Crooks, hackers and scammers can access your information without using their technical know-how. All they need to do is turn to people search sites. You know, those sites that advertise their services for finding long-lost loved ones and relatives. Yeah, right!
People search sites scour public records to get information on you. This includes your full name, address, phone number, family history, employment information and more. Tap or click here for our mega roundup of people search sites and how to remove yourself from their databases.
For this entry in our weekly Opt-Out Tuesday series, we’ll show you how to remove yourself from PeopleLookup.
Avoid people search sites at all costs, especially if it costs you
Don’t ever pay for any people search service. Most of these sites are scammy in nature. You may think you’re paying for one report and find that you’ve been roped into recurring charges.
Don’t pay to remove your information from any site. This process must be provided for free, as you can see in the steps below.
Do you have older relatives who may not know about these sites? While you’re opting out yourself, why not do the same for them? Just type in their information as you would your own, and follow our steps to completion.
RELATED: Using free antivirus? Beware of companies that sell your data or even plant malware
Don’t let people look you up with PeopleLookup
Sites like Peoplelookup.com get your information from court records, social media, police records, property records and forums. They also purchase information from data brokers.
PeopleLookup used to link you to an opt-out page via US Search, but that doesn’t work anymore. Both sites are part PeopleConnect, which you’ll have to go through to opt out:
- Go to suppression.peopleconnect.us/login.
- Enter your email address, read through the privacy policy and terms of service and hit Submit.
- Check your inbox for a confirmation email from [email protected]. Tap the Verify Email button in the message.
- Enter your name and email address and scroll down and hit Save when you’re done.
- Go back to the top of the page and select the Suppression Setting tab and wait for your information to show up.
- If the information matches yours, select the Visibility Setting dropdown menu and select Suppressed.
- If you can’t locate your information, select the Identity tab at the top to go back to the previous page.
- Hit the Edit Identity button and enter more information, such as another email address you use. Verifying more of your information may help to locate your matching profile on the site.
NOTE: PeopleConnect pushes the suppression tool as the best way to stop people from finding you on its sites, but there is also an option to delete. Before you do so, know that PeopleConnect states that deleting your data will also delete your suppressions.
With that in mind, here’s how delete your data:
- Go to suppression.peopleconnect.us/privacy-center and scroll down to the Right to Delete section.
- Enter your email address (if you followed the suppression steps above, your information may already be in the system and you won’t have to enter your email address again).
- Hit the Delete My User Data button. You’ll get a message saying you have to complete the process via a link in your email.
- Check your inbox for a message from [email protected]. Tap the link at the bottom to permanently delete your account data.
- You’ll be taken to a confirmation page. Keep an eye out for another email message confirming your deletion.
NOTE: If you’ve already gone through the PeopleConnect deletion process for Intelius or another site, you’ll get an email stating that there is no record associated with your email.
If you have any trouble completing these steps or need more information, write to [email protected] or call 888-245-1655.
Keep reading
Protect your privacy, your cell phone number and email address