The Delete Kit

What this is for

Your name, address, age, relatives, and phone number are sitting on dozens of data-broker sites that sell that information to anyone who searches it, including recruiters, clients doing due diligence, and people you'd rather not find you. This is the process for getting it removed, using AI to handle the repetitive drafting instead of doing it by hand 40 times.

Sequencing note: run the Digital Footprint Audit first so you know what's actually out there, do the removals in this kit second, and save polishing your LinkedIn and bio for last. What you control is the easy part; clean up what you don't control before you shine what you do.

Before you start

• A list of your current and past addresses, phone numbers, and full legal name variations (this is what brokers index on, so you need to know what to search for)
• A spreadsheet tool open (Google Sheets, Excel, or paste the table below)
• Patience for a process measured in weeks, not one sitting. Brokers take anywhere from a few days to 45 days to process a request.

If you're in California, start here

Since January 2026, California residents can use DROP (Delete Request and Opt-out Platform), run by the state privacy agency at privacy.ca.gov. One verified request tells every registered data broker in California, more than 500 of them, to delete your personal information and stop selling it. Brokers face per-request daily penalties for ignoring it as of August 2026. It is the single highest-leverage privacy action available to any US consumer right now, it's free, and it replaces most of the manual work in this kit. Do it first, then use the rest of the kit for the people-search sites that fall outside the registry.

Not in California? About 20 states now have comprehensive privacy laws with a deletion right (up from four when most guides were written). Search "[your state] consumer privacy law deletion right" or check the IAPP's state law tracker to see what you can cite. Prompt 2 below folds your state's law into the request automatically.

The tier-1 brokers: start with these

These are the highest-traffic people-search sites and their opt-out pages. Brokers occasionally move these pages; if a URL 404s, search the broker name plus "opt out" and verify you're on the broker's own domain before entering anything.

Broker	Opt-out	ID upload?	Typical turnaround
Spokeo	spokeo.com/optout	No	Days
Whitepages	whitepages.com/suppression-requests	No (phone verification)	Days
TruePeopleSearch	truepeoplesearch.com/removal	No	Days
FastPeopleSearch	fastpeoplesearch.com/removal	No	Days
Radaris	radaris.com (Control Your Info)	Account or ID may be requested	1-2 weeks
BeenVerified, Intelius, TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate	suppression.peopleconnect.us (one form covers all four; same parent company)	No	1-2 weeks
MyLife	Contact via privacy request; historically the most resistant	Sometimes	Weeks
PeopleFinders	peoplefinders.com/opt-out	No	1-2 weeks

That one PeopleConnect suppression form covering four brands is the pattern to notice: a handful of parent companies run most of the people-search industry, so ten minutes of research (Prompt 1) collapses dozens of "sites" into a short list of actual companies.

The prompts

Prompt 1: Enumerate the brokers likely holding your records

Use Perplexity for this one. It's a live-search task, and broker lists go stale fast, so you want current results, not the AI's training data.

ROLE: You are a privacy researcher who tracks data broker and
people-search sites operating in the United States.

CONTEXT: I want to find out which data broker and people-search sites
are currently active and likely to hold a public record on an average
US adult with a common digital footprint (has lived at 2+ addresses,
has a LinkedIn profile, is a registered voter).

CONSTRAINTS:
- List the major, currently-operating data broker and people-search
  sites as of today, not a list from memory that might be outdated.
- For each, note whether it has a self-service opt-out page, and the
  direct URL to that opt-out page if one exists.
- Note which sites share a parent company and can be handled with one
  request.
- Group them: the top 10-15 highest-traffic sites (do these first) vs.
  the long tail (do these in a second pass).

OUTPUT FORMAT: A table with site name, opt-out URL, parent company,
priority tier (high/low), and notes (e.g. "requires ID upload,"
"opt-out often doesn't stick").

Prompt 2: Draft the opt-out and state-law deletion requests

Use either ChatGPT or Claude. Run this once per broker or once per batch. Note the constraint below: this produces a request letter, not legal advice about your rights.

