How to Remove Your Information from the Internet in 2026 (Step-by-Step)

How to Remove Your Information from the Internet in 2026

Quick Answer: Removing your personal information from the internet requires attacking four fronts simultaneously: auditing what’s already out there, using Google’s “Results About You” tool to deindex search results, submitting opt-out requests to data brokers (Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, and 100+ others), and locking down or deleting social media profiles. No single step is enough — but working through this checklist methodically reduces your exposure dramatically within two to six weeks. California residents now have a one-click nuclear option (see Step 3).

Last updated: June 1, 2026

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Prerequisites: What You Need Before Starting

• A Google account (free) for the “Results About You” tool
• 2–5 hours of uninterrupted time for the manual approach, or a credit card if you prefer an automated service
• A secondary email address for opt-out confirmation emails (recommended — keeps your main inbox clean)
• A Google Voice number or similar (optional but useful for Whitepages, which requires phone verification)
• Patience: full removal across major brokers takes 2–6 weeks, not hours

Estimated time to complete:

• Phase 1 – Audit: 30–45 minutes
• Phase 2 – Google removal: 20 minutes
• Phase 3 – Data brokers (Big 5 manually): 1–2 hours
• Phase 4 – Social media lockdown: 30–60 minutes
• Phase 5 – Additional cleanup: 1–2 hours
• Total: 3.5–6 hours spread over 2–6 weeks

Why This Matters in 2026

The FTC received over 1.1 million identity theft reports in 2024. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, combined identity fraud and scam losses reached $38 billion in 2025, affecting 36 million victims — that’s roughly one American in nine. Your name, home address, and phone number may currently be available for free on data broker sites; your relatives, financial history, and browsing habits can be purchased for a few dollars more.

Identity thieves don’t need to hack anything. They buy your dossier from Whitepages or Spokeo, use it to craft a targeted phishing call, and they’re in. Removing your data doesn’t guarantee immunity, but it removes the easiest on-ramp.

2026 update: Two significant changes make removal easier than it was 12 months ago. Google upgraded its “Results About You” tool in February 2026 to detect exposed government-issued ID numbers (passport, driver’s license, SSN) and simplified the removal flow. More dramatically, California launched the DELETE Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) on January 1, 2026 — the first government-run system that sends a single deletion request to every registered data broker at once. Starting August 1, 2026, those brokers are legally required to act on it within 45 days.

Step 1: Audit Your Digital Footprint (30–45 min)

Before removing anything, you need to know what’s out there.

1a. Google yourself properly

Open an incognito/private browser window (this bypasses personalization) and search:

• "First Last" — your full name in quotes
• "First Last" [your city]
• "First Last" [your phone number]
• "First Last" [your old address]
• Your email address in quotes

Work through the first three pages of results. Note every site that lists personal details.

Screenshot tip for the team: Show the incognito Google results page for a search like "Jane Doe" Chicago with people-search results highlighted in the SERP.

1b. Run a dedicated people-search sweep

Visit each of these sites and search your full name:

• Whitepages.com
• Spokeo.com
• BeenVerified.com
• TruePeopleSearch.com
• FastPeopleSearch.com
• Intelius.com
• Radaris.com
• MyLife.com

Record the exact URL of every listing you find. You’ll need these URLs during opt-out.

1c. Check the dark web (optional but eye-opening)

Firefox Monitor (free) and Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com, free) let you check whether your email appears in known data breaches. Enter your email and read the results. If it appears in multiple breaches, your data is almost certainly circulating.

2026 UI note: Have I Been Pwned now shows breach severity scores alongside each entry — a change introduced in late 2025. Some older guides still show the previous UI, which had no severity rating.

What competitors miss here: Most guides skip the “incognito window” instruction and show results that are personalized to the author’s own search history — meaning readers don’t get a true picture of what a stranger sees when they search your name. Always use incognito.

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Step 2: Remove Your Info from Google Search (20 min)

Google is the front door. Getting your data deindexed from Google makes it far harder for most people to find, even if the original site still hosts it.

2a. Set up “Results About You”

1. Go to myaccount.google.com and make sure you’re signed in.
2. Navigate to Data & Privacy → Results about you — or go directly to goo.gle/resultsaboutyou.
3. Click Get Started.
4. Enter your name, phone number, home address, and email address. You’ll also be prompted (as of February 2026) to optionally add government ID numbers you want monitored.
5. Enable notifications — Google will email you when new results matching your data appear.

