Removing a home address from people-search sites
Updated 26 September 2026.
A people-search site can put a home address, a phone number, and a relative's name on one page, then sell that page. This guide explains where the page comes from, what a removal request changes, and why the same address can show up again.
Where the address comes from
You do not have to open an account for a people-search site to publish you. The Federal Trade Commission describes these sites as a kind of data broker. They collect personal information from many places, compile it into a report, and sell the report to anyone who will pay.
The FTC says a report can be built from other data brokers, from social media profiles that are public, and from federal, state, and local government records. Those records can include property filings, voter registration, professional licenses, and court records. One piece of information, such as a name or a phone number, can be enough for a buyer to see current and previous addresses, other names, and the names and addresses of family members.
That last point matters for a house. A page about a spouse, a parent, or an adult child can name the same address. A search for your name can reach the house through someone else's listing. A removal that covers only one name can leave the house visible under another name in the household.
What a removal request does
Most people-search sites let you tell them to stop selling your information. The FTC calls that opting out. A site may let you opt out of some details, such as an address or a phone number, and still display other categories. After an opt-out, the FTC says the site will stop selling the information it already has on you.
Solidus Private looks for the address, the phone number, the email, and the relatives a search already shows. With your permission, we ask each site to take the listing down. The letter comes from Solidus. Your home address is not on the letter. We then check whether the public page came down, and we tell you what is still up.
You can do this yourself, one site at a time, at no charge. The FTC notes that there are many of these sites, and that working through them can take time. Some sites ask you to verify that you are the person named on the page. Read what a site will do with any detail you send it. Our request form does not ask for a home address or an identity number.
What a removal request leaves in place
An opt-out does not delete a record that a government office keeps. The FTC says opting out of people-search sites does not delete your information from public records, so someone can still find those records on a government website. A deed, a court filing, and a business registration can stay public after a people-search page is gone. Those offices publish under their own rules. A people-search site can copy them again later.
A removal also leaves other copies alone. The FTC says your details may still appear in a report about a relative, a neighbor, or an associate. Search engines can keep a snapshot until they crawl the page again. Another site may have copied the same address into its own report. Taking one listing down does not take the others down.
We cannot erase a person. The report names the pages we asked about, which ones came down, and which ones are still public. Government filings, news, and court records can remain when the law does not allow removal.
Why the listing comes back
The FTC says that if the information in your public records changes, your information can reappear for sale. A site may rebuild a page from the same public sources. A site the first round never touched may publish a new page. A relative's unchanged listing can still point at the house.
The FTC tells people to check the sites again, and to send a new opt-out if new information appears. A single request is a weak plan for a home you want kept quiet. While you are a member, we look again every month, ask a site to remove what returned, and send a short private report.
If you pay any company for this work, the FTC says you should find out how many websites it covers, whether it gives you a report of the sites it handled, and how often it scans for information that came back. We do not publish a fixed count of sites. The list changes. The audit report names the pages we found. The monthly report names what we asked to come down, what came down, and what is still up.
Choices that feed the next listing
Some forms become public records, and they publish the address you type. A business filing, a professional license, and some vehicle records are common examples. When a form allows a mailing address that is not the house, that choice shows up later on people-search pages that copy public records. This is not legal advice. Your attorney decides what to file, and in whose name.
Family posts do the same work without a government form. A photo that shows the street, a tag on the house, or a routine that names the school run can point a stranger back to the address a people-search site already printed. We look for those ties in the audit. We do not contact your family unless you ask us to.
The same household often shows up in more than one kind of record. A deed, an aircraft registration, and a people-search page can point at one another. The guides on county property alerts and aircraft owner privacy cover those records. The guide on what an exposure audit finds describes the private report you receive before anything is sent.
How the work starts
The exposure audit is the first step. It lists the people-search pages, phone numbers, emails, relatives, and property or aircraft records a search already shows. You receive a private report and a removal plan. Nothing is sent to a site until you say so.
The first 10 households receive the full exposure audit free. After that, the audit is normally $750. A membership, if you want the monthly watch, starts from $3,000 a year. There is no payment on this site. You can read the rest of the work on the Solidus Private home page, or request a private exposure audit when you are ready.