Intelius is one of the heavyweight data brokers: a paid background-check service that has been collecting and selling personal records since 2003. But its real footprint is bigger than its own website. Intelius data feeds a network of sister sites including ZabaSearch and US Search, all under the PeopleConnect umbrella alongside TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate.
That network structure is actually good news for removal: a single suppression request through PeopleConnect's Suppression Center covers name searches across PeopleConnect's people-search sites at once. Here's how to file it correctly.
The Suppression Center's email step and its coverage notes were checked against PeopleConnect's live page on October 16, 2026. We stopped at the email step, so the screens after the verification link are described from earlier research.
What is Intelius?
Intelius, a PeopleConnect brand, sells background reports and people-search results built from public records and commercial data. An Intelius report can include:
- Full name, aliases, and age
- Address history going back decades
- Phone numbers and email addresses
- Relatives, associates, and neighbors
- Criminal, court, and traffic records where available
- Property records and estimated financials
Anyone with a subscription can pull this on you. Employers aren't legally allowed to use it for hiring decisions (it's not an FCRA consumer report), but landlords, dates, and nosy acquaintances face no such friction in practice.
Before you start: how PeopleConnect suppression works
PeopleConnect's process is more identity-driven than a typical broker opt-out:
- You verify an email address, then provide your date of birth and full legal name.
- The system finds records matching your identity and lets you mark them "Suppressed."
- PeopleConnect says one suppression covers name searches on its people-search sites, including Intelius, TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate and US Search. Check sister sites such as ZabaSearch yourself afterwards.
- PeopleConnect generally refuses opt-outs submitted by third-party removal services, even with signed authorization. This is one of the few networks where you really do have to do it yourself, ten minutes, once.
Providing a data broker your DOB feels backwards, but it's how the network ties its existing records to your suppression flag. Inaccurate details mean the match fails and your records stay up.
How to remove yourself from Intelius, step by step
Step 1: Open the Suppression Center
Go to suppression.peopleconnect.us. (Intelius's footer links to its privacy center.)
Step 2: Verify your email
Enter your email, agree to the terms, and click Continue. Open the verification email from PeopleConnect and click the link inside.
Step 3: Enter your date of birth and legal name
Complete the identity fields and continue. This is what the system uses to locate every record it holds on you.
Step 4: Review the matched records
The Suppression Center lists profiles matching your identity. Check each one, look at the addresses and age. Select every record that's actually you (there may be several).
Step 5: Mark them "Suppressed" and save
For each record, set the desired behavior to "Suppressed" and save. That's the removal.
Step 6: Verify manually after 48 hours
PeopleConnect does not send a confirmation email. Suppression usually applies within 48 hours; allow up to a week for every site in the network to reflect it.
What one suppression does not cover
PeopleConnect's Suppression Center page (checked October 16, 2026) says the free tool covers name searches on the people-search sites in its family, including TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search. The same page lists what it does not cover:
- Your name and other details may still appear in phone, address or email reports when someone searches by those instead of your name, and on registered sex offender lists.
- It does not touch account data those sites hold about you as a user, or other PeopleConnect sites such as Classmates.com.
- It does not remove the information from other sources, including the third-party sources PeopleConnect gets it from.
If you still see your data on a PeopleConnect site after suppressing, the page asks you to contact them. Judges, law enforcement officers, public officials and other protected people whose state law allows it can also email privacy@peopleconnect.us with the details the page lists (full name, date of birth, city and state, phone and email, the law you are relying on, and your protected status).
Verify the removal
After a couple of days, search yourself on intelius.com, then sweep the sister sites: zabasearch.com, ussearch.com, truthfinder.com, instantcheckmate.com. Use a private browsing window. If a name search still finds you anywhere, log back into the Suppression Center or contact PeopleConnect as its page asks; the record either wasn't selected or is a new one. Phone, address and email lookups can still show you (see above).
Why your listing can come back
Suppression flags the records PeopleConnect held when you filed. New public records (a move, a marriage, a court appearance, a new phone contract) can generate fresh profiles not linked to your suppression. When that happens, they appear across the network again.
Quarterly re-checks are the manual fix. The automatic one is Defynta's Web Watcher. Silver subscribers can turn on monitoring, which rescans Intelius and the other sites we read every 30 days by default and emails you when a listing comes back.
Who runs Intelius. California's data broker registry (read October 18, 2026) lists Intelius, LLC with 22 web addresses, including intelius.com, ussearch.com, zabasearch.com, addresses.com, peoplefinder.com (not peoplefinders.com, which Peoplefinders, LLC runs), peoplefind.com, publicrecords.com, reversephonelookup.com, telephonenumberlookups.com, arrestrecordsearch.com, criminalrecords.com, easybackgroundchecks.com and others. TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate are registered as separate companies (TruthFinder, LLC and Instant Checkmate LLC). PeopleConnect's Suppression Center page names only Intelius, TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate and US Search, so check any other of these sites that lists you.
Related sites to check next
Other PeopleConnect sites (the Suppression Center names only TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, Intelius and US Search; verify each):
Not covered, separate networks with separate opt-outs:
Full list in the master opt-out guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Intelius opt-out free?
Yes. The Suppression Center is free and doesn't require a subscription or account beyond the email verification.
Can a removal service handle Intelius for me?
Mostly no. PeopleConnect is known for rejecting third-party submissions even with signed authorization. Budget ten minutes and file it yourself through the Suppression Center. (Defynta's scan will still detect your Intelius-network listings and walk you to the right place.)
Why do they need my date of birth?
To match you to the records they already hold. It's the mechanism that makes one request cover the network's people-search sites. They already have your DOB in their data; providing it links those records to your suppression rather than revealing anything new.
How long until I'm actually off all the sites?
Suppression typically applies within 48 hours; give the full network up to seven days before troubleshooting.
*Suppressing the PeopleConnect network is a big win, but it's one network among many holding your data. Run a free Defynta scan to see the rest.*
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.