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, on Google. Then search your phone number and email. Note every people-search site that lists you (Whitepages, Spokeo, and dozens of others). 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. You'll usually paste the URL of your listing and confirm by email. Keep a spreadsheet - there are many, and they reappear.
Remove yourself from Google results where possible
Google offers a “Results about you” tool that lets you request removal of pages showing your phone, home address or email. It doesn't delete the source, but it hides it from search - which is where most people would find it.
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. New data is scraped constantly; closing the tap matters as much as mopping the floor.
Re-check every few months
Brokers re-list people after removal - often within months, using fresh scrapes. Removal is not one-and-done; it's maintenance. Diarise a quarterly re-check of your worst offenders.
Doing this by hand across 1,000+ broker sites, repeatedly, is a real job - which is why continuous, automated removal and monitoring exists. But even the manual version above meaningfully shrinks your exposure.
You don't have to handle this alone.
Talk to a guardian