How To Opt Out of TruePeopleSearch – And Why You Should Do It

TruePeopleSearch is a San Francisco, CA-based people-search website that claims to have records on nearly every single adult living in the United States. 

The information found in the website’s search results includes information from “billions of public records” that include full address histories, property information, phone numbers, email addresses, friends, relatives, associates, and more. 

TruePeopleSearch does not charge a fee for its services. The declared goal of the website is to “Create the most powerful people search service in the world and give it away for free”.

While people-search websites are completely legal and can indeed be used to find friends, family, and classmates, the site could also be used by bad actors looking to stalk someone, track down exes, and gather information that could be used for identity theft.

You can have your personal information removed from TruePeopleSearch and websites like it. In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps of manually having your personal data removed from TruePeopleSearch. I’ll also share an easier way to not only get your info removed from TruePeopleSearch but also from similar websites.

Why should I opt out of TruePeopleSearch?

Websites like TruePeopleSearch make a good amount of your personal information available to anyone who performs a search. While people-search and data broker websites like these are legal, many people do not know just how much of their personal data is available on these websites.

Why would anyone need access to your personal data? While people-search websites like TruePeopleSearch are completely legal and can be used to find friends, family, and classmates for innocent purposes, the site could also be used by crooks looking to gather information that could be used for identity theft and other nefarious purposes.

ProPrivacy urges U.S. readers to immediately opt out of having their personal information stored and shared by TruePeopleSearch and other sites of their ilk. They are also strongly recommended to have their personal information removed from the hundreds upon hundreds of other people-search sites and data brokers.

How to opt out of TruePeopleSearch

It’s relatively easy to opt out of having your personal information shared by TruePeopleSearch and other similar websites. 

However, there are literally hundreds of sites like TruePeopleSearch that may also have your information stored on their servers. You should also know that your information could be available on many of these websites under multiple email addresses, variations of your name (for example, “Bob,” “Rob,” or “Robert”), as well as previous addresses and phone numbers. 

It could be quite time-consuming to visit hundreds of websites to track down and delete all of your records. But hey, it’s not like you have a life, right?

To manually remove your personal information from TruePeopleSearch, do the following:

1. Start by visiting the TruePeopleSearch removal page.

2. Enter your email address. Make sure it is a working address, as this is where you’ll be sent a link to confirm the removal request.

3. Agree to the terms that you are the subject of the record you’re requesting to have removed by clicking the related checkbox and checking the “I am human” checkbox (have fun with the CAPTCHA photos).

4. Click the ‘Begin Removal’ button below.

5. Search for your record.

6. Click on the “View Details” button on the record you wish to remove.

7. Scroll down to the bottom of the record detail page, then click the “Remove This Record” button.

8. You will receive an email with a link, click on the link to confirm your information removal request.

9. Your record will be removed everywhere on the site within 72 hours.

You’ll want to schedule a reminder every few months or so to come back and check on the TruePeopleSearch website to ensure that your data has not returned to the website.

How to remove yourself from other people-search sites

Now that you’ve had your personal information removed from the TruePeopleSearch website, you’re good to go, right? 

Well…

TruePeopleSearch is not the only site of its kind and there are hundreds of similar websites that may have your personal information on their servers.

Websites that may have your personal data can include, but are certainly not limited to:

• BeenVerified
• Instant Checkmate
• Intelius
• PeopleFinders
• PeopleLooker
• Pipl
• Spokeo
• USSearch
• ZabaSearch

As you can see above, the process of manually opting out of people-finder and data broker sites is relatively quick and easy. Unfortunately, it will still be time-consuming to manually opt out on every individual website. Plus, even when you do get your info removed, it’s quite possible that your info will make a return engagement on the site later on.

Luckily, there is an easy way to remove your personal information from multiple websites, while entering your information just once. By using a data removal service, you can simultaneously instruct data brokers and people-finder sites to delete your data, all for a usually reasonable subscription fee.

The top data removal service to opt out of people-search sites

In this section, we’ll take a closer look at the top-ranked data removal service.

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How to opt out of TruePeopleSearch FAQs

[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Does TruePeopleSearch sell or share my data?” answer=”According to the TruePeopleSearch privacy policy page, the company may share your information with third-party service providers to help them operate their business and the applications or administer activities on our behalf. They also share it with ‘other companies to provide services to you directly.’ The company may also transfer your personal information if the company is sold.” /]]

[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Is TruePeopleSearch trustworthy?” answer=”The Better Business Bureau reports that its users give TruePeopleSearch a rating of 1.21 out of 5 stars. However, most of the complaints that I read were from users who were surprised that the website had access to their information. However, there were complaints that the company retained information connected to users who had requested that their information be removed.” /]]

[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Can employers use TruePeopleSearch to screen me?” answer=”TruePeopleSearch is not a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), which means that the information they provide cannot be used to make decisions about insurance, employment, consumer credit, or leasing. Nor can the information from insurance or employment be used for any other purposes listed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).” /]]