How to Delete Yourself From the Internet: A 30-Day Plan
A realistic day-by-day plan to delete yourself from the internet in 30 days at 20 to 40 minutes a day: accounts, people-search sites, Google, upkeep.
Key takeaways
- Spend 20 to 40 minutes a day for a month: find what's out there, opt out of people-search sites, then clean up Google and old accounts.
- Start with anything that shows your home address or phone number.
- Listings come back, so schedule re-checks at Day 60, Day 90 and every 3 to 6 months.
Most guides tell you what to do. This one tells you when. You'll spend about 20 to 40 minutes a day for a month, and by Day 30 the easy-to-find version of you (address, phone, old accounts, embarrassing results) should be mostly gone.
One honest caveat first: you can't fully delete yourself from the internet. Public records, news articles and government sites will stay (Google Search Help). What you can do is make yourself much harder to find, which is what most people actually want.
For the detailed how-to behind each step, keep our pillar guide open in another tab: how to remove your personal information from the internet. This post is the schedule.
Before Day 1: set up three things (15 minutes)
- A tracker. A spreadsheet with columns: site, URL, date filed, confirmation, re-check date. You'll use it every day.
- A separate email address just for opt-outs. Many forms want an email for confirmation, and this keeps those messages, and any marketing that follows, out of your main inbox.
- A list of your identifiers: every name variant, every address in the last 10 years, every phone number and email you've used. Brokers match on old data.
Our fictional example, Tom Becker of Denver, wrote down 3 names (Tom, Thomas, Thomas J.), 4 addresses, 3 phone numbers including (720) 555-0199, and 4 emails. That list took him 12 minutes and saved him hours later.
Week 1: find out what's out there
Day 1: Search yourself. In a private browser window, search Google for your name in quotes plus your city, then your phone number, then your email. Write every result that shows personal details into the tracker. Tom found 11 people-search listings on the first two pages.
Day 2: Turn on Google's Results about you. Add your name, addresses, phone numbers and emails, and turn on alerts. Google says the first notification usually arrives within hours. Our step-by-step Google guide covers setup. Don't request removals yet; just let it collect.
Day 3: Check the big people-search sites directly. Search yourself on Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, TruePeopleSearch and FastPeopleSearch. Copy each listing URL into the tracker. Listings for you may appear more than once under different addresses.
Day 4: List your old accounts. Search your inbox for "welcome," "verify your email" and "your account." Every result is an account you might have forgotten. Add the ones you don't use to the tracker.
Day 5: Check data breaches. Look up each email address on Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com). Note which services leaked your data; if any of those accounts still exist, put them on your deletion list. If you find anything, our post on what to do when your email is in a data breach has the next steps.
Day 6: Look at your photos. Run a reverse image search on your main profile photos using Google Lens or TinEye. Note where they show up. (More in our guide to finding your photos online.)
Day 7: Rest and sort. Sort the tracker by priority: anything showing your home address or phone goes first, then old accounts, then everything else.
Week 2: people-search sites
This is the week with the biggest payoff. Each opt-out takes 5 to 15 minutes once you know the pattern: find listing → copy URL → paste into the official opt-out form → confirm by email or phone. Never pay to opt out (FTC).
Day 8: Whitepages. Do this one first. It's one of the largest, and the process teaches you the pattern. Follow our Whitepages removal guide.
Day 9: Spokeo (each listing has its own URL, so file one per listing).
Day 10: The PeopleConnect group. One request at the PeopleConnect Suppression Center covers Intelius, Instant Checkmate and TruthFinder (PeopleConnect).
Day 11: BeenVerified and PeopleLooker.
Day 12: TruePeopleSearch, FastPeopleSearch and USPhoneBook. These three tend to show up together in search results.
Day 13: Nuwber, ThatsThem, MyLife, PeopleFinders. Four in one day is doable now that you know the pattern.
Day 14: Catch-up. Click every confirmation link you missed. Mark anything that bounced. Note sites asking for ID or a phone call, and decide whether you're comfortable giving that; give only what each form requires.
California resident? Add one step on any day this week: file a single DROP request to 600+ registered brokers (our DROP guide).
Week 3: Google and your own accounts
Day 15: Request Google removals. Open Results about you and request removal for each result showing your contact details. Remember that Google removes the search result, not the page (Google Search Help), which is why Week 2 came first.
