Right now, dozens of websites are selling your name, home address, phone number, age, and family connections to anyone who asks. They're called people-search sites (or data brokers), they build their inventory from public records you never agreed to have aggregated, and each one maintains its own separate database with its own separate opt-out process.
This is the master list. Every guide below walks through one site's removal process step by step, verified, free, and written so anyone can follow it. Work through them top to bottom, or run a free scan first to see which sites actually list you and start there.
How to use this list
- Scan before you sweep. Almost nobody appears on all 45. A Defynta scan covers the 39 sites we track: it reads most of them for you and gives you a link to check the rest, so you skip the empty submissions. USATrace, uFind.name, IDCrawl, PersonSearchers, USA People Search and FastBackgroundCheck are not in the scan; check those yourself.
- Set up a dedicated email. Nearly every opt-out requires an email confirmation click. A masked or secondary address keeps your primary inbox out of broker systems.
- Do networks, not just sites. Several brokers share databases, one request can clear five sites. The groupings below reflect this.
- Book a re-check. Removals are suppressions, not deletions. New public records rebuild listings within months. Re-check quarterly, or subscribe and turn on Web Watcher monitoring, which rescans the sites it reads every 30 days by default and emails you when a listing returns.
- In California, file DROP too. The state's free DROP platform sends one deletion request to every data broker registered with California. Brokers must check it every 45 days, a status update can take up to 90 days, and the state lists public records among the data a broker may keep, so it works alongside these opt-outs rather than replacing them. How DROP works.
The big free people-search sites
These show your address and phone number to anyone, no payment required, remove these first. Nine of them (FastPeopleSearch, SearchPeopleFree, USPhoneBook, SmartBackgroundChecks, AdvancedBackgroundChecks, CyberBackgroundChecks, PeopleSearchNow, USA People Search and FastBackgroundCheck) are run by one company, Mississippi Tornado Alley, LLC, per California's data broker registry. Its entry says an opt-out of sale on one applies to all, but each site has its own removal form, so file each one that lists you:
- TruePeopleSearch, free removal tool, ~24-72 hours
- FastPeopleSearch, free removal, ~72 hours, phone option available
- SearchPeopleFree, timed removal session, ~3 days
- USPhoneBook, two-stage form, ~3 days
- SmartBackgroundChecks, two-stage form, ~3 days
- AdvancedBackgroundChecks, two-stage form, up to 45 days
- CyberBackgroundChecks, two forms, 24-hour link expiry
- GreatPeopleSearch, removal by email, ~24-48 hours
- PeopleSearchNow, two-stage form, ~3 days
- USA People Search, two-stage form, ~3 days
- FastBackgroundCheck, two-stage form, ~3 days
The Whitepages network
One opt-out covers these, through Whitepages' tool (it asks for a phone number) or its privacy email or web form:
- Whitepages, the main event; opt-out tool (asks for a phone number) or a request by email or web form
- 411.com, powered by Whitepages
- PeopleSearch.com, opt-out routes to Whitepages
The PeopleConnect network
PeopleConnect says one Suppression Center request (suppression.peopleconnect.us) covers name searches on its people-search sites, and the Suppression Center page names TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search; check the others below yourself afterwards (phone, address and email lookups can still show you). This network generally requires you to file personally:
- Intelius, the full suppression walkthrough
- TruthFinder
- Instant Checkmate
- US Search
- ZabaSearch
- Addresses.com: its own form is gone (Oct 2026); the suppression may cover it, so check it yourself afterwards
The Spokeo network
- Spokeo, URL-based opt-out, usually processed in 24 to 48 hours
- PeopleWin, powered by Spokeo; the Spokeo opt-out covers it
- AnyWho, now a Spokeo site; its opt-out forwards to the Spokeo tool
- ThatsThem, reverse lookup by name, phone, email, even IP; run by Spokeo but excluded from the Spokeo opt-out, so it needs its own
Paid background-check brokers
Each with its own opt-out (several belong to multi-site companies, and their guides name the sister sites):
