Remove your info from the internet.

Quick answer. You can remove much of your information from the internet, and most of the work is free. People-search listings, Google results that show your home address or phone number, old accounts and marketing lists can be cleared or cut back. Court, property and voter records, news stories and data from breaches generally can’t be removed. Work in this order: see what a stranger finds under your name, opt out of the sites that publish your address and phone number, ask Google to drop the results that remain, use your state’s privacy rights, then recheck every few months.

Recordwell is itself a people-search service, and removing your Recordwell listing is free. Step-by-step opt-outs for the big sites are in the guide to removing your info from people-search sites; this page is the plan around them.

What you can get off the internet, and what stays

Each layer has its own way out, and some have none.

Hiding isn’t deleting. Google says that removing a result from its search doesn’t mean the information is gone from the internet, and an opt-out clears only the site you sent it to. Clear the copies first, then ask Google to drop what still shows.

If a court, property or voter record is wrong, fix it where it’s kept: the court clerk for a case, the county recorder for a deed and the local election office for voter registration. What information is public record explains what’s open.

People-search sites and data brokers: opt out site by site

The FTC’s guide to people-search sites says they buy data from other brokers, take it from public social media profiles and records such as property and voter files, and sell reports to anyone who pays. You can opt out yourself, site by site, for free, but your details can reappear when your records change and can still show up in a relative’s or neighbor’s report.

Where the big opt-outs start

Start with the sites that show your current address and phone number; each row sums up the company’s own opt-out page.

What to share, and what not to

Give each form only what it needs to find your listing, usually its web address, your name, your state and an email for the confirmation link. Don’t send an ID document or your Social Security number to a site you can’t verify. The prescreen opt-out the FTC names does ask for your Social Security number and date of birth; the FTC says that information stays confidential. In August 2026, CalPrivacy, California’s privacy agency, fined a data broker partly for requiring part of a Social Security number before Californians could opt out, saying that could intimidate people out of using their rights.

Data brokers you never see

Many brokers never publish a profile you could find; CalPrivacy defines a data broker as a business that gathers and sells consumer information the consumer didn’t give it directly. California’s data broker registry, open to anyone, lists the registered ones, and residents can reach them all through DROP. Elsewhere, check your attorney general’s site for your state’s deletion rights.

California’s Delete Act and DROP

The Delete Act, a 2023 California law, created DROP, the Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, run by CalPrivacy: one request tells data brokers registered in California to delete your personal information and not sell it. The essentials, from CalPrivacy’s pages as of October 2026:

• Who can use it: California residents, verified through the California Identity Gateway; you can file for someone else with their permission, such as a parent for a child.
• Cost: free; the state says it will never charge for DROP.
• What you enter: at least your name, date of birth and ZIP code; past names, emails and phone numbers help brokers match you, and you can add more later.
• What it reaches: every data broker active in DROP, now and in future, unless you narrow the request.
• Timing: since August 1, 2026, registered brokers must access DROP at least once every 45 days to process deletion requests, and keep deleting new matching data on that cycle; status updates can take up to 90 days to appear.
• What it doesn’t cover: information you gave a business directly; records such as vehicle or real estate ownership and voting records; and data covered by other laws, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, HIPAA and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

DROP doesn’t reach Google results, sites that aren’t data brokers, such as news sites and social networks, or companies that never registered.

How to remove your address from the internet

Your address spreads through people-search listings, search results and records such as deeds. Work in this order:

1. Find the results. Add your address in Results about you and turn on notifications; Google flags results that show it and lets you request their removal from Search.
2. Opt out of the listings behind them, starting with the sites above.
3. File with DROP if you live in California. It asks for ZIP codes rather than street addresses, and you can add every one you’ve lived in.
4. Blur your home in Street View with “Report a problem” in Google Maps. Google’s blurring guide says only a homeowner or tenant can ask, with proof of address, and that the blur is permanent.
5. Protect the records if you’re at risk. Deeds, property tax files and voter records generally can’t be removed, but some states run address confidentiality programs. California’s Safe at Home gives survivors of domestic violence, stalking, sexual assault and human trafficking, among others, a substitute mailing address and confidential voter registration. Under New Jersey’s Daniel’s Law, covered people, such as active and retired judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers and their immediate families, can tell a business in writing to stop disclosing their home address.
6. Give it out less. Use a P.O. box or a mail-receiving address where a street address isn’t required.

A Recordwell report can list places connected to a name over time; the free removal form takes yours out.

