# Data Broker Removal Tracker A working tracker for getting yourself out of the people-search industry, built from the companies' own filings rather than from a list somebody copied off another list. Version 1.0, 2026-08-21. Free to copy, fork and reuse. Attribution appreciated, not required. Source article: https://jwatte.com/blog/delete-yourself-from-data-brokers/ --- ## Before you start: four things that will save you a weekend **1. The brand is not the company.** The site you found yourself on almost never files under the name printed at the top of it. `truepeoplesearch.com` is Free Data Services, LLC. `mylife.com` is Insightbridge LLC. `thatsthem.com` is Spokeo. If you go looking for the brand in a regulator's database, or in your own notes six months later, you will not find it. **2. One opt-out can clear ten sites.** Mississippi Tornado Alley, LLC runs ten of these sites. Intelius runs twenty-two domains. BeenVerified runs thirteen. Work the company, not the site, and the list gets a lot shorter than it looks. **3. Removal is not permanent.** These companies rebuild their files from public records, marketing lists and each other. A record you delete in March can reappear in September through a supplier you never opted out of. That is why section 5 exists. **4. The order matters.** Going after the retail sites first is the common mistake. They are downstream. Section 4 is upstream, it is less satisfying, and it is what makes the removals stick. --- ## 1. Start here, because it may do most of the work for you **If you are a California resident, use DROP first.** California's Delete Act created a single deletion request that reaches every data broker registered with the state. Consumers have been able to submit since 1 January 2026, and brokers were required to begin processing those requests on 1 August 2026. That is one form instead of six hundred. The state's registry and the DROP entry point are at https://cppa.ca.gov/data_broker_registry/ Do this first, wait, and then work the list below for whatever DROP does not reach. It will not reach everything, for two reasons worth understanding: * **The statutory definition excludes companies you have a direct relationship with.** That is why the platforms you already have accounts with are not on the registry, and it is not an oversight. * **Some companies holding your data are simply not registered.** Checked against the 2026 registry on 21 August 2026, `radaris.com`, `clustrmaps.com` and `rehold.com` are not listed by any registrant. A one-stop deletion cannot reach a company that is not in the system. **If you are not in California**, DROP is not available to you, and you work the list by hand. Many of these companies process a deletion for anyone who asks regardless of state, because running two pipelines is more expensive than running one. Ask anyway. The worst outcome is that they say no. Three things that help if you are outside California: * **Turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser.** One setting, one minute. Eleven states legally require companies to honour a universal opt-out signal, and every site you visit gets an automatic opt-out with no form to fill in. This is the highest-value free action available to a non-Californian. * **Use Oregon's bulk opt-out file even if you do not live there.** Oregon is the only state that publishes, updated daily, every registered broker's actual opt-out URL, email, postal address and phone. Roughly 367 of its 383 brokers have a URL on file and 312 have an email. Nothing stops a non-Oregonian reading it, and it is the best free contact list in this area. * **Ask for deletion in those exact words.** Eleven states let a company satisfy a deletion request by opting you out of processing instead of deleting anything. Say deletion, and ask them to state in writing which one they performed. Two states, Utah and Iowa, limit deletion to data you supplied to the company yourself. Against a broker you have never dealt with, that right does close to nothing, and it is worth knowing before you spend an evening drafting. --- ## 2. What each row of your tracker should hold Copy this into a spreadsheet or keep it as a table in this file. The fields that matter are the last three, and they are the ones people leave out. ``` COMPANY The registered corporate name, not the brand. SITES Every domain that company operates, so you do not do this twice. OPT-OUT URL Where the request actually goes. METHOD Web form / email / postal. Note if it demands ID. SUBMITTED Date. Not "recently". CONFIRMED Date you saw the record actually gone, checked yourself. RECHECK Submitted date plus 90 days. NOTES What it asked for, and anything that went wrong. ``` **CONFIRMED is the field that makes this real.