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Personal info scrub: start with your own accounts

Guide · Updated October 31, 2026

Much of the personal information that shows up online was posted, at some point, by the person themselves. A personal info scrub that starts with your own accounts is fast, free and fully within your control.

This guide walks through that first pass, then points to the next steps for data you do not control.

The first pass

1. List every email address you have used and search each inbox for sign-up confirmations from old services.
2. Delete accounts you no longer use, or remove personal details and photos from them.
3. On current social profiles, hide your contact details, friend list, workplace and location history from the public.
4. Review public reviews, comments and forum posts under your name and remove any that reveal more than you want.
5. Check photo-sharing sites and remove location data from photos before posting in future.

How people-search opt-outs generally work

People-search and data-broker sites compile public records, marketing data and other sources into profiles. Most offer an opt-out process, but each site runs its own, and the steps change over time.

1. Search for yourself on the major people-search sites and save the URL of each profile you find.
2. Find each site's opt-out or privacy request page. It is often linked in the footer.
3. Submit the request with the minimum information the site needs to find your record. Consider using a separate email address for these requests.
4. Complete any email or phone verification step, and record the date and confirmation.
5. Check again after a few weeks. Profiles can reappear when a site refreshes its data, and the same data is often sold to several sites.

Opting out of one site does not remove the information from the public records it came from, and it does not affect other sites that hold copies.

After the first pass

Once your own accounts are clean, information on people-search sites and in search results becomes easier to address, and less likely to be refreshed from your own profiles.

Your phone number and email address

• Use a separate email address, or email aliases, for shopping and sign-ups, and keep your main address for people you know.
• Consider a secondary phone number for forms and deliveries.
• Remove your number and email from public profiles, résumé sites and old listings.
• Check that your personal number is not listed on any business page you control.

These small habits reduce how often your details are copied into new databases.

Photos and location

Many phones save location data inside photos. Turn this off in your camera settings or remove it before posting. Avoid posting photos that show your house number, car plate or a regular routine in real time.

When the page has already changed: Google's outdated content tool

Sometimes the source has already been fixed: a site removed a page, deleted a photo or changed an article, but Google still shows the old title or snippet. Google provides a public "Refresh Outdated Content" request for this situation.

It only works when the live page no longer contains what you are asking about, or no longer exists. It is not a way to remove content that is still on the page. If the source has not changed, the request will normally be declined.

Submit the exact URL, and keep a screenshot of the changed or removed page with the date in your log.

Building accurate content so searchers see more of the real picture

When something cannot be removed, the remaining option is to make accurate information easier to find. This does not erase anything, and results vary, but it gives searchers more context.

• Claim and complete the profiles you control: your own website, relevant professional directories and major business or social profiles.
• Use consistent names, titles and descriptions across those profiles so search engines can connect them.
• Publish genuinely useful material, such as an accurate bio, a page about your services, or articles in your field.
• Keep it honest. Fake reviews, fake news sites and networks of thin pages can violate search engine spam policies and can make the situation worse.

Search engines decide what ranks. Anyone who promises a specific ranking result or a date is promising something they do not control.

Getting help

Many of these steps you can take yourself. If you would like someone to look at your situation with you and suggest a plan, you can book a paid consultation. This is a paid consultation: price confirmed when scheduling. No payment is taken on this site. We do not guarantee that any review, article, listing or search result will be removed.

Book a paid consultation