How to remove yourself from data broker sites

Data brokers collect your personal details, such as your name, home address, phone number, email, age and relatives, and sell them. People-search websites show this to anyone who types in your name. Removing yourself takes an afternoon, and it makes you much harder to find, scam or stalk.

Use our free Data Broker Removal Checklist as you go: it remembers your progress and writes the request letters for you.

Before you start: use a private email and phone number

Opt-out forms ask for an email address, and sometimes a phone number, to confirm your request. Do not use your main ones, or you give the broker new details about you.

• Make a separate email address for this. See how to get private email without a phone number.
• If a site insists on a phone number, use a private number rather than your own.

Step 1: Find out what is out there

1. Search your full name in quotes, with your town, for example "Jane Smith" Darwin, on a few search engines.
2. Search your phone number and your email address.
3. Write down every people-search site that shows your details.
4. On Google, use Results about you in your Google account to ask Google to remove results showing your phone number, address or email.

Step 2: Opt out of each site

Each site has an opt-out or "Do Not Sell My Info" link, usually at the very bottom of the page.

1. Search the site for your listing and copy its web address.
2. Open the opt-out page and paste the address of your listing.
3. Confirm with the email you made for this.
4. Tick it off in the checklist.

Some sites show a "premium" removal service. You never need to pay: removal is free by law in many places.

Step 3: Send formal requests where the law helps you

• In the EU and UK (GDPR): you can demand that a company deletes your data. They must answer within one month.
• In California and some other US states: you can ask companies to delete your data and not to sell it.
• In Australia (Privacy Act): you can ask a company what it holds about you and ask it to correct it, and you can complain to the OAIC if it does not answer.

The checklist writes these letters for you. Send them from your private email.

Step 4 (Australia): public registers and court lists

• ABN Lookup shows a sole trader's name, business names and postcode. You can ask the Australian Business Register not to show them (form NAT 75641) if your safety is at risk or in exceptional circumstances. Include evidence, such as a statutory declaration.
• ASIC: since February 2026, ASIC no longer shows directors' home addresses on company extracts on its website, but they can still appear in documents people buy. To hide your address completely, apply to suppress it (form 379). If you are on the electoral roll, first become a silent elector with the AEC. Hiding it on the companies register does not hide it on the business names register.
• Your home and the land titles register: anyone can search who owns a property. Some states let you hide your name if your safety is at risk:
  • NSW: write to the Office of the Registrar General's Privacy Coordinator (org.privacy@customerservice.nsw.gov.au) and explain the risk.
  • WA: Landgate name suppression. It is free, and silent elector status or a restraining order can be evidence.
  • SA: Land Services SA name search suppression (free).
  • ACT: Access Canberra's application for name suppression (form 050 NS).
  • QLD: the Valuer-General can hide owner details in the valuation roll.
  • VIC: not possible at the moment. The law does not allow it.
  • NT and TAS: ask the Land Titles Office.
• Property data companies such as Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) collect title and sales records. Email their Privacy Officer (AU-Privacy@Cotality.com) to ask what they hold and to be taken off their marketing databases.
• Court list websites (such as CourtData.io) republish court lists. Search your name and ask for removal, especially if a matter was withdrawn or dismissed. For CourtInfo.io, email Legal@Courtinfo.io. If a court made a suppression or non-publication order, include a copy: sites must not publish what it covers.
• Australian people-search sites such as id4me.biz: search your name and ask for removal.

Step 5: Stop new data from spreading

• Give shops and apps a private email address and a private phone number.
• Use a PO box or parcel locker instead of your home address where you can.
• Pay with crypto or prepaid cards where possible.
• Remove location data from photos before posting them, with the Photo Cleaner.

Step 6: Check again every few months

Data brokers re-collect data. Set a reminder to search yourself again every 3 to 6 months, and opt out again where your details come back.