Each company name links to its opt-out request page, FAQ page about opting out, privacy policy, or closest equivalent.
There’s not a good way to fully opt-out of credit reporting. Get a free annual credit report via annualcreditreport.com if you have a social security number or tax ID number. I highly recommend requesting via snail mail and requesting that errors be removed. You can also opt-out of pre-approved credit card & loan offers, which is a common vector for identity theft.
Equifax, Inc. (NYSE:EFX)
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️, Mail 📬
- Phone: 1-888-567-8688
- Privacy policy/opt-out info: link
- Mailing address:
Equifax Information Services LLC
P.O. Box 740123
Atlanta, GA 30374-0123
Experian plc (LON:EXPN)
- Opt-out by: Phone , Website 🖥
- Phone: 1-888-567-8688
- Privacy policy/opt-out info: link
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️, Mail 📬
- Phone: 1-888-567-8688
- Privacy policy/opt-out info: link
- Mailing address:
TransUnion Name Removal Option P.O. Box 505 Woodlyn, PA 19094
- Opt-out by: Phone ☎️, Mail 📬, Fax 📠, Website 🖥
- Phone: 1-800-540-2505
- Fax: 1-877-314-0017
- Privacy/opt-out info: link
- Mailing address:
Innovis Attn: Consumer Assistance P.O. Box 1640 Pittsburgh, PA 15230
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE:FICO)
While you may not have heard of Fair Isaac, you’ve definitely heard of credit scores. The scores are created by FICO from information from one of the three credit reporting agencies above. And if you’ve used one of their products directly, they do keep a fair bit of data. But opting out of sharing is easy.
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️
- Email: SharingOptOut@FICO.com
- Phone: 1-888-342-6336
LN isn’t a credit reporting agency per se, but is maintaining a large amount of data that is frequently incorrect. To comply with the FCRA, they do allow people to obtain their own file, and to correct errors.
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬, Website 🖥 (in some cases)
- Obtain your information via mail
- Pre-approved offer opt-out
- Full opt-out online: Fully opting out of LexisNexis’ system is only possible for people who are in physical danger or who’ve faced identity theft.
Find your profiles, and submit them via the web form. They will be removed within a few days.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
Find your profiles, and submit the unique ID from them to have them removed.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
Refuses to allow opt-outs. Frequently incorrect info aggregated from across the internet.
To remove information, you must first make an account.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️ , Mail 📬
- Email:
- US: privacy@epsilon.com
- Asia: emeaprivacy@epsilon.com
- EU/EEA: apac-privacy@epsilon.com
- Phone: 1-888-780-3869
- Mailing address:
- North America
Epsilon Attention: Privacy Manager 2550 Crescent Drive, Lafayette, CO 80026- EU & EEA region
Epsilon International Attention: Privacy Teddington House 67 Broad Street Teddington Middlesex TW11 8QZ, UK- Asian-Pacific region
Epsilon International-APAC Attention: Privacy Room 2601, 26/F Hopewell Center 183 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Scumbags.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥 , Phone ☎️
- Email: consumeradvo@acxiom.com (inquiries)
- Phone: 1-877-774-2094
Intelius runs a number of “people finder” and “background check” websites. This opt-out form will apply to all of them. You must provide an ID (faxed, scanned, mailed) to opt-out.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥, Fax 📠, Mail 📬
- Fax: 1-425-974-6194
- Mailing address:
Intelius Consumer Affairs P.O. Box 4145 Bellevue, WA 98009-4145
Primarily public vital records (e.g. birth & death)
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Mail 📬
- Email: info@ameridex.com
- Mailing address:
Ameridex PO Box 193061 San Francisco, CA 94119-3051
Profile removed within 24 hours via the website.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥 , Email ✉️
- Email: privacy@beenverified.com
- Profile search
Harte-Hanks, Inc. (NYSE:HHS)
Ask how to have your personal information removed. For advertising data, see Digital Advertising Alliance below.
- Opt-out by: Email
- Email: privacychoices@hartehanks.com
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥, Email ✉️, Mail 📬
- Notes: People Smart offers an API to companies, so opting out here may remove data from other sites. Look up your profile with no City & State to get all results. Can take 3-14 days to have data removed.
- Find profile
- Email: privacy@peoplesmart.com
- Mailing address:
People Smart Privacy Department P.O. Box 391146 Omaha, NE 68139
They ask for a lot of info to opt-out. Only provide them with what you can see in their database (full name, address, and photo ID).
- Opt-out by: Fax 📠, Mail 📬
- Find profile
- Fax: 1-617-993-9946
- Mailing address:
EmailTracer Opt Out Compliance Dept. P.O. Box 990043 Boston, MA 02199
States they can’t remove “third party” data. Primarily sells data to law enforcement and bill collectors. Their website heavily implies that they can give social security numbers and other identifying info to anyone with a business tax ID.
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Mail 📬, Phone ☎️
- By mail: Pay $25. Mail information requested.
- Email: customerservice@locateplus.com
- Phone: 1-888-746-3463
- Mailing address:
LocatePLUS 2 Corporation Way Suite 150 Peabody, MA 01960
They ask for a laundry list of personal info to process an opt-out. It’s a good idea to find records and include the links in your request.
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬
- Mailing address:
Opt-Out/People-Finders.ws 1821 Q Street Sacramento, CA 95811
Look up information and click “That’s Me,” then click “Opt out my info” on the next page. You may need to check in cities you used to live in to find your profile.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
- Find profile
- Opt-out by: Using Intelius opt-out method above.