Screenshot tip: Show the “Results about you” dashboard after setup, with the “To review” tab visible and one pending removal request shown.

2b. Review and request removal

1. Go to the To Review tab.
2. Click any result to see which personal details it exposes and which site it’s from.
3. Click Request to remove for any result containing your home address, phone number, email, or ID numbers.
4. Google reviews each request individually — most decisions come within a few days to two weeks.

2026 UI change: The February 2026 update added a shortcut: you can now click the three dots (⋮) next to any Google Search result directly on the results page and select “Remove result” without navigating to the dashboard. This is significantly faster than the old workflow, which required you to copy the URL, go to the dashboard, and paste it manually.

2c. What Google will and won’t remove

Google will typically remove results containing: home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, bank and credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, passport and driver’s license numbers, medical and legal records, and non-consensual explicit images.

Google will generally not remove: results from government or court records sites, news articles about you, business listings where you are the named owner, or anything it deems to be in the public interest.

Common error: “Your request was not approved”

This happens most often when the result comes from a government site (.gov), a news publication, or a court record — categories Google classifies as public-interest content. The fix is to contact the source website directly (see Step 5). Appealing Google’s decision through the same form rarely reverses the outcome.

Time estimate: Initial setup 10 min. Submitting 5–10 removal requests: another 10 min. Results come in within 24 hours to 2 weeks.

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Step 3: Opt Out of Data Brokers (1–2 hours, or 5 minutes if you’re in California)

Data brokers are the root of the problem. They harvest your data from public records, loyalty cards, social media, and court filings, then sell it to anyone willing to pay.

If you live in California: Use DROP first

California’s Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) went live January 1, 2026 and is operated by the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA). Starting August 1, 2026, every registered data broker (roughly 566 entities) is legally required to process your request within 45 days or face fines of $200 per request per day.

1. Go to privacy.ca.gov/data-brokers and follow the consumer link.
2. Verify your identity through the California Identity Gateway.
3. Submit one deletion request — it reaches every registered broker simultaneously.
4. Brokers must report back with one of four statuses: Deleted, Exempted, Pending, or Unable to Verify.

Important: DROP covers brokers registered in California, which includes most major US data brokers regardless of where they’re headquartered. It does not cover every broker everywhere. Supplement with the manual steps below for non-registered entities.

For everyone else: Manual opt-outs, starting with the Big 5

Work through these in order. They account for the majority of searches by scammers, stalkers, and advertisers.

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Whitepages

1. Search your name at whitepages.com and find your listing.
2. Copy the exact URL of your listing.
3. Go to whitepages.com/suppression-requests.
4. Paste your profile URL.
5. Enter your name and select your reason for removal.
6. Whitepages will call the phone number associated with the listing to verify. Use a Google Voice number if you don’t want to hand over your real mobile number.

Difficulty: Moderate | Time: 10 min | Processing: 24–72 hours

2026 note: Whitepages changed its phone verification system in late 2025. Older guides show an SMS verification option — that no longer exists. The call-based verification is now the only method.

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Spokeo

1. Search your name at spokeo.com to find your listing.
2. Copy the exact URL of your listing from the address bar.
3. Go to spokeo.com/optout.
4. Paste the URL and enter an email address.
5. Check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link.

Difficulty: Easy | Time: 5 min | Processing: 24–48 hours

Common error: Using the “Contact Us” form instead of the dedicated opt-out page. The contact form is for billing and technical issues — it will not remove your listing. Only the opt-out form at spokeo.com/optout triggers removal.

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BeenVerified (also covers PeopleLooker and PeopleSmart)

1. Go to the opt-out form at beenverified.com/opt-out/search.
2. Enter your name, state, and age.
3. Find your listing in the results and click Opt Out.
4. Confirm your email address.

Difficulty: Easy | Time: 5–10 min | Processing: 24 hours

Note: BeenVerified also owns PeopleLooker and PeopleSmart. One opt-out request removes you from all three.

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TruePeopleSearch

1. Go to truepeoplesearch.com/removal.
2. Enter your phone number or address to locate your record.
3. Click the listing and then Remove My Record.
4. Complete the CAPTCHA and confirm.