** A confirmation email is not a confirmation. Search for yourself again and look. Plenty of these sites send a cheerful "your request is complete" and leave the listing up, and the only way you find out is by looking. ### Four things about these opt-outs that are stated on the sites and almost never repeated 1. **One request often removes one record, not you.** BeenVerified's own help documentation says the online opt-out removes a single record. A maiden name, a middle initial or three old addresses can put you in several profiles, and each is its own request. Add a row per profile, not per site. 2. **"Removal" is often suppression of one search surface.** PeopleConnect states that suppression stops the background report on a NAME search while phone, address and email searches still return you. Ask for deletion, in writing, and ask them to state which one they did. 3. **Exactly one family has a real cross-brand opt-out.** Intelius, TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate and US Search all redirect to one PeopleConnect suppression portal and a single email verification covers all four. Two carve-outs: Classmates.com is a PeopleConnect brand and is explicitly excluded, and the portal names four sites while Intelius's California filing claims 22 domains, so by the portal's own text `zabasearch.com` and `addresses.com` are not covered. 4. **A plain opt-out does not need your government ID.** PeopleFinders says outright that opt-out requests do not require verification. What these sites take instead is a live contact channel: an email plus a clicked link, or an answered phone call. Use a dedicated email address, because you are handing a verified contact point to a data broker in order to leave. ### If your request is refused, send it again Denial rates for opt-out requests, self-reported by these companies to California, differ by more than a hundredfold on what is essentially the same web form: | Company | Opt-out requests | Denied | Rate | |---|---|---|---| | Intelius, LLC | 226,356 | 0 | 0.00% | | Spokeo, Inc. | 3,795,579 | 9,792 | 0.26% | | Peoplefinders, LLC | 1,031,034 | 89,434 | 8.67% | | BeenVerified, LLC | 657,801 | 111,001 | 16.87% | | Mississippi Tornado Alley, LLC | 1,204,017 | 207,021 | 17.19% | | Family Tree Now, LLC | 188,695 | 46,829 | 24.82% | | Free Data Services, LLC | 433,773 | 124,631 | 28.73% | A refusal from a company in the bottom half of that table is a policy, not a verdict on your request. Resubmit, and escalate to the regulator if it is refused twice. --- ## 3. The retail sites, grouped by who actually owns them Generated from the California data broker registry, 2026 filing, read on 21 August 2026. The opt-out column is **the URL each company filed with the regulator itself.** The reachability column is measured, not assumed: every URL was requested directly, then through two independent network paths, then in a real browser. Read "blocks every automated client" as **the page is probably fine, open it in your browser.** It is not a dead link. It means the company refuses anything that is not a person clicking. | Sites it runs | Registered company | The sites you might actually land on | Opt-out URL it filed with California | Reachable? | |---|---|---|---|---| | 22 | Intelius, LLC | `addresses.com`, `arrestrecordsearch.com`, `brbpub.com`, `callercomplaints.com`, `courtreference.com`, `criminalrecords.com`, `easybackgroundchecks.com`, `freebackgroundchecksusa.com`, `intelius.com`, `onlinesearches.com`, `peoplefind.com`, `peoplefinder.com`, plus 10 more | https://www.intelius.com/privacy-center | loads in a browser only | | 13 | BeenVerified, LLC and its subsidiaries and affiliates | `beenverified.com`, `bumper.com`, `emailfinder.com`, `famfinder.com`, `freephonetracer.com`, `moneybot5000.com`, `neighborwho.com`, `numberguru.com`, `ownerly.com`, `peoplelooker.com`, `peoplesmart.com`, `reversephone.com`, plus 1 more | https://www.beenverified.com/svc/optout/search/comprehensive_optouts | blocks every automated client | | 13 | InfoPay, Inc | `courtcasefinder.com`, `courtrecords.us`, `entitycheck.com`, `goodcar.com`, `idstrong.com`, `infopay.com`, `infotracer.com`, `propertychecker.com`, `recordsfinder.com`, `sentinex.org`, `statecourts.org`, `staterecords.org`, plus 1 more | https://www.infopay.com/privacy | loads | | 10 | Mississippi Tornado Alley, LLC | `advancedbackgroundchecks.com`, `cyberbackgroundchecks.com`, `fastbackgroundcheck.com`, `fastpeoplesearch.com`, `peoplesearchnow.com`, `phonebooks.com`, `searchpeoplefree.com`, `smartbackgroundchecks.com`, `usa-people-search.com`, `usphonebook.com` | https://www.advancedbackgroundchecks.com/privacy | loads (blocks some clients) | | 8 | TruthFinder, LLC | `backgroundchecks.us`, `courthousedirectory.us`, `courtlocations.com`, `getfullreport.com`, `locaterecord.net`, `recordlocator.net`, `truthfinder.com`, `unitedstatesbackgroundchecks.com` | https://www.truthfinder.com/privacy-center/ | loads in a browser only | | 6 | Spokeo, Inc. | `anywho.com`, `family.me`, `freepeopledirectory.com`, `peoplewin.com`, `spokeo.com`, `thatsthem.com` | https://www.spokeo.com/privacy-policy | loads | | 4 | Instant Checkmate LLC | `cellphonedirectory.com`, `cheaterslie.com`, `freepeople-search.com`, `instantcheckmate.com` | https://www.instantcheckmate.com/privacy-center | loads in a browser only | | 4 | Private Records LLC | `backgroundcheckers.net`, `peoplesearch123.com`, `personsearchers.com`, `privaterecords.net` | https://www.privaterecords.net | loads | | 4 | Truth Now LLC | `checksecrets.com`, `inmatesearcher.com`, `peoplesearchusa.org`, `sealedrecords.net` | https://checksecrets.com | loads | | 3 | Enformion, LLC | `enformion.com`, `go.enformion.com`, `tracers.com` | https://www.enformion.com/privacy-policy/ | loads | | 3 | Infomatics LLC | `mugshotlook.com`, `privatereports.com`, `publicsearcher.com` | https://privatereports.com | loads | | 3 | Intermedia Ventures, LLC | `californiacourtrecords.us`, `courtrecords.us`, `staterecords.org` | https://staterecords.org/optout | loads | | 2 | Digital Safety Products, LLC | `publicrecordreports.com`, `spyfly.com` | https://www.spyfly.com/help-center/privacy | loads in a browser only | | 2 | Globicom Inc | `peoplepublicrecords.org`, `recordsfinder.com` | https://recordsfinder.com/optout/ | loads | | 2 | Peoplefinders, LLC | `findaneighborhood.com`, `peoplefinders.com` | https://www.peoplefinders.com/about/privacy | loads | | 2 | Scalable Commerce LLC | `kidslivesafe.com`, `quickpublicrecords.com` | https://www.kidslivesafe.com/help-center/privacy | loads | | 2 | The People Searchers LLC | `peoplesearcher.com`, `secretinfo.org` | http://peopesearcher.cm | DOES NOT RESOLVE | | 2 | We Inform LLC | `truthrecord.org`, `weinform.org` | https://www.weinform.org | loads | | 1 | CHECKPEOPLE, LLC | `checkpeople.com` | https://checkpeople.com/privacy-rights | loads | | 1 | Civil Data Research, LLC | `searchpublicrecords.com` | https://www.searchpublicrecords.com/help-center/privacy | loads | | 1 | Family Tree Now, LLC | `familytreenow.com` | https://www.familytreenow.com/privacy | blocks every automated client | | 1 | Free Data Services, LLC | `truepeoplesearch.com` | https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/privacy | blocks every automated client | | 1 | FREEPEOPLESEARCH.COM, LLC | `freepeoplesearch.com` | https://freepeoplesearch.com/privacy-rights/ | blocks every automated client | | 1 | Information Data Resources, LLC | `publicinfoservices.com` | https://www.publicinfoservices.com/help-center/privacy | loads | | 1 | National Data Analytics, LLC | `publicdatacheck.com` | https://publicdatacheck.com | loads | | 1 | NumLookup LLC. | `numlookup.com` | https://www.numlookup.com/privacy-policy | loads | | 1 | Nuwber Inc | `nuwber.com` | https://nuwber.com/policy | loads in a browser only | | 1 | People Data Labs | `peopledatalabs.com` | https://privacy.peopledatalabs.com/policies?name=privacy-policy | loads | | 1 | PeoplefindersDaaS | `peoplefindersdaas.com` | https://www.peoplefindersdaas.com | DOES NOT RESOLVE | | 1 | Peoplewhiz, Inc | `peoplewhiz.com` | https://www.peoplewhiz.com | loads in a browser only | | 1 | PublicRecordCom, LLC | `publicrecord.com` | https://publicrecord.com/privacy-rights/ | loads | | 1 | Spy Labs AdCo, LLC | `spydialer.com` | https://spydialer.com/privacy.aspx | loads | | 1 | Truthed, Inc | `truthed.com` | https://www.truthed.com/optout | loads in a browser only | | 1 | UNMASK, LLC | `unmask.com` | https://unmask.com/privacy-rights/ | blocks every automated client | | 1 | USPeopleSearch.com, LLC | `uspeoplesearch.com` | https://uspeoplesearch.com/privacy-rights/ | blocks every automated client | | 1 | Whitepages, Inc | `whitepages.com` | https://www.whitepages.com/privacy | loads (blocks some clients) | ### Three filed opt-out addresses that do not exist Verified by DNS lookup on 21 August 2026, against a public resolver. In each case the domain returns NXDOMAIN while the company's real domain, one character away, resolves normally. | Registered company | The opt-out URL it filed | The domain that actually exists | |---|---|---| | The People Searchers LLC | `http://peopesearcher.cm` | `peoplesearcher.com` | | Predactiv | `https://www.predactiv.cm` | `predactiv.com` | | R.L. Polk & Co. | `https://www.mobiityglobal.com` | `mobilityglobal.com` | If one of these is holding your data, the address the company gave its regulator will not get you to a form. Go to the working domain and look for the privacy or do-not-sell link in the footer. ### Sites that were up when this was written and may not be when you read it Checked 21 August 2026: `clustrmaps.com`, `rehold.com`, `officialusa.com` and `idtrue.com` were all failing to serve. Some of that is temporary and some of it is a business closing. Two useful consequences. A site that is down is not a site that has deleted you, so keep the row and recheck it. And a broker that vanishes does not necessarily take its data with it; the records were usually licensed from somebody upstream who is still trading. One that deserves its own line: **CocoFinder's removal page loads fine and routes its only removal path to a Google Form that Google has taken down.** A data broker outsourced its deletion pipeline to a free form and did not notice when it died. If you meet a removal path that dead-ends like that, screenshot it, because it is the strongest possible exhibit in a regulator complaint. ### Companies that are not registered anywhere you can reach them `radaris.com`, `voterrecords.com`, `officialusa.com`, `idtrue.com`, `veripages.com`, `cocofinder.com`, `clustrmaps.com` and `rehold.com` appear in no state registry checked here. Radaris in particular names no legal entity and gives no postal address, and tells visitors that federal law does not require deletion of publicly available information. That is true as far as it goes and misleading by omission, because California's Delete Act reaches exactly that data and Radaris has not registered under it. Failure to register carries $200 per day. For these, the route is a direct request to whatever contact the site offers, and a complaint to your state Attorney General if it goes nowhere. --- ## 4. Upstream, where removal actually sticks The retail sites buy from a smaller set of wholesalers. Clear the retail sites and leave the wholesalers alone, and you are pulling weeds without touching the roots. Two distinctions to get right before you spend an afternoon here, because almost every guide blurs them: **Suppression is not deletion.** Most large marketing data companies offer to stop *using* your record for marketing. The record stays. That is still worth doing, and it is not what you think you asked for. **FCRA data is a separate system with better rights.** Where a company is acting as a consumer reporting agency, you have federal rights: a free file disclosure, a right to dispute, and the ability to freeze. Those rights are stronger than any opt-out, and they only apply to that slice of the company. In the 2026 California registry, 17 of 603 registrants disclosed that they or a subsidiary are regulated by the FCRA. | Wholesaler | What to ask for | Notes | |---|---|---| | Acxiom | Marketing suppression and access request | One of the oldest and widest marketing files | | LexisNexis Risk Solutions | Both the consumer opt-out AND the FCRA file disclosure | Two separate processes, do both | | Thomson Reuters CLEAR | Opt-out request | Sold to investigators and government, not to the public | | Epsilon | Marketing suppression | | | Experian Marketing Services | Marketing suppression, separate from your credit file | Not the