Spend ten minutes searching your own name, age, and city in Google. The results that come back from sites like Spokeo, BeenVerified, Whitepages, Intelius, and a few hundred smaller brokers are probably alarming, current address, phone number, age, relatives, sometimes employer history. All of it scraped from public records and sold for $20 a lookup. Here’s the 2026 tutorial for taking it down.
Step 1: Decide between paid removal services and DIY
Manual removal works but is tedious, there are 200+ data brokers and most of them take 2-6 weeks to honour a request, then re-add you within a year. Subscription services automate the resubmission. The two reputable options in 2026:
DeleteMe by Abine. ~$129/year for one person, $229 for two. Covers ~40 brokers actively. Quarterly removal cycle. Established 2010. Most well-known.
Optery. Free tier scans for your data on 100+ sites; paid tiers from $39/year remove from 70+ brokers. Optery’s reporting is more transparent, you can see screenshots of every removal.
Privacy Bee. ~$197/year, claims 350+ brokers covered, more aggressive but newer.
For most people Optery’s middle tier ($99/year, “Ultimate”) gets 90% of the value. DeleteMe is fine if you want the longest track record. All three include family plans.
Step 2: Run a free scan first
Both Optery and Privacy Bee offer a free initial scan. Plug in your name, age, and city and let it run. The output is a list of every broker that has a profile on you, with screenshots. Save the report, you’ll use it to verify removals later.
Step 3: The opt-out portals you should hit manually anyway
Even with a paid service, hit these big ones yourself. They publish opt-out forms because state laws require it; the form takes 30-90 seconds each.
- Spokeo
- Whitepages
- BeenVerified
- Intelius
- PeopleFinder
- Radaris (notoriously hard, keep submitting)
- FastPeopleSearch
Step 4: Public records that broker scrapers feed on
Brokers re-add you when they re-scrape county property records, voter rolls, and licensing databases. You can’t remove yourself from public records, but you can:
Suppress address from voter rolls, many states allow address confidentiality if you request it. Address Confidentiality Programs exist in most states for survivors of stalking, harassment, or domestic violence; some states allow opt-in for any voter.
Use a USPS Form 1583 mailbox or a CMRA for new account signups. Anything you sign up for now uses the mailbox address; the broker scrapers eventually replace your home address with the box.
For property records, own real estate through an LLC where state law allows. Substantially more complex but very effective.
Step 5: Search Google for residual data
After removal cycles, search yourself again with the same parameters. Anything still showing up: submit to Google’s Personal Information Removal tool. Google removed contact info, addresses, and ID numbers from search results in 2022, and the tool’s pretty effective when the underlying source is a data broker.
Step 6: California and EU residents, the bigger lever
If you’re in California, the CCPA/CPRA Right to Delete is a legal request, not a courtesy. Brokers must respond within 45 days. Optery and DeleteMe escalate to legal letters when the first request is ignored.
EU residents have GDPR Article 17 (Right to Erasure). Same mechanic, slightly broader scope, sometimes faster compliance because European brokers worry about regulators.
Step 7: Maintain it
Brokers re-add aggressively. The first removal pass is satisfying; the second one (six months later) is where you learn this is a recurring chore. The paid services automate the resubmission. Manual upkeep is one Sunday afternoon every quarter.
You won’t be invisible. You will be hard enough to find that the casual scammer, the angry ex-employee, and the SIM-swap script kiddie give up and target someone easier. That’s the whole game.