Your home address may be sensitive information but you’d be amazed at how many places you can find it online — even if you’ve recently moved. There’s a whole industry behind collecting your address and selling it, not to mention all the random places it can crop up online.
That may be a concern for your security, especially if you have concerns about stalking or really want to cut down on junk mail. But how do you know where your home address is appearing? The best way to find out is to check yourself. I’ve tested out the tools and tricks below: This is exactly where you need to begin.
Use Google’s Results About You tool
Let Google don the cape for this one, because it’s created the most accessible contact info privacy tool you can find online. You can get started in seconds with a visit to the My Activity Google site and the Results About You tool.
Google walks you through adding your name, address and other contact info, then searches to see where it shows up online. You can then make a removal request for Google to banish that address info where it’s found.
You can easily arrange for automated Results About You checks so you stay informed about where your home address is showing up and can handle any surprises, too. It’s all free and takes relatively little time, making this a top-notch starting place.
Google your name and city
Once you’ve used the Results About You tool and removal requests have taken effect, it’s a great idea to google yourself anyway. Removal requests don’t always work and Google doesn’t necessarily catch every site showing your address.
Start with a basic combination of your name and your current city, and see if your specific address pops up. If you have a common name, you can add more details to see what Google’s search page brings up.
If this brings up websites that show your home address, you can make a direct request to that site to have it removed.
Search your name and address on Whitepages
Many directories exist online, but Whitepages is one of the most common, and most likely to have your address. Fortunately, it’s also easy to check. You can look up your name on Whitepages free, or use its Reverse Address Lookup tool to see if your current address is associated with your name.
If your search brings up troubling results, you can use Whitepages’ Opt Out tool to request that your info be deleted.
Check your inbox and spam filter for old accounts
I also recommend running through your email box and your spam filter/promotion filter, to see what lists you may be on. This is a useful way to spot any sites, newsletters or subscriptions you may have signed up for and forgotten — which often contain your address.
If you run across these, delete whatever accounts you created to remove this contact info.
Check your social media profiles
You may not remember all the information you included when you created various social media accounts — I know I didn’t. Check your profile information to see if your address, your current city or other identifying info is there and can be removed. That includes social media you haven’t used in years.
This is also a good time to check old posts to see if you’ve accidentally revealed more about your home address than you wanted to (including chats in marketplaces or sales pages, which are easy to forget). Social media companies are likely to harvest this data if possible.
Contact data brokers if you want to dive deeper
Whitepages is a fine start but you may also want to check other people-search sites like Spokeo and Intelius to see if your name appears there. If your contact info is spread around on sites like these, it’s almost certain that data brokers have it, too.
Data brokers confirm contact info like your address and sell it to big ad companies, banks and other entities. They include businesses like Axciom and CoreLogi and even credit agencies like Equifax. Some of these sites are also accused of selling addresses to police departments.
The problem is you usually can’t search data broker databases without paying them. What you can do is send them a privacy request, usually accessed via a form on the data broker’s site, to verify your identity and remove related information.
That works for one or two data brokers you may be worried about, but there are hundreds and you can’t search them all. California residents get extra protections here thanks to privacy laws that have created the DROP tool that lets you search and request removals for all data brokers operating in the state. For everyone else, there are third-party data removal services.
Data removal services handle data brokers and similar sites for you, for a fee. We have a guide on them here so you can learn more but common subscriptions cost about $25. These services include Incogni, DeleteMe and PrivacyBee.
How do you take your address offline once you’ve found it?
I’ve mentioned several helpful options above that you can combine with these steps, but you have plenty of other tools to help, too, including email and post office services. For the full list, check out my guide on how to wipe your home address from the internet.
For complete home protection, review how to prevent burglaries and my guide on protecting your car when it’s in front of your house.
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