Remove Your Address from the Internet (Step-by-Step 2026)

Your home address is one of the most sensitive pieces of personal information that can appear online — and it’s probably more public than you realize. If you want to remove your address from the internet, you’re not alone. Data brokers, people search sites, public records databases, and even Google Maps can expose where you live to anyone with an internet connection.

If you want to remove your address from the internet, the good news is that it’s entirely possible. The bad news is that it requires working through multiple sources, because no single request covers everything. This guide walks you through every step.

Start by finding out how many sites already have your address listed. Run a free scan with Optery — it checks hundreds of data broker sites in seconds and shows you exactly where your personal information is exposed.

Why Your Address Is All Over the Internet

Before you can remove your address from the internet, it helps to understand how it got there. Your home address ends up online through several channels that most people never think about:

Public records are the biggest source. Property records, voter registration, court filings, business registrations, and vehicle registrations are all publicly accessible in most states. Data brokers scrape these records and republish them on people search sites.

Data brokers collect your address from public records, purchase histories, warranty registrations, loyalty programs, and dozens of other sources. They compile it into searchable profiles alongside your name, phone number, email, family members, and more. Sites like Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, and TruePeopleSearch make this information available to anyone.

Social media and online accounts can also leak your address. If you’ve ever listed your city, tagged your location, or used your real address for an online purchase, that data may have been shared with third parties or scraped by aggregators.

Step 1: Remove Your Address from Data Broker Sites

Data brokers are the most common reason people find their address online. These sites pull from public records and package your information into easy-to-search profiles. To remove your address from the internet effectively, you need to opt out of each one individually.

We’ve written step-by-step opt-out guides for every major data broker:

Working through these manually takes several hours, and most brokers will re-list your data within a few months. If you’d rather automate this entire process, Incogni sends opt-out requests to 420+ data brokers automatically and monitors for re-listings on an ongoing basis, starting at $7.99/month. Optery is another strong option that provides screenshot verification of every removal.

For a full comparison, see our guide to the best data removal services of 2026.

Step 2: Remove Your Address from Google Search Results

Even after you opt out of data broker sites, your address may still appear in cached Google search results. To fully remove your address from the internet, you need to handle Google separately. Google offers a tool called “Results About You” that lets you request removal of search results that display personal information like your home address.

To use it, open the Google app, tap your profile icon, and select “Results about you.” You can flag results that show your address, phone number, or email and request they be removed from search results.

Important: this removes the result from Google’s index, but it doesn’t delete the information from the source website. You still need to handle the source directly through opt-out requests or contacting the site owner. For a complete walkthrough, read our guide on how to remove your information from Google search results.

Step 3: Remove Your Address from Google Maps

If your home is visible and identifiable on Google Maps or Google Street View, you can request that Google blur the image. Go to Google Maps, navigate to your address in Street View, click “Report a problem” in the bottom right corner, and select the option to blur your home. Google typically processes these requests within a few days.

This won’t remove your address from Google search results — it only obscures the visual image of your property. But it adds an extra layer of privacy, especially if you’re concerned about physical safety.

Step 4: Handle Public Records

Public records are the hardest part of trying to remove your address from the internet, because most of them are legally required to be public. Property records, voter registration, court filings, and business registrations are accessible by law in most states.

There are a few things you can do to minimize exposure:

Contact your county assessor’s office and ask about address confidentiality programs — some states offer them for domestic violence victims, law enforcement, and other qualifying individuals
Check if your state allows you to use a P.O. box or registered agent address for voter registration and business filings
If you’ve registered an LLC or business, consider using a registered agent service instead of your home address
For future property purchases, look into buying through an LLC or trust to keep your personal name off public records

These steps won’t retroactively remove records that already exist, but they prevent your address from being attached to new public filings going forward.

Step 5: Lock Down Your Online Accounts

Review every online account where you’ve entered your address and tighten your privacy settings:

Remove your address from social media profiles — Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and others often have address or location fields that are public by default
Disable location sharing on apps and services that don’t need it
Use a P.O. box, UPS Store mailbox, or virtual mailbox for online purchases and subscriptions instead of your home address
Check your domain registrations — if you own any websites, make sure WHOIS privacy is enabled so your home address isn’t listed in the domain record
Review any business listings you’ve created (Google Business Profile, Yelp, etc.) and remove or update the address if it’s your home

For a platform-by-platform walkthrough, see our guide on how to protect your privacy on social media.

Step 6: Set Up Ongoing Monitoring

Removing your address once isn’t enough. Data brokers continuously re-scrape public records and rebuild profiles. Without ongoing monitoring, your address will start reappearing within a few months.

Set up these safeguards to keep your address off the internet long-term:

Create a Google Alert for your name and address so you’re notified when new listings appear
Use an automated data removal service like Incogni or Optery that re-submits removal requests automatically when your data reappears
Google yourself every 2 to 3 months to catch anything that slipped through
Consider freezing your credit to prevent identity theft if your address has been widely exposed

How Long Does It Take to Remove Your Address?

Individual data broker opt-outs typically take 24 hours to 45 days to process, depending on the site. Google removal requests usually go through within a few days to a few weeks. The full process of working through all major data brokers, Google, and public records takes most people 2 to 4 weeks of active effort.

If you use an automated service, the data broker piece is handled within the first week or two. You’ll still need to handle Google Maps, public records, and your own online accounts manually.

Start Removing Your Address Today

Every day your home address sits exposed on data broker sites, it’s available to marketers, scammers, stalkers, and anyone else who searches for your name. The sooner you remove your address from the internet, the fewer copies get made across the data broker ecosystem.

Start with a free Optery scan to see how many sites have your address right now. Then work through this guide step by step, or let a service like Incogni handle the data broker removals automatically while you focus on Google and public records.

For the complete picture, read our full guide on how to remove your personal information from the internet.