Seeing all of your personal information available on people search websites is scary. Follow these steps on deleting yourself from WhitePages and eliminating your personal info!
People search websites are one of the most invasive parts of the internet. Whether you have heard of the concept or not, it’s likely you have seen them pop up in the results of any search engine query of a name. That’s why you may want to know how to remove yourself from WhitePages.
If you ever searched your own name, it’s more than likely you have seen the results of people search websites. It may have even scared you how much of your information is out there including your name, age and most likely your home address.
People search websites gather their information by scraping public databases to put together profiles on nearly everyone. Whitepages alone includes cell phone numbers and more for over 275 million people nationwide!
Fortunately, it’s not impossible to remove yourself from people search websites, but it does take a serious amount of time and dedication to go one by one to remove them all.
The problem is, there are dozens if not hundreds of people search websites that all do, more or less, the same thing. To truly remove yourself, you need to do so with every site.
(Shameless plug alert! Privacy Bee’s premium privacy protection can handle this opt-out process so you can do other things).
If you want to go at it alone, follow our guide on how to remove yourself from people search websites.
What is Whitepages.com?
Whitepages is probably the most well-known people search website. The data broker has between 40 and 50 million visits each month.
Whitepages clearly states is purpose boldly on its homepage: “Find people, contact info & background checks.” The company is used by more than hit million people a month, according to the company.
Whitepages gives users access to nearly anyone (who hasn’t removed themselves) cell phone numbers, criminal records, address, relatives, landline numbers, age, traffic records, scam ratings, financial records, business details, lien records, professional licenses, maiden names, property details, search statistics and more.
While not all of that information is available to everyone, those with a premium subscription can dig deep. To top it all off those with a paid subscription can see our confidential background checks.
How to remove yourself from Whitepages
ESTIMATED TIME: 20 minutes
1. Visit Whitepages.com and search for your name and either your city, state or ZIP.
2. Click “View Details” after discovering the record that matches your personal information.
3. Copy the URL in your web search box so that you can share your profile in the next step.
4. Click over to the opt-out page to being the process to remove yourself from Whitepages.
5. Paste your profile URL and click “Next”
5. Double check that the information is accurate and click “Remove me”
6. Of course, they want to know why you want to remove yourself from Whitepages! Pick a reason for wanting to be removed — and leave a comment about how you think privacy is important 🙂
7. Nearly there! Add your phone number for Whitepages to call with a verification code.
8. The final step is to answer the call and type in your verification code. Once you do that, your Whitepages opt-out will be in the queue!
The entire process can take up to a day for Whitepages to remove everything. You should check back every once in a while to make sure Whitepages hasn’t added your information to its database again. Ugh.
Removing your information from people search sites can be a tedious process, but it is one of the most important ones you can take in cleaning up your digital privacy.
If you want to take it a step further, follow our guide on how to remove yourself from data broker websites too.
FAQ about Whitepages opt out
Can they legally sell my personal information?
Yep! This information is technically publicly available and so these companies can aggregate those sources into a profile — which can then be resold.
What can I do if I think they’ve broken the law?
Make a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You can also consider sharing with the Better Business Bureau so that other people can benefit from your experience.
How long does it take for my Whitepages opt out?
It can take anywhere from a week or more. Check back periodically to make sure the company has adhered to your request!