same as your credit report | | Equifax | Credit file is separate from The Work Number payroll file | Ask about both | | TransUnion | Registered many times under subsidiary names | Neustar and iovation are in this family | | LiveRamp | Identity-graph opt-out | Ties your identifiers together across companies | | Infutor, trading as Lead Intelligence Inc. | Suppression | The corporate name is the one on file | | AtData | Suppression | Email-centric | Three of these have a ceiling much lower than people assume, so set expectations before you spend the afternoon: * **The Work Number** (Equifax payroll data) offers exactly four actions: view, freeze, dispute, and issue a salary key. **There is no deletion**, and no way to tell an employer to stop reporting. Freeze it and move on. * **Thomson Reuters CLEAR** does not take suppression requests from the general public. It is limited to judges, public officials and law enforcement. * **LexisNexis** runs the strongest suppression on this list and asks for the most: its opt-out form collects a full Social Security number and a document upload. That is the trade, and it is worth knowing before you start rather than halfway through. Two names changed recently enough that older guides send you to the wrong company: **CoreLogic now trades as Cotality**, and **Infutor is InfutorData, under ActiveProspect**. Also worth doing once, because they are cheap and they reduce the inflow: * **Prescreened credit and insurance offers.** https://www.optoutprescreen.com is the official joint site, and it covers **four** consumer reporting companies, not three: Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and **Innovis**, the one almost nobody names. It asks for name, address, and optionally date of birth and Social Security number. Five years can be completed online; the permanent option requires printing and mailing a signed form. * **Direct mail.** DMAchoice, run by the Association of National Advertisers, now costs **$8 online or $9 by post for a ten-year registration**, and requires creating an account. The FTC's own consumer page still quotes the old $6 and $7. It does **not** cover transactional mail, prescreened credit offers, political mail, or anything addressed to "current resident". * **Do not let a mail-forwarding order do your updating for you.** Only PERMANENT change-of-address filings feed the postal service's licensed address-update dataset, and a mailer can only receive your new address if it already holds your name and old address. Filing a temporary change instead, where that fits your situation, keeps you out of it. --- ## 4a. The vehicle stream, which none of the above reaches Driving behaviour is a separate pipeline with separate companies, and it produces a higher insurance premium rather than a search result. Run this list as well as the one above, not instead of it. **Do the disclosure requests BEFORE the deletion requests.** Once the record is gone you lose the ability to see what was in it and, more importantly, who received it. That recipient list is how you learn which downstream company to chase next. | Step | Company | What you are asking for | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | LexisNexis Risk Solutions | Consumer disclosure, then read the Telematics section | Free. Registered in California twice, as LexisNexis Risk Solutions FL Inc. and RELX Inc. Both disclose selling to the federal government and to law enforcement outside a subpoena | | 2 | Verisk | Your DriverFacts report | **Not in the 2026 California registry, so a DROP request does not reach it.** Phone request | | 3 | LexisNexis | Your CLUE report | Shows what has already reached insurers | | 4 | Your automaker | Deletion and do-not-sell, citing your state law | The automaker is usually NOT a registered data broker, see below | | 5 | Your vehicle | What your specific year and trim collects | Do this first if you are unsure whether any of it applies to you | ### Why the automaker is not on the registry California defines a data broker as a business that sells personal information about a consumer **with whom it does not have a direct relationship.