Friday 13 May 2011

How to Remove Your Personal Information from Google and Internet



 Remove Your information from People Search Databases, Social Networks, and Search Engine Results



Do you know what kind of personal information about you can be found from Internet? Do you know how to remove your name, address, phone number, unwanted pictures, bad publicity, and negative comments from Google and other search results? Do you know how to delete your personal information from online people search database records and deep web?

You'll be surprised to see what kind of information others can find about you. Without your knowledge and permission, most your personal records are published on Internet and are available for public to search. With your name or a phone number, anyone can pinpoint the house you live in and learn all kinds of your personal details you don't want public to know.

Criminals can use your personal information to threat you and hurt your family. If you are serious about protecting your identity and family, you should take immediate actions to block your personal information from public search.

"How do I get my information off the social networks?", "how to take my name from Google search results?", "How to stop others from searching my information from people search?" You will find answers to these questions and much more in this article. You can find advices , tips, and 
special tools to help you remove your personal information from hundreds of people search databases, major search engines, popular social network websites, and the deep web.

Exposing your personal information to the Internet is easy, finding your personal information on the Internet is immediate, but removing your personal information from the Internet can be very difficult or impossible without the right guidance and direction.

You're welcome to 
share your experience on removing your personal information from the Internet or people search sites.

What Kind of Personal Information Are in People Search and Public Data Sources?


Internet is such a great resource to look for information, you can easily search and find information from search engines like Google.com, Yahoo.com, Bing.com, Ask.com, or at specialized people search databases and social networks.

It is quite easy to search private information on Internet on almost everyone. As you will see next, there are hundreds online people search or background check websites on the Internet. You can make a background check on a lost friend, a missing relative, a potential date, a new neighbor, a prank caller, a ruthless car driver, an unknown mobile number, an unlisted phone number, your boss, your coworker, or strangers you never meet.

On the flip side, not only you can find anything about others, people can also find anything about you - which includes your personal records, private photos or videos, negative comments, and bad publicity.

Creditors, banks, political parties use your personal data for legitimate purpose. However, unscrupulous individuals and criminals can use the same information to harm you and your family. With the full availability of your personal information, your identity can be stolen or exploited in illegal activities such as identity theft, predatory marketing, credit fraud, Internet stalking, and etc.

With the cost of several dollar or even free, they can also obtain your information legally from online background check sites. The personal information available at these sites are not basic information about your name, address, or phone numbers, the information obtained at these sites are serious Personal and Private Information. To many people, the availability of these information on Internet invades their privacy and could potentially put their family and children on the risk.

What kind of personal information can people see about you? A picture worth thousands words. This is what the search result looks like from 
one of popularpeople search websites:
Most visitors came to this site had already learned that their personal information were exposed on the Internet, they are looking for fast ways to remove and hide their information from public search before getting hurt by strangers or stalkers. If you are not sure what types of personal information about you are available from people search sites, you can make a quick background check on yourself through Intelius:
At most background check and people search sites, a comprehensive background search on a person may include:

* Up-to-date contact information includes address history, phone numbers, cell phone numbers , email addresses, and P.O. box;
* Names and alias used, household income, companies worked;
* Relatives, household members, neighbors, and associates;
* Marital, family status, marriage history, marriage / divorce records;
* Nationwide criminal record check, sex offender check;
* Bankruptcies, liens, judgments, court records: dates, parties, lawyer names for both parties, verdicts;
* Criminal & background records. police files, arrest records jail records, inmate records;
* Age and DOB - birth records and hospital records;
* Property and real estate records;
* Business ownership and professional listings.


What Are the Names of Major People 

Search Sites  on the Internet?

Online people search databases and public records


It is true that there are hundreds online people search websites, and even Internet search engines also lead you to background check sites when your name is appeared in their search results. However, most these people search sites are associated with several powerful people databases behind the scene. Do you need to visit them all to remove your information? The answer is no, and it is time consuming and almost impossible to go through every search website.

As a matter of fact, the basic people search data feed at Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Whowhere etc is provided by one company - a little surprised?

Clearly, the best way to keep personal information off the internet is find the data sources which are providing your information to these people search sites - find effective ways to stop them from feeding your information to the public constantly.

Many folks asked questions such as "Is it possible to block my cell phone number from internet search?" "How to remove my name and address from Google search engine and people search sites?" The answer is yes and no - depends on what approaches you use. The truth is, at most Internet search engines and people search websites, you can make a request to remove your personal information through an opt-out process under its privacy policy.

The issue is, with so many people search websites, search engines, and social network websites, the opt-out process is quite complicated and length, the privacy policy is also vague and interpreted differently by each website. Also, if you want to remove negative information such bad reviews and comments about yourself from search engine results,it is a complicated task and sometimes are impossible to get ride of without spending money.

Most Internet search websites are data terminals to display your name, address and other information, they cannot remove your information directly, as a matter of fact, they have to forward your request to their data providers, this is a lengthy process. And no website would tell you where their data feed comes from - their business secrets.

Even if you have found the data source providers, it's not easy to opt-out your information. Keeping and selling your personal information is their business. It costs a lot of money and efforts to attain, maintain, and update millions of personal records, they need to sell these records to get their money back.

Removing your personal information from these powerful online databases by yourself will take time and efforts. Another reason why it takes so long to hide your information was because some search sites require you to send a formal removal request through a regular U.S. mail. Of course, it can take weeks to get an answer or no answers at all. It makes us wonder why would they want to take this traditional approach in the days of Internet and electronic age. Of course, the laws have not changed much to take into consideration of digital Internet information age. To get immediate results, you may consider to use professional companies to help you as will be discussed later.

