How to Get a Private Home Address Unpublished

You may not want your home address listed for anyone to find in a web search. This may be for personal reasons, security reasons, or even safety concerns. It can be unnerving to search for your name or address and see so much of your personal information out there so publicly for all to see. There are several ways you can make your address more private and remove it from some online sites.

You can contact your phone company or provider and ask to change your phone number and address to unlisted, which means it will not be listed in the next printed edition of the phone book. However, it will remain in past printed copies of the phone book. There may be a modest fee from the phone company for this request. Being unlisted will help prevent your information from appearing on online source as well.

You can also complete an official change of mailing address, as this will remove your address from public record. Use a post office box as your primary mailing address so that you can have a mailing location that is different from the address where you reside.

Social media accounts should not ask for your address. If one social media app does have your address on file, delete your account and do not use this app in the future. These accounts are voluntary, so sharing your address is not necessary. Go through any accounts you have to make sure they do not have your address on file.

If you do a web search of your name or name and address and see it come up on several sites, then you will need to ask for removal from each site. While this may sound tedious, it can be done. Your information may have gotten on these websites because businesses or even nonprofit organizations shared your address for business and sales reasons.

Look at each website where your name and address appear and go to its contact page. Use the information listed on the contact page to ask for a removal. If there is no contact page or information on the website, then you will have to contact the website owner. You can accomplish this by looking up the WHOIS domain ownership through ICANN.

WHOIS is an internet record listing that will inform you of who owns a domain and that person's contact information. ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and it manages ownership and domain name registration. This will tell you the individual you can contact as well as the organization or company's information. Sometimes, this information is public, but if you cannot find any of this information, you may not be able to remove your information from that particular site.

There are different methods for removing your information from common websites that may display that information:

You can either go to its website opt-out page or contact the site by email at info@peekyou.com to request removal.

You can submit a consumer request for deletion. Either go to its website for contact information at www.intelius.com or its privacy policy page at www.intelius.com/privacy-policy. Alternatively, you can contact the company by email at support@mailer.intelius.com or call customer service at (888) 245-1655.

Go to its opt-out page and click the green "Begin Opt Out Procedure" button at the bottom of the page. Look for yourself using your name and date of birth and select the correct entry. Click the red "Opt Out" button at the top of the page. It may take up to two days for your information to be taken off the website.

Go to www.whitepages.com, search for your name, and find the corresponding URL. Go to its opt out page, paste the URL, and click "Opt Out." Select the record you want to unlist and click the "Remove Me" button. You will have to select a reason for removal of the information.

You will have to enter your phone number to receive an automated confirmation call. Choose "Call Now To Verify" and receive a code. You will receive an automated call shortly to complete the removal process. This will remove you from the free search option but not the premium subscription service.

To remove yourself from the premium search engine, you will need to fill out a support ticket. Go to your report. It will have a blue "View Full Report" button on the side; right-click this button. Choose "Copy Link Address." Go to the support request page and choose "I need to edit or remove a listing" from the menu options. Complete the form. Your listing should be taken down in approximately three days.

Visit the opt out page and search for yourself. Select the correct entry and enter your email address to have a confirmation email sent to you. Complete the deletion request by email and your information should be removed in two days.

Find yourself on Spokeo, copy your URL, and paste it on the opt out page in the first box. You will need to enter your email address in the second box to receive a confirmation link. Once you receive the link, press "Remove This Listing."

If you do not want to take the time remove your information from each website yourself or feel that you need help removing more information that is difficult to delete, such as documents or articles in which you appear, you can use a service for a fee, such as DeleteMe.