- BeenVerified, ~24 hours after its confirmation email
- PeopleFinders, ~3 days stated, one form, no account
- CheckPeople, ~5-7 days
- InfoTracer, by email to privacy@infotracer.com (no form as of October 16, 2026)
- CheckSecrets, up to 45 days stated, confirmation link
- MyLife, 15 business days for opt-out of sale, by form, email, mail or phone; agents may file an opt-out with signed permission
Identity and social aggregators
- Social Catfish, off sale within 15 days, listing URLs optional
- MyLife, also fits here, with its "Reputation Score"
- AllPeople, business-contact directory, ~24 hours
- IDCrawl, public social profiles on one name page; page URL plus an email link
Address and family-tree sites
The listings that lead to your front door:
- FamilyTreeNow, genealogy-flavored; exposes whole families
- AddressSearch.com, address-first lookups, a short form you file yourself
Phone directories
- USPhoneBook
- PhoneLookup.com, claim your number with a PIN, or ask support (72 hours)
- 24Counter
- PeopleByName
- AnyWho
The long-tail clone sites
Low-profile sites that rank in search results and count on never being found by the people they list:
- Veripages
- PrivateRecords.net
- PeopleSearch123
- BackgroundCheckers.net
- PersonSearchers, the same company as PrivateRecords.net
- USATrace, a PeopleFinders front end; one block also hides you on QuickPeopleTrace
- uFind.name, a one-field form that takes your name page's URL
Sites that have gone offline
These used to publish listings and no longer do. Each page says what the domain shows now and where the same details may still appear:
- Centeda and Rain-Street.org, transferred by a New Jersey court order in 2026
- PeekYou, now a domain notice after a settlement
- ClustrMaps, no longer loads
- YankeeGroup.com, the domain no longer exists
Targeted guides
Some removals need a narrower approach than a site-by-site sweep:
- Remove your home address from Google search results, the search side of the job
- Remove your phone number from people-search sites, including the reverse-lookup specialists
- Remove a deceased relative's listing, the documents and the order to work in
- The California DELETE Act, one request to every registered broker
- Where data brokers get your information, the supply chain behind the listings
- If your address is exposed or you are being doxxed, the fast response plan
For the wider picture, start with how to remove your personal information from the internet or the data broker removal overview.
Why removals don't stick (and what to do about it)
Every guide on this list ends with the same warning because it's the industry's defining feature: opt-outs are suppressions, not deletions. Brokers continuously re-ingest public records, and a new record (created when you move, change numbers, or simply get swept into a fresh data batch) isn't covered by your old suppression. Most people who complete a full sweep are back on several sites within six months, silently.
Do opt-outs actually work? covers what suppression means in practice and how to verify a removal held. The realistic posture is maintenance, not a one-time purge:
- Sweep the sites that list you (the guides above).
- Re-check quarterly, or after any move, number change, or court interaction.
- Automate the vigil. For subscribers who turn on monitoring, Defynta's Web Watcher reruns the scan every 30 days by default and emails you when a listing reappears on a site it reads, so a reappearance there is caught within a month, not whenever you next remember to look. For the sites it only links to, keep your own calendar.
One more thing: your family
People-search listings are webs, not islands, your record links to your relatives' records, and theirs link back to you. Your address can persist on a parent's or sibling's listing even after your own is gone. When you run a Defynta scan, we flag the relatives who appear alongside your records and make it one click to invite them to check their own exposure. A family that sweeps together stays unlisted together.
*Start where the exposure is: run the free Defynta scan, see which of these sites list you, and work the guides that matter. Subscribers can have us watch for the comebacks.*
Free scan
See which people-search sites list you.
Web Watcher checks the people-search sites we track for your name and links you to the ones it cannot read itself. You see the results before you create an account.