Remove your personal info from Google with methods that really work

By Kim Komando

October 18, 2019

Did you know more than 10% of all searches on Google are for people’s names? Each search someone enters with your name and city brings lots of results. Today, Google processes about 250 million searches per hour.

Let’s do the math: 10% of 250 million means there are 25 million people searches per hour. Multiply that by 24 hours, and 600 million people are Googled each and every day.

Are your name and address being searched regularly as part of the daily 600 million people searches? The answer, for most people, is yes. And if not you, it’s even more likely it’s happening to someone you’re close with, like your family members or coworkers.

Why do people search for others on Google?

Every day, Google searches for individual people are used to track down old friends or classmates, to research business contacts or leads, for employment-related background checks, for professional interests or even when online dating.

Unfortunately, there are always negatives, like people using Google searches for stalking or identity theft.

What does a Google search reveal about me?

Data brokers like Mylife.com, Whitepages.com, Beenverified.com and Intelius.com are typically the top search results for people searches performed on Google. Different data brokers will rank higher in search results for different people and different types of searches. But there are reliable leaders that spend heavily on advertising to ensure their results appear at the top of Google search results pages.

Data brokers are making money by selling profiles containing your private information, sometimes for as low as $5. Click or tap to find out how much cybercriminals are willing to pay for your private information. You just might be surprised.

The detailed profiles anyone can buy typically include:

• Names and relatives’ names
• Age and birth date
• Email addresses
• Mobile and landline phone numbers
• Past houses and addresses
• House photos and estimated home value

Knowing anyone can access the above information, you may be asking yourself how to remove your info from Google.

Method 1: Remove your info from Google yourself

To reliably remove yourself from Google searches, you’ll first need to remove yourself from the leading data broker websites that commonly appear in search results, including Mylife.com, Whitepages.com, Beenverified.com and Intelius.com.

Unfortunately, there are countless data broker websites online, so removing yourself from all data brokers is a never-ending task.

One of the most notorious data brokers is MyLife.com — a website that assigns arbitrary “reputation scores” based on personal information they scrape from unknown sources. Mylife.com is also typically a top search result on Google when searching for an individual person.

Here’s how you can remove yourself from MyLife.com, which in turn will help clean up your information from Google search results:

How to Remove Yourself from MyLife.com:

1. Go to Mylife.com and click “Join Now”
2. You will have to create an account (You can provide whatever information you like during registration).
3. Search for your listing in the search bar. Click on your profile listing.
4. Copy the profile listing URL.
5. Email removalrequests@mylife.com and ask them to remove your profile listing; include the URL in your email.
6. Within a few minutes, you should get a confirmation email telling you the request will be processed and completed within 7 to 10 business days.

Additionally, you can tap or click here and use this free guide to remove yourself from more than 300 other data brokers.

Method 2: Hire a pro to remove your info from Google

Removing yourself from the major data brokers online is a full-time job — which is why you should consider hiring a professional privacy service like DeleteMe to do the work for you. Tap or click here to learn why DeleteMe is the No. 1 privacy information removal service. It will remove your personal information from more than 40 leading data broker websites like MyLife.com and Whitepages.com.

This is expensive, right? How much does it cost, exactly?

It sounds expensive to hire privacy experts to remove info about you and your family from data broker sites, but actually, most of DeleteMe’s customers say the service is “surprisingly affordable.” Tap or click here to see all DeleteMe plans and prices.

Doing nothing can also come at a cost. In many cases, false information posted on data broker sites has cost people their livelihood.

In one of the most famous court cases against data brokers, Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins (2016), Judge O’Scannlain of the Ninth Circuit explained, “even seemingly flattering inaccuracies can hurt an individual’s employment prospects as they may cause a prospective employer to question the applicant’s truthfulness or to determine that he is overqualified.”

Data brokers are costing innocent people job opportunities, love interests and more by selling false information.

Deleting info yourself also comes at the cost of your time. DeleteMe will save you more than 26 hours — per year — of time spent removing information about you and your family from data broker websites. DeleteMe will send you four Privacy Reports each year, once every quarter, detailing where your information has been found online.

And you won’t have to worry about missing anything. DeleteMe’s privacy experts are trained in privacy policies and opt-out procedures, so they know how to quickly remove your information (false or otherwise) from data broker sites.

Your online privacy is important. Don’t leave your reputation up to chance. Looking for a company you can trust to help? DeleteMe consistently receives five-star ratings from satisfied customers.

Save yourself time and innumerable headaches: Tap or click here to use DeleteMe to remove yourself from Google search results.

Tags: advertising, cybercriminals, family, Google, home, privacy, ratings, search results