How to opt out of every major data broker (a Saturday-afternoon project)

You searched your name once. You found a page on Spokeo that listed your home address, your phone number, your three previous addresses, your spouse's name, your kids' ages, and a partial email. You felt sick. You closed the tab.

That page exists because of an industry called data brokers. They scrape public records, buy customer lists, and aggregate it all into searchable profiles that they then sell to anyone with a credit card — recruiters, debt collectors, ex-partners, scammers running spear-phishing campaigns. The good news: every legitimate broker has an opt-out process. The bad news: there are hundreds of them, the opt-outs expire, and the brokers re-add you when they re-scrape public records.

This guide is the Saturday afternoon you spend doing the eight that matter most, the bulk services that handle the long tail, and the calendar reminder that keeps it from coming back.

Honest take, up front

You will not "delete yourself from the internet." That is marketing language. What you can do is reduce your visibility on the high-traffic sites by 80% in one afternoon, then trim the long tail with a paid service or a quarterly recheck. It is a war of attrition, not a battle. People who tell you otherwise are selling you something — usually a $200/yr subscription.

The Big 8: direct opt-out URLs

These eight account for the vast majority of "I searched my name and found a profile" hits. Do them in order. Each takes 5–10 minutes.

1. 1Spokeo: spokeo.com/optout. Search your name, find your listing, copy the URL, paste into the opt-out form, confirm via email. Processes in 7 days.
2. 2BeenVerified: beenverified.com/app/optout/search. Same flow. They will email you a confirmation link. Click it within 24 hours. Processes in 24-48 hours.
3. 3Whitepages: whitepages.com/suppression-requests. Locate your listing first, then submit the suppression. They require a phone confirmation (use a temporary VOIP number if you do not want to give them your real one). 24 hours.
4. 4Intelius: intelius.com/opt-out/submit. Email confirmation required. 7-14 days. Owned by the same parent as several others; one opt-out covers some siblings.
5. 5MyLife: mylife.com/ccpa/index.pubview. Find your profile, submit the form, and follow up by emailing [email protected] if it does not process within 14 days. Notoriously sticky — expect to do this twice.
6. 6Radaris: radaris.com/page/how-to-remove. Requires you to claim the profile first. 24-48 hours.
7. 7PeopleFinders: peoplefinders.com/manage. Email confirmation. 3-5 days.
8. 8FastPeopleSearch: fastpeoplesearch.com/removal. Quick flow but they re-add aggressively when you move or update public records. Recheck quarterly.

After the Big 8: the second wave

If you have time, hit these next. They are smaller but appear in search results often:

• TruePeopleSearch (truepeoplesearch.com/removal)
• PeekYou (peekyou.com/about/contact/optout)
• PublicRecordsNow (publicrecordsnow.com/static/view/optout)
• USPhonebook (usphonebook.com/opt-out)
• NeighborWho (neighborwho.com/app/optout)
• CocoFinder (cocofinder.com/online-removal)
• Pipl (privacy.pipl.com/optout)

The bulk approach: paid removal services

If the long tail (200+ smaller brokers) is not something you want to spend Saturdays on, three paid services do it for you. They are not magic — they file the same opt-outs you would file, just at scale and on a recurring schedule.

• Incogni: $6.49/mo on annual plan. Covers ~190 brokers. The most popular, the cheapest, owned by the Surfshark/Nord parent company.
• Optery: free tier covers 30 brokers; paid tiers ($4-25/mo) scale up to 600+. Best dashboard. Best for "I want to see what they had on me."
• DeleteMe: $129/yr. Most established, has a real human review step, slowest but most thorough.

Pick one, run it for a year, see if your search results change. They all work; the differences are at the margins.

California's DROP platform (Jan 2026)

California's Data Broker Registry now includes a one-click "Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform" — DROP — that took effect January 2026. If you are a California resident (and many brokers will accept California requests from non-residents too, because they cannot easily verify), submit one request via DROP and it propagates to every broker registered with the California Privacy Protection Agency. Roughly 600 brokers.

1. 1Visit the California Privacy Protection Agency site (cppa.ca.gov) and locate the DROP portal.
2. 2Submit your name, addresses (current and prior), and a verification method.
3. 3Brokers have 45 days to delete and 95 days to confirm.
4. 4You will get a single dashboard showing each broker's status.
5. 5Re-submit every 6 months — DROP requests do not auto-renew.

DROP is, genuinely, the biggest legislative win for consumer data privacy in years. Use it.

The 90-day re-check

Data brokers re-add you. They scrape public records, buy lists from each other, and refresh profiles every quarter. Your opt-out is not permanent; it is a clearing event after which they will gradually rebuild.

Set a calendar reminder for 90 days from today. Title it "Data broker re-check." When it fires, do this:

1. 1Search your name in Google, in DuckDuckGo, and on each of the Big 8.
2. 2Note any new appearances. Re-submit the opt-out.
3. 3If you are using Incogni or Optery, log in and check the dashboard for re-listings.
4. 4Re-submit a California DROP request if it has been more than 6 months.
5. 5Reset the calendar reminder for 90 days out.

What this is not

This process does not remove you from social media (you have to do that yourself), from court records (those are public and stay public), from voter rolls (also public, opt-out varies by state), or from the dark web breach dumps (those are forever; rotate passwords and move on).

It does drastically reduce the surface area that a stalker, scammer, or recruiter can find by typing your name into a search engine. That is a real win, even if it is not a complete one.

The Saturday afternoon plan

1. 112:00 PM: open the Big 8 opt-out URLs in eight tabs.
2. 212:30 PM: confirm email links as they arrive.
3. 31:30 PM: submit California DROP request if eligible.
4. 42:00 PM: sign up for Incogni or Optery if you want the long tail handled.
5. 52:30 PM: set the 90-day calendar reminder.
6. 63:00 PM: pour a drink. You did the thing.

It is not glamorous work. It is plumbing. But the next time someone you do not know calls you by your full name and asks if you are still living at the address you moved out of in 2019, you will be glad you did it.