Your name, home address, phone number, and relatives are probably listed on Spokeo right now. Anyone — a stalker, a scammer, an ex, or a curious stranger — can search your name and find your full profile in seconds.
The good news: Spokeo is legally required to remove your listing if you ask. The bad news: they make the process just confusing enough that most people give up. This guide walks you through exactly how to do it.
What Is Spokeo?
Spokeo is a data broker — a company that aggregates personal information from public records, social media, and other databases, then sells access to anyone willing to pay. They collect your name, current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives names, estimated income, and more.
You did not sign up for Spokeo. Your information was pulled automatically from voter registration records, property records, court filings, social media profiles, and data purchased from other brokers. That is what makes it so frustrating — you never gave them permission, but opting out is entirely your responsibility.
Step 1: Find Your Listing on Spokeo
Before you can remove a listing, you need to find it.
- Go to spokeo.com
- Type your first name, last name, and city into the search bar
- Browse the results for your listing — there may be more than one if you have lived in multiple cities
- Click on your listing to open it
- Copy the full URL of your listing page — you will need it for the opt-out form
If you have a common name or have moved frequently, you may find several listings. Make note of each URL — you will need to opt out of each one individually.
Step 2: Submit the Opt-Out Request
- Go directly to spokeo.com/optout
- Paste the URL of your listing into the field provided
- Enter your email address — Spokeo will send a confirmation link to this address
- Click Remove this Listing
- Check your email and click the confirmation link Spokeo sends you
Spokeo says removals take up to 24 hours to process, though in practice it can take a few days before the listing disappears from search results.
Step 3: Verify the Removal
After 48-72 hours, go back to Spokeo and search your name again. If the listing is gone, you are done — for now. If it is still there, the confirmation email may have gone to spam, or the removal did not process correctly. Resubmit the opt-out.
Also search Google for site:spokeo.com your-name your-city — this can surface listings that do not appear in Spokeo own search results.
The Problem: Spokeo Keeps Bringing You Back
Here is what Spokeo will not tell you: even after a successful removal, your listing is likely to reappear within 30-90 days. Data brokers continuously re-aggregate from public records, which means new listings get created automatically as public records are updated.
Removing yourself from Spokeo is not a one-time fix. It is an ongoing process — or it was, until services like ours started handling it for you.
What About All the Other Data Broker Sites?
Spokeo is just one of over 200 data broker websites that publish your personal information. Each one has its own opt-out process, its own confirmation steps, and its own timeline. The most common ones — including Whitepages, BeenVerified, Intelius, MyLife, Radaris, TruthFinder, and 30+ more — all require separate opt-out requests.
Doing them all manually takes 4-8 hours the first time. Then you need to repeat the process every few months as listings reappear.
The Faster Option
If you would rather not spend an afternoon filling out opt-out forms, we have built two solutions:
- The Data Broker Opt-Out Checklist — step-by-step removal instructions for 33+ data broker sites, including Spokeo. Covers the exact URL, process, and what to expect from each site. $9.
- Done-For-You Privacy Removal — we submit all the opt-out requests for you across 33+ sites. You fill out a short intake form, we handle everything, and you receive a completion report. $97, one time.
Whether you do it yourself or have us handle it, removing yourself from Spokeo — and every other data broker — is one of the highest-impact privacy steps you can take. Your home address should not be available to anyone with a web browser.