** You bought the car and accepted the connected-services terms, so the automaker has a direct relationship with you and falls outside the definition. The company it sold your data to may be inside it. That is the whole asymmetry: a one-request deletion can reach the buyer and never the source. Checked against the 2026 registry on 21 August 2026, these vehicle-data names do **not** appear: Verisk, Insurance Services Office, Mobilisights, Stellantis, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, CARFAX, Otonomo, Arity, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, INRIX, and the Solera, CCC and Mitchell group. These do appear: LexisNexis Risk Solutions FL Inc., RELX Inc., **General Motors LLC** (which discloses collecting precise geolocation), **Cox Automotive, Inc.** (Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book, also disclosing precise geolocation), and **R.L. Polk & Co.**, the vehicle registration data business, whose filed consumer-rights URL is one of the three that does not resolve. The full background, with the congressional findings and the premium-increase reporting, is at https://jwatte.com/blog/blog-vehicle-data-privacy-2026/ --- ## 5. The recheck loop, which is the part people skip Removal decays. Build the loop once and it costs you twenty minutes a quarter. ``` EVERY 90 DAYS [ ] Search your own name plus your city in a private browser window. [ ] Search your phone number. Then your email. Then a previous address. [ ] Any new listing goes into the tracker as a fresh row, not as a note on an old one. [ ] Re-submit anything that came back, and record that it came back. [ ] Run check-optout-links.mjs against this file so dead links get caught. EVERY 12 MONTHS [ ] Re-run the upstream list in section 4. Suppression flags expire at several companies. [ ] Re-run optoutprescreen if you used the five-year option. [ ] Re-read your own notes column. Patterns show up there that you will not remember. AFTER ANY OF THESE LIFE EVENTS, EXPECT A WAVE OF NEW LISTINGS [ ] Moving house [ ] Buying or selling property [ ] Getting married or divorced [ ] Registering to vote, or re-registering [ ] Any court filing, including a traffic matter ``` The property and court items are the ones that surprise people. Those records are public by design, the brokers ingest them in bulk, and no opt-out you filed last year prevents the next ingest. --- ## 6. What to do when a site will not cooperate In rough order of escalation, and stop as soon as one works. 1. **Try the browser, not the tool.** Many of these opt-out pages refuse automated clients entirely. A normal browser session usually just works. 2. **Find the privacy contact in the site's own policy.** Registered brokers must publish one. Email it, in writing, and keep the thread. 3. **Cite the specific right.** If you are in a state with a privacy law, name it. A request that cites a statute gets routed differently from one that does not. 4. **Complain to the regulator.** In California that is the state privacy agency. In other states it is usually the Attorney General. A registered broker that ignores a lawful deletion request is a regulatory problem, and the complaint costs you ten minutes. 5. **Check whether they are registered at all.** If they are not, a state complaint may still be the right move, because registration itself is usually the obligation being missed. Keep every request and every reply. If it ever matters, the paper trail is the whole case. --- ## 7. If you are at elevated risk, start somewhere else This tracker is written for ordinary privacy. If you are dealing with a stalker, an abusive former partner, or you are a judge, prosecutor or law enforcement officer, the general advice here is too slow and too public a process to lead with. Look instead for your state's **Address Confidentiality Program**, often called Safe at Home. These give you a substitute legal address, and they are designed for exactly this. Several states also have laws that let specified officials demand rapid removal from these sites with penalties attached. Start with the program, then come back to this list. Do not treat that paragraph as legal advice. It is a pointer to a better starting place. --- Companion files at https://jwatte.com/downloads/ * `check-optout-links.mjs` : run this against this file monthly, it finds the dead links * `data-removal-agent-kit.md` : running the whole thing as a small agent fleet * `reputation-and-reviews-kit.md` : the business-facing version, reviews and reputation Written by J.A. Watte. https://jwatte.com