If you’re paying attention to the news, you’ve probably gotten to a point of asking, “Could I be next?” Next, that is for your secured personal information to be hacked, stolen, and sold to the highest bidder. Or, you may already have been notified by any number of corporate behemoths—Panera Bread, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Facebook, to name just a few—informing you of what happened, when it happened, and how it happened. You then read that the company is committing to better safeguard your private data in the future, and your gut starts to turn, wondering whether to untether yourself from the Internet for the rest of your life or feel assured it only happened to one of your online or app-based accounts.

For years, Hetherington Group investigators have been compiling a list of all the places your names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and other personal data are stored online. There are over 200, and the list continues to grow. In this blog post, we share with you three sites you can access and “Opt-Out” often within 24 hours.

Radaris.com

Radaris is a comprehensive database that gathers public records from federal, state, and local governments on persons, properties, businesses, and professionals. It allows not only professional investigators to conduct a background check on you with a few key words but also Nosey Neighbor Ned down the block from you.

To remove your data within 24 hours from this website and app, follow these steps:

  • Search for your listing by First and Last Name plus City, State, or Zip Code.
  • Click on Full Profile to see the details of the record.
  • Click the drop-down arrow next to the orange “Get Report” button and select “Control Information.”
  • Select “Remove Information.”
  • You will then be prompted to create a free account.
  • Go through the above steps once again and receive your confirmation email/text code to complete the opt-out process.

If you have multiple listings to remove, you may have exceeded the amount of information you can control. In this case, send a message to customer service with the topic “Technical Issues,” and include the URL of the information you want removed. Radaris will respond stating that your record has been removed within 24 hours.

Checkpeople.com

CheckPeople.com is a website that provides access to public records using a fee-based system. The site locates court records, long-lost relatives, or friends. As of this writing, the website had been used to for 33,583,354 searches.

To remove information from the site, fill out the online form and submit. Since you are required to provide a working email address, you may choose to set up an “Opt-Out-Only” email account that is used for only removing your private data from online sites. You need to provide accurate information in order that your records can be removed from the database within 10 days. If you don’t wish to communicate electronically, you can mail your removal request to: CheckPeople LLC, 530 Lytton Ave., Second Floor, Palo Alto, CA, 94301.

StudorDud.com

Since the 1990s, online dating sites have catered to varying demographics looking for love. Now you can download an app and swipe right or left to find your Romeo or Juliet. And it’s not just for Millennials. According to DatingAdvice.com, there are millions of people using a variety of platforms:

  • With 23.5 million users, Match.com is the most popular dating site.
  • eHarmony claims 4% of all marriages in the United States.
  • Over 2,500 dating sites operate in the United States.
  • $1.8 billion is the total annual revenue for online dating sites.
  • More than half of online dating users lie in their public profile.

The app world has responded to this lucrative, ahem, affair, by offering a way to figure out whether you’re about to meet up with a Dud or a Stud on your first real date. StudorDud.com offers users a chance to enter a name, address, phone number, etc, and then generates a report within the app, indicating marital status, property values, professional history, and criminal records. It’s a one-stop shop for conducting background checks on your next date.

If you’d like to remove your data from this site, click on the Opt-Out link. In the resulting search box, enter your information. Clicking through you will find the standard, freely offered public records on display (places I’ve lived, if I was married and to whom, my relatives, etc…). I agreed to Opt-Out by clicking on the terms of service options and the “I’m not a Robot box.” Once selected, my information was removed.

Like what you’re reading? Become an Hg member and learn how to maximize your online investigations with shortcuts, tips, tricks, better investigative tools, and advanced research techniques for all skill levels in our Data2Know newsletter, published eight times a year. As an added benefit, subscribers get access to our Opt Out Index containing over 200 active links to assist you in getting your private data off the Internet. From Abika to ZoomInfo, we’ve got you covered!