ROLE: You are drafting a data deletion / opt-out request on my behalf,
using the format each site or law typically requires.

CONTEXT: My name as it may appear in these records: [FULL NAME AND ANY
VARIATIONS, e.g. Robert J. Smith, Bob Smith]. Current and past
addresses: [LIST]. State of residence: [STATE, e.g. Texas]. The
broker/site: [SITE NAME, from the list in Prompt 1].

CONSTRAINTS:
- First, tell me whether my state currently has a comprehensive
  consumer privacy law with a deletion right, and name it. If you are
  not certain the law is current, say so and tell me how to check.
- Draft a formal opt-out or deletion request addressed to this specific
  broker, citing my state privacy law by name if one applies.
- Include the specific information to be removed: name, current and
  past addresses, phone numbers, relatives' names if listed.
- Keep the tone formal and factual. This is a request citing a legal
  right where one exists, not an appeal or an argument.
- Do not state or imply legal conclusions about whether the site is
  violating the law. Just cite the applicable right and make the
  request.

OUTPUT FORMAT: A ready-to-send request (email or web-form text), plus a
one-line note on where to submit it if the process is a form rather
than an email.

Prompt 3: Populate the tracking table

The table structure is fixed; don't ask the AI to invent it. Paste this header row into your spreadsheet:

Broker | Opt-out URL | Date submitted | Method (email/form/mail) |
Confirmation received (Y/N) | Re-check date (submit + 90 days) |
Re-check result | Notes

Then, if you want the rows pre-filled from your Prompt 1 list, run:

ROLE: You are filling in a tracking spreadsheet for a personal
data-broker opt-out project.

CONTEXT: Here is my broker list: [PASTE THE TABLE FROM PROMPT 1].

CONSTRAINTS:
- One row per broker, using exactly these columns: Broker, Opt-out URL,
  Date submitted, Method, Confirmation received, Re-check date,
  Re-check result, Notes.
- Leave the status columns blank. This is a working tracker, not a
  wish list.
- Sort alphabetically by broker name.

OUTPUT FORMAT: The table as CSV text so I can import it cleanly.

The re-listing problem and re-check cadence

Data brokers buy and re-sell data from each other, and many re-scrape public records (voter files, property records, court records) on a rolling basis. A successful opt-out today doesn't mean permanent removal. It means removal until the next data refresh pulls you back in, which for some brokers happens every few months. Build the re-check date into the tracking table from the start (90 days after each submission) and treat this as a recurring quarterly task, not a one-time project. Set a calendar reminder now, because you will not remember to do this in 90 days without one.

What paid removal services actually do

Services like DeleteMe (about $129/year for one person, $180 for the premium tier) and Incogni (about $96/year standard, $180 for the unlimited tier) automate the submission and re-checking across a broad broker list. The honest trade: they cost roughly what three hours of your time is worth per year, and the re-checking is the part you're most likely to skip on your own. Be clear on what they don't do: they don't cover every broker, they don't stop new brokers from acquiring your data, and they don't remove the underlying public records (property deeds, court filings, voter registration), only the aggregator listings built from them. If you're in California, run DROP first either way; there's no reason to pay for requests the state will send for free.

Where this goes wrong

• You submit once and consider it finished. Without the re-check cadence, most of what you remove quietly reappears within 3-6 months. The tracking table's re-check column exists specifically so this doesn't happen silently.
• You use one generic request letter for every broker. Different states have different deletion rights, and some brokers have their own required format or web form that a generic email won't satisfy. Run Prompt 2 per broker (or per small batch) so the citation and format actually match.
• You expect this to make you unfindable. Public records aren't erasable through opt-out requests; you're removing the convenient aggregated listing, not the underlying record. Set that expectation before you start so 50 successful opt-outs don't feel like a failure when a determined search still finds something.

The 2-minute version

California resident? File one DROP request at privacy.ca.gov, then handle the stragglers with the tier-1 table. Everyone else: work the tier-1 table above (note the one form that covers four brokers), run Prompt 1 for the long tail, draft requests with Prompt 2 in batches of 5-10, and track everything with a 90-day re-check.

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