Difficulty: Easy | Time: 5 min | Processing: immediate to 24 hours

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FastPeopleSearch

1. Find your listing at fastpeoplesearch.com.
2. Scroll to the bottom of your listing page and click Remove My Record.
3. Complete the CAPTCHA verification.

Difficulty: Easy | Time: 3 min | Processing: immediate

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Intelius (also covers US Search, PeopleFinders under the same parent)

1. Go to intelius.com/opt-out.
2. Enter your name, state, and age.
3. Find your record and submit the opt-out request.
4. Confirm via email.

Difficulty: Moderate | Time: 10 min | Processing: 3–7 days

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MyLife (notoriously difficult)

MyLife is the worst actor in this space. Their opt-out process is deliberately obstructive, and they will often try to push you into a phone call.

1. Email [email protected] AND [email protected].
2. Subject line: “Personal Information Removal Request”
3. Body: Your full name, the exact URL of your profile, and a direct request for permanent deletion.
4. If they respond asking you to call, reply reiterating your written removal request and citing your state privacy rights (CCPA if you’re in California; GDPR Article 17 if you’re in the EU).

Difficulty: Hard | Time: 20+ min, with follow-up | Processing: 5–30 days, often requiring multiple emails

Common error: Calling MyLife to request removal. Their phone agents are trained to upsell you on a paid “reputation management” service and may not actually process your deletion. Keep everything in writing.

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Secondary brokers to hit next (5–10 min each)

Once you’ve cleared the Big 5 + Intelius + MyLife, work through these:

Broker	Opt-Out URL	Difficulty	Processing
Radaris	radaris.com/control	Moderate	1–2 weeks
PeopleFinders	peoplefinders.com/opt-out	Easy	48 hours
Instant Checkmate	instantcheckmate.com/opt-out	Easy	24–48 hours
TruthFinder	truthfinder.com/opt-out	Easy	24–48 hours
Zabasearch	zabasearch.com/remove	Moderate	3–7 days
PeekYou	peekyou.com/about/contact/optout	Moderate	1–2 weeks
Acxiom	acxiom.com/optout	Moderate	30 days

Pro tip: Use a spreadsheet to track which sites you’ve submitted to, the confirmation email or reference number, and the estimated removal date. Brokers re-list your data every 3–6 months — you’ll need these records when you do your quarterly check.

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Step 4: Lock Down or Delete Social Media (30–60 min)

Social media is both the source of a lot of broker data and a direct exposure vector in its own right.

4a. Facebook

1. Go to Settings → Privacy → Privacy Checkup.
2. Set “Who can see your future posts?” to Friends (not Public).
3. Under “How people can find and contact you,” set profile search, friend request, and contact info to Friends or Friends of Friends — not Everyone.
4. Go to Settings → Your Facebook Information → Deactivation and Deletion if you want to remove your account entirely. Choose Download your information first if you want an archive.
5. Remove your phone number, birthday, workplace, hometown, and current city from your profile — these are the fields data brokers harvest most aggressively.

4b. LinkedIn

1. Go to Settings & Privacy → Visibility → Visibility of your profile and network.
2. Set profile visibility to Connections only if you don’t need public recruitment visibility.
3. Go to Data Privacy → Personal Demographic Information and review what LinkedIn shows to advertisers.
4. Under Job Seeking Preferences, turn off “Signal your interest to recruiters” unless you’re actively searching — this flag exposes your data to a wider set of LinkedIn partners.

4c. Instagram and X (Twitter)

1. Set both accounts to Private if you’re not using them for public-facing purposes.
2. Remove your phone number and exact location from your profile bio.
3. On X, go to Settings → Privacy and Safety → Discoverability and uncheck “Let others find you by your email” and “Let others find you by your phone number.”

4d. Old accounts you no longer use

These are the most dangerous. A dormant MySpace, Tumblr, or old forum account sitting in public view with your real name and email is a gift to anyone building a profile on you.

Go to JustDeleteMe (justdeleteme.xyz) — a directory that rates how easy it is to delete accounts from hundreds of services, with direct links to each platform’s deletion page. Work through every service you no longer actively use.

Screenshot tip: Show the JustDeleteMe directory with difficulty ratings (Easy/Medium/Hard/Impossible) visible.

