How to Opt Out of Data Brokers That Sell Your Info

To opt out of data brokers, you visit each broker's website one at a time, find their opt-out or "suppress my record" page, submit your name and address, and confirm by email. It is free, it works, and it is tedious — most people have records on dozens of these sites, and the records come back every few months. Below is the plain-English way to do it yourself, and the faster way we offer through the Getshure app's data broker removal feature.

We are Getshure, a small American publisher and protection service based in Coral Springs, Florida. We work on privacy problems like this every day. This guide gives you the free manual method first, then shows you where a protection plan saves you hours.

What a data broker actually is

A data broker is a company that collects personal information about you from public records, store loyalty cards, app permissions, warranty cards, social media and other sources — then sells or shows that information to anyone who looks you up. The most visible ones are "people search" sites. Type your own name into a search engine and you will usually see them: pages that list your age, current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and sometimes your estimated income.

There are two groups to think about:

• People-search sites that show your record to the public for free or for a small fee. These are the ones your neighbors, exes, scammers and recruiters can see.
• Background data brokers that sell to marketers, debt collectors, insurers and other companies behind the scenes. You never see their site, but your data is in it.

Both matter. People-search sites feed scammers who want to impersonate a family member or craft a convincing phishing message. Background brokers feed the spam calls and junk mail.

Why it is worth the effort

When your home address, cell number and relatives' names are one click away, three things get easier for a scammer:

• A "grandparent scam" caller can name your actual grandchild and the city they live in.
• A fake bank or toll text looks more real because the sender knows a real address linked to you.
• An identity thief has more pieces to answer a security question like "which of these streets have you lived on?"

Taking your record down doesn't make you invisible, but it raises the cost of targeting you. Most low-effort scams move on to easier names.

How to opt out of data brokers by hand

Here is the method that works for any broker. Set aside a quiet hour and a cup of coffee.

1. Make a dedicated email address for opt-outs. Most brokers require you to confirm by email, and some will keep your address in their system. Use a free mail account you only use for this.
2. Search your own name in a search engine, in quotes, with your city: "Jane A. Smith" Dayton Ohio. Write down every people-search site that shows up on the first three pages.
3. Open each site and find your profile. Click into the listing that matches your age, address and relatives. Copy the exact URL of your profile — many opt-out forms ask for it.
4. Find the opt-out page. Scroll to the footer. Look for links named "Opt Out," "Do Not Sell My Info," "Remove My Info," "Suppress Record," or "Privacy." Under California and a growing number of state privacy laws, most brokers are required to offer one.
5. Submit the form. You will usually paste the profile URL, enter your name and email, and solve a captcha.
6. Confirm by email. Open the confirmation link within an hour or two — some expire fast.
7. Wait, then check again. Removals usually take 7 to 45 days. Search your name again a month later. If the record is still there, re-submit.
8. Re-check every 3 to 6 months. Brokers refresh their databases from public records. Your record will come back. Opting out is not one-and-done.

The big brokers to start with

You will get the most benefit from hitting the largest people-search networks first, because many smaller sites buy their data from the big ones. Search for these by name and follow their published opt-out instructions:

• Spokeo
• Whitepages
• BeenVerified
• Intelius
• PeopleFinders
• MyLife
• Radaris
• TruePeopleSearch
• FastPeopleSearch
• PeekYou

There are hundreds more. A thorough manual pass across the top brokers takes most people 8 to 15 hours.

Special cases: credit header data and marketing lists

Some brokers pull your information from credit header data (the top part of your credit file — name, address, phone). You can reduce this flow in two ways:

1. Freeze your credit at each bureau. This is free and it is the single best anti-fraud step. See our credit freeze guide, and go directly to equifax.com, experian.com and transunion.com.
2. Opt out of pre-screened credit offers by searching for "opt out prescreen" (operated jointly by the credit bureaus). You can opt out for five years or permanently.

For direct mail and marketing data, search for the Direct Marketing Association's "DMAchoice" program and submit your name there.

What to do while you wait for removals

Opt-outs take weeks. In the meantime:

• Register your numbers at donotcall.gov.
• Turn on your phone's built-in spam filter. Our spam call guide walks through the settings.
• Stop handing your real phone number to store loyalty programs and warranty cards. Use the dedicated email address you created above.
• Lock down app permissions — many apps quietly ship your contacts and location to data brokers. See how to check app permissions.

The easier way: data broker removal in the Getshure app

The honest truth about manual opt-outs is that they work, but they are a part-time job. You submit the form, you confirm the email, you wait, you check, you re-submit when the record comes back, and you repeat for the next broker. For one site, that is fine. For fifty sites, four times a year, it becomes the kind of task people start and never finish.

That is why every Getshure protection plan includes data broker removal in the Getshure app. You give us your name, address and a few other details once. The app then sends removal and opt-out requests to people-search and data broker sites on your behalf, and it keeps sending fresh requests over time as your record reappears. You can see which sites have been contacted and which have confirmed removal from inside the app.

Two honest limits to know:

• Each broker decides if and when it removes a record. No service — ours included — can force a removal. What we can do is submit the request correctly, keep the paperwork, and re-submit when your record comes back.
• Data broker removal does not erase information from Google searches, social media you control, or court records. For those, you have to adjust your own accounts.

The app also includes other tools that pair well with broker removal: a breach check that shows whether your email or passwords have appeared in known data breaches, Photo Guard reverse-image search to find where your photos appear online, and Scam Shield to flag likely scam callers who got your number before you took it down. Learn more in what the Getshure app does, or on Android, install it directly from Google Play. On iPhone, use the download link in your Getshure order email after you choose a plan. Protection is active once you sign in with the same email you used on your order — see how to activate the app.

Protection plans are a one-time payment — $9.99, $29.99 or $79.99 depending on which plan you choose at checkout. Nothing renews. If you decide it isn't for you, we have a 30-day money-back guarantee with one-step cancel and no phone maze.

Read the full playbook: "Don't Get Screwed by AI"

If you want the complete picture — how your data ends up with brokers, which scams use it, and the exact scripts to shut down an attack — our plain-English hardcover Don't Get Screwed by AI walks through it all at a kitchen-table pace. It is $29, sometimes offered as a free print where you cover shipping, and US orders of $40+ ship free. It is written for ordinary adults and parents, not tech people. Keep it on the shelf next to the phone.

Your opt-out checklist

• Make a dedicated opt-out email address.
• Search your own name and list the brokers that show up.
• Submit opt-out forms on the top ten people-search sites.
• Freeze your credit at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
• Opt out of prescreened credit offers and DMAchoice.
• Register at donotcall.gov and turn on your phone's spam filter.
• Set a calendar reminder to re-check every 3 months — or let the Getshure app handle the re-submissions.

Your next step with Getshure

You have three ways to go from here:

1. Do it yourself. Use the manual steps above. It is free and it works if you have the time.
2. Get the app doing the work. Choose a Getshure protection plan and let data broker removal, breach check and Scam Shield run in the background.
3. Ask us first. Call (754) 812-1679 Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM Eastern, or email contact@getshure.com. We will tell you plainly which plan fits, or whether you don't need one at all.

You can verify us before you buy: MetaWise Enterprises, LLC (Delaware file number 10336625), 11772 W Sample Rd, Ste 103, Ofc 240, Coral Springs, FL 33065. Written refund policy, written terms, and a published phone number. That is the kind of company we want to be — and the kind we think you should keep your data with.