Opt Out of BeenVerified in less than 2 minutes
BeenVerified is a search engine that provides personal information such as age, contact information, driving citations, arrest history, felonies, misdemeanors, bankruptcies, judgments, liens and more. There is no need to view a paid report in order to opt out so you will incur no fees by following the directions in this article. If you do not opt out, others can access your personal information by paying a fee. If you remove yourself from the site by opting out, your data will not show up in search results and it will not be available for anyone to purchase. Following the steps in this article should take less than 2 minutes.
Steps for opting out and removing yourself from BeenVerified:
The opt out link opens in another window so you can toggle back and forth from the directions to the BeenVerified site.
1. Click on the BeenVerified Opt Out link.
2. Enter your First Name, Last Name and State and click “Search.”
2. Click “NAME MATCH” on the first record that is yours. (My search returned 3 records, only 2 were mine.)
You may not be on this site or you may find multiple records belonging to you
3. Enter your email address, check the box to verify you’re not a robot and then click on “Send Verification Email” to get an opt out confirmation.
4. You will receive an immediate email. Click the link in the email to finalize the opt out and then you will get another notification advising you that your information will be removed in approximately 24 hours.
5. You may only remove a single record online so if you located more than one record pertaining to yourself, as I did, then you can either call them on the telephone or send an email to opt out the other records:
- Send an email to privacy@beenverified.com and be certain to include the details of your records so there is no question as to which records need to be removed. OR…
- Call customer support at 1-888-579-5910 to opt out multiple records at once.
6. Verify your information has been removed.
- Your opt out request will be reflected in search results the next time BeenVerified’s server refreshes which is usually within 24 hours. The record I removed myself from (via online opt out) was gone an hour later. A few hours later, I received a confirmation email that the record I removed over the telephone was gone. I ran a final search on my name and confirmed that I was completely out of the database.
- If your records have not been removed after a day, “clear your history” in your browser in case your computer is storing and recalling information cached prior to the opt-out.
- If your records are still there after clearing browsing history, contact BeenVerified via email or telephone to follow up.
If you run into any issues or need help clearing your browser history, please put details (including the browser you’re using) in a comment and I will respond as soon as possible.
If you have not already done so, here’s a link to additional articles with directions for opting out of other popular people search engines.
Until next time… Stay Cyber Safe!
** This article was updated October 2017 to reflect minor changes in the appearance of BeenVerified. **
If you want to remove your information from multiple directories, but don’t want to do it yourself, click image below:
I tried this tool and follow the steps are mentioned in this blog. It was nice that they were able to remove my data and feel more private now. Same with site checkpeople – they also offer online people lookup by just using few details.
Thank you for sharing this.
Is there a service where you can have someone delete info off the internet on an ongoing basis?
Great question. The answer is yes and I am testing out one of those services on a family member so I can see if they do a good job or not before I recommend them. They charge $10 per month. Stay tuned for more info …
Update: That service for $10 a month was worthless and didn’t work. I got my money back.
Yes. What is Privacy is now offering that service!
I didn’t appear on the site – phew! Still, I had no idea that this existed. Hayley, I’m afraid your blog is uncovering all of these scary rabbit holes re: privacy and information-sharing.
On a side note did you ever read any Michel Foucault (popular French philosopher in the 70’s)? He wrote about surveillance and self-monitoring in society – esp. as it relates to the criminal justice system. I think you would REALLY dig him. We’ll have to discuss in-person. 🙂
I didn’t read Michel Foucault so I look forward to discussing when I see you on Friday. Thanks, Matt!
This is such in informative article! It’s crazy how much info is out there if you don’t do anything about it.
Super helpful. And Mark Z is not yet 30? Sheesh.
LOL! Don’t you know you have to be under 30 to be as successful as he is nowadays? At least we have a good excuse as to why we’re not raking in the billions!
These things drive me batty…I feel like I can’t keep up! Thank you!
one more site w/ less information about me. so invasive this stuff.
Exactly! That’s the same attitude I have.
Oh boy, it feels like no sooner do I remove myself from one site, another pops up. Thanks for keeping us in the loop!
People search engines will continue to pop up but some obtain their data from search engines such as Spokeo and so opting out of these most popular search engines can help keep your data out of those newer search engines. I have a few more of these tutorials lined up but the good news is we’re almost through the most significant ones.
Great article. Very helpful. Thanks.
Thank you and you’re welcome!