Day 16: Delete dead accounts, part 1. Start with old social media and shopping accounts that hold your address. Look for "delete account" in settings or search "[service] delete account." Download anything you want to keep first.
Day 17: Delete dead accounts, part 2. Forums, old blogs, dating apps, fitness apps. Some apps only delete your account through the website or a support request.
Day 18: Lock down the accounts you keep. Set social profiles to private or friends-only, remove your phone number and birthday from public profile fields, and turn off "find me by phone number/email" where the platform offers it.
Day 19: Clean up what other people posted. Old group photos, tagged posts, a cousin's public family tree. Ask politely first; most people will remove something if you ask.
Day 20: Contact site owners for anything else. For a page you can't opt out of, such as an old club roster, email the site owner and ask them to take down your details. Keep it short and specific: the URL, what you want removed, and why.
Day 21: Rest. Check the tracker: what's confirmed, what's pending, what's ignored?
Week 4: close the gaps and set up upkeep
Day 22: First re-check. Open every Week 2 listing URL. Most sites state 24 hours to 3 days for removal. Anything still live gets re-filed.
Day 23: Data you give away. Opt out of prescreened credit and insurance offers at OptOutPrescreen.com, the official site run by the credit bureaus (FTC), and remove your number and email from shopping and loyalty accounts you keep.
Day 24: Phone settings. Review app location permissions and limit ad tracking on your phone.
Day 25: Your phone number. If spam calls are part of why you're doing this, register on the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov and turn on your carrier's call blocking (why spam calls happen).
Day 26: Old results from deleted pages. If a deleted listing still shows in Google, use Google's Refresh Outdated Content tool so Google updates its copy.
Day 27: Second people-search sweep. Search yourself again with your Day 1 queries. New sites will have moved up into the spots the old ones left. Opt out of those.
Day 28: Family. Your parents' and siblings' listings may show your name and city. Share this plan with them, or offer to do their Week 2 with them.
Day 29: Write the maintenance calendar. Put re-check dates in your calendar: Day 60, Day 90, then every 3 to 6 months, and right away after you move or change numbers.
Day 30: Search yourself one last time. Compare it with Day 1. Tom went from 11 people-search results on the first two pages to 2, both already re-filed.
What "done" looks like
After 30 days you won't be invisible, but you should see:
- few or no people-search listings showing your current address on Google's first pages
- old accounts closed
- Google alerting you when something new appears
- a calendar telling you when to look again
Listings come back. The FTC notes that opting out doesn't stop a site from collecting new information later (FTC). That's why Day 29 matters more than any single opt-out. If you'd rather not run the re-checks yourself, UndoLeak can scan and re-file on a schedule; it saves time, but the steps above work without it.
Sources
- FTC Consumer Advice, "What To Know About People Search Sites That Sell Your Information." https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-people-search-sites-sell-your-information
- Google Search Help, "Find and remove personal info in Google Search results." https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/12719076
- Google Search Help, "Remove my private info from Google Search." https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/9673730
- PeopleConnect Suppression Center. https://suppression.peopleconnect.us/
- FTC Consumer Advice, "Stop Unsolicited Mail, Phone Calls, and Email" (OptOutPrescreen.com). https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/stop-unsolicited-mail-phone-calls-and-email
- FTC, National Do Not Call Registry FAQs. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/national-do-not-call-registry-faqs
- Have I Been Pwned. https://haveibeenpwned.com/
- CalPrivacy, DROP. https://privacy.ca.gov/drop/
Tom Becker and his details are fictional.
Frequently asked questions
Can you delete yourself from the internet completely?
No. Public records, news articles and government sites usually stay. You can remove most people-search listings, old accounts and Google results that make you easy to find.
How long does it take to delete yourself from the internet?
Expect about a month at 20 to 40 minutes a day for the first pass, then a short re-check every few months.
Can I delete myself from the internet for free?
Yes. People-search opt-outs, Google's Results about you, California DROP and account deletion are all free. A paid service mainly saves time.
Why do my listings come back?
Opting out stops a site selling what it has now, not collecting new records later. New addresses, a relative's report or a fresh data purchase can create a new listing.
What should I do first?
Start with anything showing your home address or phone number: the big people-search sites, then Google results.