How to remove your phone number from the internet

1. Ask Google. Results about you also flags results that show your phone number, and Google’s policy on private information covers more, such as Social Security and bank account numbers.
2. Opt out of the people-search listings that show it, as for your address.
3. Clean up your own profiles. Remove the number from public fields and bios, and turn off find-me-by-phone settings where a platform has them.
4. Use a second number for sign-ups, marketplace listings and loyalty programs.
5. Register with the Do Not Call Registry, for calls. The FTC’s registry FAQ says registering is free, never expires and stops sales calls from real companies that follow the law, but not illegal calls from scammers. It doesn’t take your number off any website.

Recordwell reports don’t include phone numbers or email addresses, so there’s no number to take off a Recordwell report.

Doing it yourself vs a personal data removal service

A personal data removal service files opt-outs for you and repeats them on a schedule. The FTC frames the choice simply: opt out on your own, one site at a time, for free, or pay a service to do it. What follows about named services comes from each company’s own pages as of October 2026.

What to check before you pay

The FTC suggests asking how many websites a service covers, whether it reports which sites it opted you out of, and how often it scans them and deletes information that reappears. Also check:

• Which sites your plan includes. DeleteMe’s “Sites We Remove From” page, for example, marks which sites each plan covers and which need custom requests.
• The recheck schedule. Kanary’s pricing page lists monthly scans on one plan and weekly on another.
• What you authorize, and what proof you get. Read the authorization before you sign. Optery says its reports include screenshots of where it found and removed your profiles.
• How to cancel. DeleteMe’s help center says turning off renewal stops billing at the end of your term without ending the current service.

Whether a service is worth it

A service mostly sells time and persistence, which helps if your details keep returning or you don’t have the hours. When Consumer Reports tested seven paid services against 13 people-search sites in 2024, it found manual opt-outs more effective and faster, and every participant’s information still appeared on some of those sites four months later. Services may have changed since; treat it as a reason to ask for proof.

Looking for a DeleteMe alternative

The free alternative to DeleteMe is doing it yourself, plus DROP in California. Paid services you’ll also see include Incogni, Optery and Kanary; compare them on the points above rather than on headline site counts. Optery, for one, has a free tier with a scan and links to self-service opt-out pages, while removals on your behalf need a paid plan.

Removing yourself from Recordwell

Taking your listing out of Recordwell is free at any time. The removal form needs no account and ends without an upsell.

• What it asks for: your full name as it appears in results, the state or region of the listing, an email address, and a box confirming the data is yours or a minor’s whose parent or legal guardian you are.
• What you can request: removal, access, correction, restricted processing during review, or do not sell or share.
• How it’s confirmed: removal, access, correction and restriction requests by a link sent to your email; a do-not-sell-or-share request is recorded as soon as you submit it. No Social Security number or ID document is needed.
• What it does: after a confirmed removal, the matched identity is blocked from Recordwell results and suppressed in later updates. To keep it out, Recordwell retains suppression keys derived from the name and email you submitted, plus a limited record of the request.
• What it doesn’t do: remove copies on other sites or clear Google results.

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, Recordwell honors it for that browser by keeping optional analytics and advertising storage off. You can also email support@recordwell.ai; if New Jersey’s Daniel’s Law covers you, use the separate Daniel’s Law notice form, and see the privacy policy for your other choices.

To see what a Recordwell report shows about you first, search your own name: nobody is notified. A report organizes lawfully available records and open web information found under a name, such as places connected to it over time, matters filed publicly, business registrations, professional licenses and publicly visible profiles, with namesakes kept apart. A missing entry isn’t proof that nothing exists elsewhere.

Remove my Recordwell listing

Your removal routine

• Set up a separate email address for opt-outs.
• Search your name while signed out, with and without your city, and save the links.
• Run a Recordwell self-check, and remove your listing if you want it gone.
• Opt out of the big people-search sites, then the smaller ones that show your address or phone number.
• Request removal of Google results with your contact details through Results about you.
• In California, file one DROP request with every name, email, phone number and ZIP code you’ve used.
• Opt out of prescreened credit and insurance offers.
• Delete or lock down old accounts after saving what you want.
• Change passwords exposed in breaches and turn on multi-factor authentication.
• Log each request: the site, the date, the listing’s link and the result.

Keeping it off

Search your name again every few months and after a move, a home purchase or a new phone number, since fresh records and new contact details can put you back on people-search sites. Keep Results about you notifications on, and don’t count a request as done until you’ve checked that the page is gone.

Californians can add a new ZIP code, email or phone number to their DROP profile, and registered brokers keep processing on the 45-day cycle. For a wider sweep, the guide to checking your digital footprint covers old accounts and usernames, and the guide to protecting your personal information online covers passwords and credit freezes.