- Privacy policy: link
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬
- Mailing address:
Opt-Out/PeopleSearchNow.com 1821 Q Street Sacramento, CA 95811
Quickly remove one’s phone number.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
- Email: privacy@phonedetective.com
Because this is several services, they mistakenly (?) direct visitors to People Finders to find/remove info.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥, Mail 📬
- Find/remove profile
- Mailing address:
Opt-Out/PrivateEye.com 1821 Q Street Sacramento, CA 95811
They ask for a lot of info to opt-out. Only provide them with what you can see in their database (full name, address, and photo ID).
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬
- Mailing address: Public Background Checks 305 5th Avenue S, Suite 201 La Crosse, WI 54601
They ask for a lot of info to opt-out. Only provide them with what you can see in their database (full name, address, and photo ID).
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬
- Mailing address:
Opt-Out/PublicRecordsNow 1821 Q Street Sacramento, CA 95811
Search database, find yourself, then select that record for removal.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
- Find profile
You must provide a copy of your ID and a letter with your name, address, and date of birth to opt out.
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬, Fax 📠
- Fax: 1-425-974-6194
- Mailing address:
Intelius Consumer Affairs P.O. Box 4145 Bellevue, WA 98009-4145
Veromi.net (Same company as people-finders.ws)
They ask for a laundry list of personal info to process an opt-out. It’s a good idea to find records and include the links in your request.
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬
- Mailing address:
Opt-Out/Veromi.net 1821 Q Street Sacramento, CA 95811
They only allow opt-out for people who are in physical danger, are a judge or public official, or are a victim of identity theft.
- Opt-out by: Mail 📬
- Opt-out by: Fax 📠
- Notes: Include a copy of your ID with your request.
- Fax: 1-425-974-6194
Digital marketing firms also conduct monitoring and correlation of user data. This is most noticeable with “retargeting,” the phenomena where ads seem to follow you around the internet. Opting out won’t keep ads from displaying, but helps limit retargeting and self-reinforcing ad cycles.
Advertiser 1: You looked at dog food yesterday, so you must have a dog, right? We’ll show you more ads about dog food so maybe you’ll buy our dog food next time.
Advertiser 2: Because you’re seeing lots of ads about dogfood, you must have a dog, right?
Allows people to opt-out of several ad networks at once.
- Opt-out by: Website checklist 🖥
Allows people to opt-out of several ad networks at once.
- Opt-out by: Website checklist 🖥
- Opt-out by: Website checklist 🖥
- Notes: Select your country and it will guide you through the process.
Partial opt-out. Must be logged into Google account to adjust settings. This would seem to be most useful to regular Google or Chrome users.
- Opt-out by: Website settings 🖥
- Opt-out by: Website settings 🖥, Mail 📬
- “Marketing Cloud”: Must be conducted on each browser you want protected, since it’s done via cookies.
- “Offline Data”: To remove offline data, you must send a letter with a copy of photo ID.
- Mailing address:
Chief Privacy Officer, Oracle 10 Van de Graaff Drive Burlington, MA 01803
If you get a lot of junk mail, opting out of these will help a bit. These databases are also frequently traded, so if you’re trying to keep your home address off the internet, it can be a good idea to opt-out.
Many companies use this database to automatically remove people who don’t want to receive flyers, etc.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
They collect data on businesses and individuals, then sell/provide to third-parties. DNB is a very large organization — most businesses in the US have a DNB number, and a company’s DNB file acts as sort of credit report for business-to-business lending/services.
- Phone: 1-800-234-3867
- Email:
- US
- customerservice@dnb.com (opt-out)
- privacyofficer@dnb.com (inquiries)
- EU
- US
Fill in address to be removed from mailing lists.
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
You must provide a copy of your ID and a letter with your name, address, and date of birth to opt out.
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️, Fax 📠, Mail 📬
- Email: contentfeedback@infogroup.com
- Phone: 1-800-794-1404
- Fax: 1-402-836-3993
- Mailing address:
Infogroup Attn: Content Feedback 1020 E 1st St Papillion, NE 68046
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥, Mail 📬
- Privacy policy: link
- Mailing address:
Meredith Corporation Opt-out Postal: Attn Circulation 1716 Locust Street Des Moines, Iowa 50309
- Opt-out by: Covered by DMA opt-out method.
They distribute snail-mail ads, telemarketing calls, and sell personal info to advertisers.
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️, Mail 📬
- Email: customercare@rd.com
- Phone: 1-877-342-4775
- Mailing address:
Trusted Media Brands, Inc. PO Box 6095 Harlan, IA 51593
Direct mail marketer.
- Opt-out by: Email ✉️, Phone ☎️, Mail 📬
- Privacy policy: link
- Email: cserv@suarez.com
- Phone: 330-494-4282
- Mailing address:
7800 Whipple Ave N.W. North Canton, OH 44720
- Opt-out by: Website 🖥
- Notes: Junk mail; coupons and flyers.
Notes: Not all telemarketers comply with the Do Not Call list, but calling people who are on the list is a violation of FTC rules. As of 2016, reported violations have generated $74M in penalties.
Public domain, CC0. Spread this info!
Please send updates to Griffin Boyce: gboyce@cyber.harvard.edu
## END OF TRANSMISSION ##