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Step 5: Clean Up Remaining Exposure (1–2 hours)

5a. Contact websites directly

For content that Google won’t deindex (news articles, court records aggregators, forum posts), you need to go to the source. Use the site’s contact form and request removal under applicable privacy laws:

• US (California residents): CCPA Right to Delete
• EU residents: GDPR Article 17 Right to Erasure
• For news articles: Most outlets won’t remove factually accurate published articles, but they may “deindex” them (block search engines from crawling) upon request. Some add a “right to be forgotten” note. This is a negotiation, not a guarantee.

5b. Remove yourself from Google’s Knowledge Panel (if you have one)

If you’re a minor public figure, Google may have an information panel about you in search results. Go to **google.com/search/contributions#/ ** and verify your identity to claim and manage your Knowledge Panel. You can then request suppression of specific pieces of information, though full removal is rarely possible for genuinely public figures.

5c. Set up a Google Alert

This won’t remove anything, but it ensures you know immediately when new content mentioning your name appears:

1. Go to google.com/alerts.
2. Enter "First Last" and any variants of your name.
3. Set frequency to As-it-happens or Once a day.
4. Enter your email and click Create Alert.

5d. Request removal from Bing and other search engines

Bing has its own personal data removal tool at bing.com/webmaster/tools/contentremoval. DuckDuckGo does not crawl directly but uses Bing’s index, so removing from Bing covers DuckDuckGo too.

Common Errors and Fixes

“The opt-out form says my record can’t be found”

The broker’s search tool often requires an exact match. Try variations: maiden name, old address, shortened first name. Some sites (especially Spokeo) only return results for exact full-name matches. If you find the listing via Google but not via the broker’s own search, try pasting the direct URL of the listing into the opt-out form instead of searching by name.

“I submitted a request but my listing is still showing up on Google”

This is normal. Even after a broker removes your profile, Google’s cached version of that page persists for 7–14 days. Use Google’s URL removal tool (search.google.com/search-console/remove-outdated-content) to request a cache refresh for any specific URL that’s showing stale data.

“My Whitepages removal form won’t accept my opt-out because I don’t have a US phone number”

Use Google Voice (free) to create a US phone number that forwards to your real number. Enter the Google Voice number in the Whitepages form, answer the automated verification call, and the opt-out will process normally.

“BeenVerified keeps re-listing me every few months”

This is intentional. Data brokers continuously re-scrape public records — court filings, voter rolls, property transfers — and rebuild profiles. Your opt-out doesn’t prevent new data from being re-aggregated. Set a quarterly calendar reminder to re-check the Big 5 and re-submit opt-outs. Alternatively, automate this with a paid service (see below).

“I can’t find my profile on MyLife but I know it exists”

MyLife actively hides some profiles from unregistered users. Search Google for site:mylife.com "your full name" to locate the exact URL, then use that URL in your email to their privacy team.

“Google denied my Results About You removal request”

This usually means Google determined the result is in the public interest (government site, news publication). First, verify which exact category applies by re-reading Google’s denial email. If it’s a data broker site that Google mis-categorized, resubmit with an explicit note that the content is from a commercial data broker site, not a public-interest publisher. Google reviews reconsiderations on a case-by-case basis.

When This Won’t Work

Intellectual honesty matters here. Some information cannot be removed through individual requests, no matter how persistent you are:

Court records: Arrest records, civil judgments, and bankruptcy filings are public records under US law. Court record aggregators like CourtListener and PACER publish them, and they are effectively permanent unless the underlying case is expunged by a judge — which requires a legal process, not a web form.

News articles: Factually accurate journalism about you (even embarrassing coverage) is protected speech in the US. Outlets are under no legal obligation to remove it. In some circumstances, you can request deindexing from Google under GDPR if you’re in Europe, or under California’s “right to be forgotten” provisions for individuals who were convicted as minors.

Publicly elected officials and executives: Google and most data brokers treat business addresses, professional titles, and public roles of executives, politicians, and public figures as permanently public. Your home address is still removable; your role as a city councilmember is not.

Information shared by other people: If someone else posted your address in a forum, a Facebook group, or a blog, you need to contact that person or that platform directly — not the broker or Google. DMCA takedowns cover copyrighted content, not personal data shared by third parties.

