they can submit a verification link. (The same rules apply as above – any address that can receive a confirmation email works here.)
4. Click Remove This Ad.

Once you confirm the deletion via the email you provided, you’re done.

PeekYou

PeekYou is designed for people who want to reconnect with old classmates or former colleagues, but the service can still be pretty frustrating in the wrong hands. Here’s how to opt out of PeekYou search results:

1. Find yourself with PeekYou . Write down your unique ID at the end of your ad’s URL. You don’t need the entire URL, just this number.
2. Go to the PeekYou opt-out form page and enter your information, including a unique identification number.
3. Check the two checkboxes for disclosure and click Submit.

You will receive a confirmation email, but your information should now be completely removed. However, keep in mind that PeekYou may have multiple listings for you in their database. You will have to repeat the above process for each ad.

Instant checkmate

Instant Checkmate is a publicly available biographical search and verification service that collects data about individuals at the local, state, and federal levels. The service is widely used, but it is not difficult to refuse it:

1. Go to the opt-out page for the Instant Mate .
2. Find your report by its name and location.
3. Select a report and enter your email address. You will need to confirm your request by email and the deletion can take up to 48 hours.

Again, you can have multiple lists and each requires a separate form. Be sure to check. You can also ask to be removed by regular mail if you wish.

Pay someone else to do it for you

Other popular search engines like Pipl and Intelius have similar opt-out options. You will need to contact the company and go through a deletion request in order for some or all of your information to be removed from these search engines.

Of course, the only way to completely hide your information from these sites is to remove sources such as social media profiles, court documents, articles and anything else that mentions your name. If you’re serious about privacy but don’t want to do the work yourself, you can manage this with a paid service like DeleteMe ; it is effective, but it will cost you – the basic plan costs about $ 130 per year when billed monthly. But if you don’t remove the data from the Internet, it will be searchable to some extent. But unlimited monthly billing might not work for you, so do it by deleting your entries from public search engines first.

This story was originally published in January 2017 and was updated on March 4, 2021 to check links and update outdated processes and screenshots, and add information about DeleteMe subscriptions.

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