It can be hard to hide your address in this day and age. Fortunately, there’s some steps you can take to make yourself a little harder to find.
First, you want to “self-dox” yourself. See what you can find and make a list of where you’re showing up. Compile a dossier on *you* to see what someone else might be able to find, including where you found it. If you’re finding old information- old addresses, phone numbers, etc. That’s not as much of a concern because it could mislead someone, which is a good thing in this case.
It’s important to look at everything as a piece of the puzzle. We want to keep as much information hidden as possible so it can’t be put together with other pieces of information.
Start with usernames:
https://namechk.com/
http://knowem.com/
Then look at other people search sites:
https://www.spokeo.com/
https://www.pipl.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/
http://www.whitepages.com/
Don’t forget to look for your social media presence as well, then start on Google. Search for any combinations of what you know about yourself to see what you can find.
So, once you know what’s out there, you can start removing it. For each of the sites, there should be an opt-out option. A few are listed later in this guide.
Okay, that was a lot of information, but that gives us a clean(er) slate to work with.
To keep your address from being publicly available, don’t use it. As much as possible, that is. Use a PO box for any mail that you have to receive, or if you’re very concerned about specific transactions you can use a mail forwarding service. For a fee, they’ll receive mail on your behalf and resend it to you. Also, most states have an address confidentiality program where you can use an address they provide for things that would otherwise be public record or easy to find. For example, drivers license or voter registries. They’ll forward the mail for you. Here’s a list of the states that have those programs and how to contact them.
You can opt out of many address search sites. here’s a good curated list of opt-out links: https://pastebin.com/5LwEU8vK
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opt out options:
https://www.beenverified.com/f/optout/search
• Go to opt-out link
• Enter first & last name + state
• Find your profile(s)
• Click on the one you wish to remove
• Follow instructions
• Repeat for each individual in household
https://www.familytreenow.com/optout
• Follow instructions on the opt-out link
https://www.intelius.com/optout
• Follow directions on page.
https://www.locatefamily.com/contact.html
• Search for your name on the left side of the site.
• You’ll find a page or pages containing Names, addresses and phone numbers.
• Find yours; take note of the number next to it.
• Go to the contact page.
• Scroll down for the opt-out\removal form.
• Follow the directions.
• Make sure to provide the information you want deleted in the ‘Comments’ box.
• Repeat for each individual in household.
https://radaris.com/page/how-to-remove
• Search for a name.
• On the search results page, select the name that is most appropriate.
• On the profile page, click the down-arrow to the right of the name and select ‘Control Information’.
• From the information control page, choose ‘Remove information’.
• Here you can choose to remove all information, or to delete specific records.
• Confirm your real name matches your account and profile name.
• Enter your phone to receive a verification code.
• Once the code has been entered, the profile will be private.
• Repeat for each individual in household.
https://secure.whitepages.com/suppression_requests
• Find your information VIA search
• click view free details
• Copy the profile link to the second link
• Click/select opt-out and remove me
• Select your reason
• Enter your phone number to confirm,
https://www.spokeo.com/optout
• Go to Spokeo.
• Search your First, middle and last name.
• Find your profile/listing by go to the bottom of the page and select ‘open advance filter’.
• Fill out your information.
• Find your profile/listing, copy the link (note: Right click + copy link to have a ‘Clean link’ copied).
• Go to the Opt out link.
• Follow instructions to opt-out.