After my extensive research, the following are some major players in people search on the Internet (not inclusive):

(1) Intelius.com
(2) Acxiom.com
(3) USsearch.com
(4) Yahoo.com's People Search
(5) Google.com
(6) ZabaSearch.com
(7) PeopleFinder.com
(8) Spokeo.com
(9) Alliance Data and EXelate

There are several other popular people search sites don't allow to list their names here.
To stop people from getting your personal information, we will discuss people search sites and data sources such as 411.com, Intelius, Acxiom, US Search, Peoplefinder, Yahoo.com, Whitepages.com, whowhere.com, zabasearch.com, privateeyes.com, infospace.com and many others in the next section. How to contact data mining companies, how to get professional help. One section is dedicated to deleting your information from Google search results.

Procedures to Remove Your Name & Personal Information from Internet

Remove Negative Search Results and Unwanted Information

With hundreds of people search databases and sites contain your personal information, removing your name and personal data from the Internet is a tedious task. As we mentioned above, you don't need to go through all these sites to remove your information from the Internet. You need to go to the data sources to stop personal information from being searched by others. This is what this article is trying to accomplish - help you get your unwanted information off the Internet.

(1) Intelius is a most well-known people search engine on Internet, its targets every Internet visitor. Many background search websites are affiliated with Intelius. Many popular people search websites are associated with Intelius. Intelius sells background information to anybody on anyone regardless who you are (unless you take an action to block it). The famous DateCheck site is also hosted by Intelius. Their reports include your name, address, date of birth, court records, unlisted or mobile number, and other personal info as described in the last section. You can search personal records by name, SSN, or by phone number, etc through Intelius
As a courtesy, Intelius can 'opt out' your specific information from the Intelius's Search service. Your name as it appears in a particular record and the associated identifying information such as your address and phone number will be suppressed.

To remove your personal information from Intelius, they need some documents from you to confirm your identity. There are two ways to show your identity: (1) You would need to fax a copy of your driver license, you can cross-out your photo and license number, they only require your name, address and DOB; (2) Send them a notarized form confirms your identity.

At 
Intelius , under their Privacy section, there are instructions on how to remove your personal information from Intelius.

(2) Acxiom.com is probable the biggest personal information data provider behind the scene. It has been described as "one of the biggest companies you've never heard of." I used to trade its stock - ACXM. From reading their 10Q and 10K annual reports, I learned all big search engines such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Lycos.com, WhoWhere.com etc are powered by Acxiom. Last year, Acxiom generated over $1.2 billion revenue from selling personal information. If you want to remove your private information from major search engines like Google or Yahoo, this is the first step you should take - have Acxiom remove your personal information from its data source either through your own effort or through other online personal information removal websites.

Acxiom has two databases. One database provide background check for businesses and law enforcements, and another database is provided for general public which powers the search engines. The data for businesses and law enforcements includes very sensitive financial information and social security numbers, your personal information cannot be removed from this database, but you can select to remove your personal information from the general public database. You can make such a request through email or phone call. Visit
Acxiom website for details on how to remove your data from Acxiom or email privacy@acxiom.com, check their Privacy Statement. Be warned, it won't be easy to get it done without giving them more personal information first.

(3) US Search : You might have heard or seen US Search from TV or radio advertisements. Many websites are associated with USsearch. Like Intelius, they sell your background information to anyone. You can make a request to remove your personal records from them via a postal mail. You need to include your name and DOB in the mail letter. In addition, they want you to list the former addresses of 15 years as well as the aliases you use. As readers pointed out, US Search also require you to pay to remove. The best way to get updated information is go to 
US Search and check out its new Privacy Policy.

(4) WhitePages.com - just like a regular hard copy white page book, whitepages.com has an online directory which is available to anyone on Internet. The White page lists your name and address in its search results if your phone number is not under unlisted number. This information is not more serious than others mentioned above. Most info can be found on hard copy phone books. You can remove your information via an online form avaliable on their website. In the form, you fill in your name, city, and state, and give a reason to remove, in the drop down list, you can select General Privacy Concerns as the reason to remove. Of course, the most serious personal information can be found at its Sponsor links after your name.

(5) Yahoo and Lycos's People Search are also powered by Acxiom. If you just want to remove very basic search info from Yahoo, visit 
Yahoo Privacy Policy .

(6) Peoplefinders.com is a People Search site actually associated with Intelius. The company helps people find family members, friends, classmates, military buddies, old flames and most anyone else in the United States. People Finders also provides more than 40 years worth of historical records. Peoplefinders.com require you to write a letter and signed by you with the following information in the letter, your name, address, former addresses going back up to 20 years. Refering to 
Peoplefinders.com private policy for details on opt-out process.

(7) Anywho.com, Address.com, Infospace.com, 99lists.com, Peoplelookup.com, Phonebook.com, thepublicrecords.com, Zabasearch.com, backgroundcheckgateway.com, etc are all linked Intelius on personal background information check. Most of these sites provide phone number and address search only, but background and personal information check is done through 
Intelius .
(8) If you concerned about name/address search at ZabaSearch (which shows your history of address changes), you can contact ZabaSearch to remove you information from their search engine. ZabaSearch has an option out feature right after you clicked your name. 

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