How to find every people-search listing about you

Last updated October 14, 2026

Most opt-out forms want a link to your listing, and you can't remove a page you haven't found. The awkward part is that a single name search rarely turns up all of them. People-search sites file you under every address you've had and every spelling anyone ever typed, so the listing you find first is often just one of several.

Here's how to do the search properly. Set aside half an hour and keep a plain text file open for the links.

Start on the sites themselves, not Google

Google shows you what ranks, which is a fraction of what exists. Go straight to the big sites and use their own search box with your name, city and state. Spokeo, Whitepages and BeenVerified are the obvious first three. Open each result that could be you and check the details before you copy anything. Middle initials and ages help you tell yourself apart from someone with the same name.

Then repeat the search for every city you've lived in during the last ten years or so. Old addresses are where duplicate listings hide.

Search the details, not just the name

Several sites also let you search by phone number or address. Try your current mobile number and your home address. If a listing comes up under a name variation you'd never have searched for, like a maiden name, a nickname or a typo, that's the one you would have missed.

Do the same in Google with quotes around the exact phrase. A search like "Jane Q Doe" Denver, or your phone number written with dashes, often turns up smaller sites that never appear for a plain name search.

Let Google do the monitoring

Google's Results about you tool takes your name and contact details and looks for search results that contain them. It finds things you'd only stumble on by luck, and it can email you when something new appears. It won't remove the listing from the site itself, but as a way of finding listings it beats searching by hand every few months.

Keep the list, then work through it

By the end you'll usually have more links than you expected. Group them by site, because each site handles duplicates its own way. Spokeo wants every URL opted out separately. BeenVerified's online form only takes one record and asks you to email them about the rest. The opt-out guides spell out what each site needs.

Use a separate email address for the opt-outs if you can. Almost every form sends a confirmation link, and there's no reason to hand your main inbox to a data broker while asking it to forget you.

Open the opt-out checklist →