Guide · Data Privacy
What is a data broker — and how did they get my info?
You never made a profile, yet a search for your name returns your address, relatives, and phone number. Here is where that profile came from, who is selling it, and what you can actually do about it — including the free route.
The short version
Data brokers are companies that collect personal information — from public records, public social profiles, purchase histories, and other brokers — assemble it into profiles, and sell access. People-search sites are the consumer-facing tip of that economy: type a name, get an address history. The deeper market sells to marketers, recruiters, insurers, and anyone else who pays.
Where your profile comes from
- Public records: property deeds, voter rolls, court filings, business registrations.
- Public social profiles: anything visible on your accounts, past or present.
- Commercial data: loyalty programs, warranty cards, subscriptions, app data.
- Other brokers: the network copies and resells among itself, which is why one profile becomes forty.
Why removal is a process, not an event
Because brokers copy from each other and from source records that never disappear, removal is recurring work. An opt-out that succeeds today can be undone by next quarter's data refresh. That is the honest reason removal services exist as subscriptions: you are paying for repetition, coverage, and tracking — not a delete button. It also means anyone promising permanent removal is overselling.
The free DIY route
Most people-search sites are legally or reputationally obliged to offer an opt-out. The process is roughly: search your name on each site, locate your profile URL, find the site's opt-out page, submit the request, complete any verification step, and calendar a re-check for three months later. Multiply by every site that lists you. It costs nothing but time — and the time cost is real, which is the entire trade the paid services are built on.
When to escalate to a paid service
Three signals: your information appears across many sites, you know you will not maintain the re-check cycle, or you have a concrete safety reason to want exposure down fast. Our category page compares the five leading services on coverage, effectiveness, price, ease of use, and reporting — and is honest about the cases where doing nothing or going DIY remains the sensible answer.
→ See our ranked comparison of the best data-removal services