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How to Remove Your Information from People-Search Sites

5 min read

Last Updated: July 1, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

Data brokers collect personal information and sell it to people or companies.
People-search sites are data brokers that let anyone access your personal information.
Removing your information from people-search sites can help improve your online privacy.

How much of your information is online? It’s likely more than you think.

With online browsing and regular social media activities, you leave an online trail. This makes it easier for data brokers to collect and sell your information.

It’s no wonder people have privacy concerns about data brokers.

What are data brokers and how do they collect information?

Data brokers collect people’s personal information and sell it to companies or other people. But how do data broker sites get this data in the first place?

You may be surprised at how much of your personal info is freely available to companies that want it. Data broker sites collect a lot of data from public records. Your publicly available information may include census data, birth certificates, voter registration information, bankruptcy records, divorce records, and more.

What are people-search sites?

Have you ever used a search engine to look yourself up? You may have noticed a people-search website with your information in a search result.

People-search sites (also called people-finder sites) are data brokers that collect, store, and sell your personal information. This could include publicly available data as well as information that the broker bought elsewhere. These sites may sell it to other individuals or companies.

Unlike other kinds of data broker websites, anyone can find your personal information on a people-search site. You might not even realize that some of your data is public.

Some people-search sites are ad-supported and give users free access to personal details. Other sites require a subscription or one-time fee for more in-depth information and background reports.

A detailed report from a people-search site can contain a laundry list of highly sensitive information. It might contain court records, marriage licenses, people you’ve lived with, and your social media account names. With just a few clicks, anyone can have access to your name, address, and phone number.

Having a warehouse full of personally identifiable information accessible to anyone without your permission is an unsettling thought.

Keeping your information off people-finder sites may not be easy, because so much of the information is public record. But you can opt out of some of the most popular people-search sites and make your information more difficult to find.

Did you know?

Discover gives you more control over your personal information online by regularly helping you to remove it from at least 10 people-search sites. It’s free, activate with the mobile app.¹

Why you should remove your information from people-search sites

People may have good reasons to find you using a people-search site. Some people use these sites to find old friends or colleagues. And some businesses use these sites to collect information to offer you goods or services that you might find useful.

Many people who access data broker and people-search sites don’t use your information maliciously. But there are some who may use your information for more devious purposes.

Among them are cybercriminals. These criminals commit digital crimes. Cybercriminals use different methods like hacking, identity theft, online scams, and fraud—mostly for financial profit.

Sometimes, cybercriminals hack into people-search databases and access your sensitive personal information. When an identity thief has your personal data, they can use it to access your financial information, open lines of credit, or take out loans. This type of identity theft can have lasting effects on your credit and financial well-being.

Besides the threat of cybercriminals, there might be some personal details you just don't want out there for the world to see. This might include your health information, criminal record, or financial details. Removing your information from people-finder sites could help boost your online privacy and help protect your online reputation.

How do you remove your information from people-search sites?

You may want your information taken down immediately, but taking steps to remove your details from people-search sites may take some time.

You'll have to make a separate removal request for every people-finder site where you want your information deleted. Because there are so many of these sites, removing your name from all of them can take a while.

The data removal process on each site may be different. And the process can take longer on some sites than others. You should be able to find the required steps on a data broker site’s opt-out page.

And, because these data broker sites are always collecting information, your data may show up online again. You might need to keep up to date on these sites and periodically request deletion if your info shows up again.

If you choose to manually remove your information from people-finder sites, keep a spreadsheet of the data brokers you contacted and any follow-up actions that you should take.

The bottom line

Getting your information removed from a people-search site (or many of them) is just one step you can take to help boost your online privacy.

Discover could help you reduce the number of unwanted phone calls and emails you receive and help safeguard you against identity theft by helping you remove your personal information from select people-search websites that could sell your data. Activate free recurring protection with our mobile app.¹

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