How To Opt Out of TruthFinder – And Why You Should Do It
TruthFinder is a people-search website, based in the United States. The website contains a wealth of private data about U.S. citizens. The information collected by TruthFinder not only includes the usual information collected by data brokers, it also includes other data, including dating site profiles, owned assets, and education history.
The information in the reports can include a person’s full name, phone numbers, age, birth records, social network profiles, criminal histories, addresses, and much more. This means that anyone that is willing to pay a fee to TruthFinder can dig into your personal information. It also means that bad guys can access that info if there is a data breach.
Happily, it is relatively easy to opt out of having your information on TruthFinder. In this article, I’ll show you how to opt out, both on TruthFinder and similar people-search sites.
Why should I opt out of TruthFinder?
TruthFinder and similar people-search websites make their money by selling your personal information to anyone with enough money to buy access to it. Unfortunately, while services like TruthFinder are perfectly legal, most people have no idea that their personal data is being sold and traded in this manner.
But, who uses data like this? The TruthFinder website says the following:
“The idea behind TruthFinder stemmed from our founder’s observation of the expanding online landscape and potential safety concerns of meeting people online. They wanted to create a product that would help people learn more about the people in their lives. This led to the creation of TruthFinder, which quickly became one of the most popular people search engines in America.”
Unfortunately, this information can also be used to aid stalkers and other less-than-honorable types of people, as the information can help them target victims. A quick search for my name and the state I live in showed my age, the cities I previously and currently reside in, and a list of my ex-wives and former in-laws. All of this was provided without paying a fee!
If you live in the United States, we strongly recommend that you opt out of having your information shared by TruthFinder, as well as other people-search sites.
How to opt out of TruthFinder
It is relatively easy to opt out of having your personal information shared by TruthFinder. However, it could be a bit time-consuming if you use multiple email addresses. You can probably stick to entering just your personal email addresses.
1. Start by visiting the TruthFinder Privacy Center and clicking on the “Right to Know” link in the “User Data Tools” section.
2. Enter your email address in the field provided and click the “REQUEST A COPY OF MY DATA” button. Repeat this process for every email address you still use.
3. You will be sent a link to the email address you entered. The link, which is valid for seven days, will take you to a report about the data TruthFinder currently stores about you.
4. If TruthFinder does have your personal data on their servers, you can request to have that information deleted, by once again visiting the TruthFinder Privacy Center and clicking on the “Right to Delete” link in the “User Data Tools” section.
5. Enter your email address in the field provided and click the “DELETE MY USER DATA” button. Repeat this process for every email address that TruthFinder confirmed it has data for.
How to remove yourself from other people-search sites
Okay, you’ve asked TruthFinder to remove all of your data, so you’re all finished, right?
Well…
Unfortunately, in addition to TruthFinder, there are several other people-search websites and other types of data brokers that possibly have your personal information. These include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Instant Checkmate
- Intelius
- PeopleLooker
- BeenVerified
- PeopleFinders
- Pipl
- Spokeo
- USSearch
- ZabaSearch
The process of manually opting out of these people-finder websites and data brokers can vary from site to site. However, the process will be similar to the steps above for TruthFinder. As there are several of these sites, manually removing your personal data from each one can be an extended, labor-intensive process.
If you’re serious about removing your data from as many of these sites as possible you will want to consider a data removal service. For a reasonable monthly or annual fee, you can use a data removal service to permanently remove your data from people-search sites, as well as data brokers.
The top data removal service to opt out of people-search sites
In this section, we’ll take a close look at the best data removal service.
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How to opt out of TruthFinder FAQs
[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Does TruthFinder sell or share user data?” answer=”According to TruthFinder’s Privacy Policy, the company may share your personal information with advertisers and other third parties, ‘as part of our service to you.’ They may also share your financial information with business partners.” /]]
[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Is TruthFinder trustworthy?” answer=”
TruthFinder has in the past been hit with at least three lawsuits over alleged Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) violations. In a 2022 lawsuit, it was alleged that TruthFinder refused to provide copies of consumers’ files when requested. It was also alleged that the company provided consumer reports for employment purposes without receiving the proper certifications.
Last but not least, TruthFinder was accused of providing consumer reports containing public records that were likely to have an adverse effect on employment opportunities, while failing to alert the consumer that such information was being reported.
” /]]
[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Can employers use TruthFinder to screen me?” answer=”
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), does not allow consumer people-search sites like TruthFinder to be used for employment screening. However, there is nothing to stop a company from opening up a TruthFinder account for this purpose.
Those companies wishing to carry out such research are required to use an FCRA-governed Consumer Reporting Agency such as Equifax, Experian, or Transunion.
” /]]