Platform data that hasn’t leaked yet: Even if you remove your Facebook profile today, the data Facebook and Meta’s advertising partners collected over the past decade remains in their systems for internal use, even if it’s no longer visible to you or external parties.

Should You Pay for an Automated Service?

For most people doing this for the first time, the manual approach outlined above is worthwhile — it forces you to understand what’s out there and costs nothing but time. But paid services are worth considering if:

• You’ve already done a manual pass and data keeps reappearing
• You’d rather pay $5–15/month than spend 4+ hours quarterly on maintenance
• Your situation is higher-risk (domestic abuse survivor, public figure, journalist)

The main services in 2026 are Incogni (covers 420+ brokers, ~$6.49/month), DeleteMe (hybrid human + automation, ~$129/year), and Optery (free scan + paid removal, starting ~$39/year for 350+ brokers).

What to Do Next

Now that you’ve cleared the most obvious exposure points, these are the logical next steps:

1. Set a quarterly calendar reminder to re-check the Big 5 data brokers and resubmit opt-outs. Most re-list data within 3–6 months.
2. Enable two-factor authentication on every account you’ve kept active — reduced data footprint means nothing if your accounts are easy to compromise. See our guide: Best Password Managers 2026.
3. Check your credit report for accounts you didn’t open — a sign someone has already used your data. AnnualCreditReport.com gives you free access to reports from all three bureaus.
4. Review our full guide to online privacy if you want to harden your browsing and app activity going forward: How to Protect Your Privacy Online in 2026.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to remove your information from the internet?

The most visible results (Google Search, Big 5 brokers) typically clear within 2–4 weeks of submitting requests. Google’s cache can persist for 7–14 days after a broker deletes a page. Some brokers like Radaris and MyLife can take 2–4 weeks. Full coverage across 100+ brokers takes 4–8 weeks if done manually, or 1–2 weeks with an automated service. Expect to repeat the process quarterly.

Is it possible to completely erase yourself from the internet?

No — not for most people in 2026. Court records, published news articles, government filings, and data that other people have posted about you cannot be unilaterally deleted. What you can do is significantly reduce your exposure: remove yourself from data brokers, deindex your information from search engines, and lock down active accounts. The goal is raising the cost and effort required for someone to build a profile on you, not achieving total invisibility.

Will removing my data affect my credit score?

No. Data broker profiles and credit bureau files are entirely separate systems. The credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) are not data brokers in the people-search sense, and opting out of people-search sites has no effect on your credit history or score.

What is California’s DROP platform and can I use it if I don’t live in California?

DROP is a free government-run deletion platform launched by California on January 1, 2026. It routes a single deletion request to every registered data broker in the state. You must be a California resident to use it. Non-residents must submit individual opt-out requests to each broker. However, since most major US data brokers are registered in California, DROP covers the vast majority of the market for California residents.

Do data brokers sell information to anyone?

Yes, with minimal restrictions. Most data brokers sell to marketers, background check services, landlords, employers, and private investigators. But the same data can be purchased by scammers, stalkers, or anyone willing to pay. The FTC banned data broker Kochava in May 2026 for selling sensitive location data — including visits to health clinics and domestic abuse shelters — but that case represents the rare enforcement action, not the rule.

My information is on a site with no opt-out option. What can I do?

First, contact the site owner directly (often reachable via WHOIS lookup) with a written removal request citing applicable privacy law. If they don’t respond within 30 days, file a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. California residents can also file with the California Privacy Protection Agency (cppa.ca.gov). For content involving non-consensual intimate images, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (cybercivilrights.org) provides a hotline and removal assistance.

How often should I repeat this process?

At minimum, quarterly. Data brokers re-scrape public records continuously, and your information will reappear within 3–6 months on most sites you’ve previously opted out of. Set a recurring calendar reminder every three months to re-check the Big 5 and resubmit opt-outs. The process gets faster each time — once you have your confirmation emails and opt-out URLs saved, a quarterly sweep takes under 30 minutes.

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Marcus Chen is Axis Intelligence’s cybersecurity and privacy editor. He has spent 11 years covering data security, online privacy, and consumer protection. This guide was verified hands-on in June 2026, including live opt-out submissions to each platform described.