CASE FILE II · PERSONAL DATA REMOVAL
How to remove your personal data from the internet.
Dozens of people-search and data-broker sites publish your address, phone number, relatives and more - and sell it to anyone. Here is how to claw it back.
Find out what's exposed
Search your own name in quotes, plus your city. Then search your phone number and email. Note every people-search site that lists you. This is your removal to-do list.
Use each site's opt-out page
Almost every data broker is legally required to offer an opt-out. Search “[site name] opt out” to find it. Keep a spreadsheet - there are many, and they reappear.
Remove yourself from Google results where possible
Google's “Results about you” tool lets you request removal of pages showing your phone, home address or email from search.
Lock down the source accounts
Set social profiles to private, remove your address and phone from public bios, and turn off lookup-by-phone/email settings. Closing the tap matters as much as mopping the floor.
Re-check every few months
Brokers re-list people after removal, often within months. Removal is maintenance, not one-and-done. Diarise a quarterly re-check.
Doing this by hand across 1,000+ broker sites, repeatedly, is a real job - which is why continuous, automated removal exists. But even the manual version above meaningfully shrinks your exposure.
You don't have to handle this alone.
Talk to a guardian