ContactPrivacy FAQs
- Where does Spokeo get its data?
- Does Spokeo review, store or use data submitted in the removal/opt-out request?
- Does it cost money to remove a listing?
- How do I opt out of Spokeo/remove my listing?
- How does Spokeo respect my online privacy?
- What is my URL?
- Why does Spokeo request my email address when I remove my listing?
- Once I remove my listing, will it reappear?
- How can I make my content private?
- Are my searches on Spokeo private?
1. Where does Spokeo get its data?
Spokeo is a search engine specialized in aggregating people-related information from phone books, social networks, marketing lists, business sites, and other public sources. Spokeo only aggregates publicly-accessible data. Unfortunately, we do not have information pertaining to the specific sources we pull data from, as there are more than 50 of them. We apologize, and will alert Spokeo users if a source-revealing feature becomes available.
2. Does Spokeo review, store or use data submitted in the removal/opt-out request?
Spokeo only requests information as part of our verification process. We do not review, store or use this data after verification and removal is complete.
3. Does it cost money to remove a listing?
No. Removing a listing from Spokeo is completely free! You do not have to be a paid subscriber to opt out. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you.
4. How do I opt out of Spokeo/remove my listing?
Spokeo respects your privacy, and you can easily opt out of Spokeo’s public search if desired. Please note that since the information aggregated by Spokeo is publicly available, opting out of Spokeo does NOT remove the information from its original sources, which are hundreds of additional websites. You can remove the search results derived from performing any Name Search, Reverse Phone Search, Reverse Email Search and Username Search here.
To remove your Name/Phone/Email/Username Listing(s):
1. Locate the listing to remove (for name listings, please select the state, city, then exact profile match)
2. Copy the URL (the URL can be found on the top of your browser and should look something like “http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Smith%20Sample#Sample:1219812367″)
3. Go to www.spokeo.com/privacy
4. Paste the URL
5. Provide your email address (this acts as a verification process for the confirmation to be sent to your Inbox) and Captcha Code (Image Verification Code)
6. Check you Inbox for the confirmation email, and click on the link on the bottom to complete the removal process.
7. The directory listing will become flagged and will be removed within 1 business day.
If you are seeing any error messages, please see below for the solution to some common issues:
Incorrect URL
- Please ensure that you click on the exact profile that contains your address. Correct URLs typically end with numbers. Example: http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Smith%20Sample#Sample:1219812367
Incorrect Captcha Text
-Type in the code provided exactly how it shows. Before you type in the code, make sure that all other fields are correct. Try using different browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.
“In order to prevent abuse, we must limit the frequency of privacy requests. Please try again later.Government officials please use your @.gov email address for priority processing.”
- Spokeo understands your privacy concerns, and provides a convenient way to remove your listings from public searches. However, this feature has been abused before, so in order to prevent spammers, bots and others from removing hundreds of listings at a time, all users are allowed to remove a limited number of listings each week per IP address. If you are seeing this error message at work, your limit may already be exceeded by other co-workers who are also trying to remove their listings. Our servers will read the requests as coming from the same IP address since multiple people are trying to remove listings from the same location. Please wait to remove your listing from your home computer, or try again the next day.
If you require further assistance removing your listing(s), please contact Customer Support.
5. How does Spokeo respect my online privacy?
Spokeo is committed to transparency and privacy, and does not possess Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, IP addresses, bank accounts, or other private financial information, such as credit scores. Spokeo’s proprietary Privacy Mirroring technology recognizes your content’s privacy settings and updates our database accordingly. Unlike most search engines, Spokeo’s database is dynamic and privacy-sensitive. Whenever you change your content from public to private, Spokeo will automatically detect and reflect this privacy change the next time we re-crawl your content. Please note that the re-crawling action will not immediately take effect due to the update frequency constraints. Please follow our blog for Privacy updates, information on lawsuits, policy changes and more.
A URL is the ‘address’ of a web page on the world wide web. To locate the URL of your listing, click on the exact profile you want removed and copy the web address on the top of your internet browser. The URL will look similar to this:
"http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Smith%20Sample#Sample:12345678".
7. Why does Spokeo request my email address when I remove my listing?
Spokeo understands your concern to remain unlisted and provides a quick and easy way to opt out of any public search results. To prevent any abuse to the feature however, Spokeo asks that you provide your email address to send a customized link to. Clicking this link will authenticate and complete the removal process.
8. Once I remove my listing, will it reappear?
No, once you opt out your listing, it will not reappear on Spokeo. When you choose to opt out, we place a permanent flag on your listing so that it does not ever reappear on Spokeo.com. We are constantly receiving new and updated listings, and we try very hard to match these new listings to the existing ones and preserve your privacy preference. However, a computer cannot know the difference between "John Smith at 1234 Nowhere Street" and "John Smith at 5678 Somewhere Avenue", though you may know that you moved. So if a new listing contains your new address, or if there are significant typos which prevent our computers from matching an existing listing, you will see a new listing for your name. We are constantly improving our matching algorithms in order to maintain your privacy.
If our online opt out process is not working for you, please contact our Customer Support.
9. How can I make my content private?
Our email search reflects only what is found in public profiles across dozens of social networks. If your name or picture shows up on the search page, this means that your full name is recorded in one of the networks, such as MySpace or Facebook. Please remove your name off of all the social networks you may be on or set them to private if you do not wish for this to be so. Please be informed that the updated information may not reflect right away, as our servers only update periodically due to the abundance of new information and updates made on the web each day.
You may block your name, phone number, email and username search results from the following link: http://spokeo.com/privacy. Please note that this will not remove your information from its original sources. Read our Privacy Policy for additional information. Please follow the instructions carefully, and email our Customer Support if you have any questions.
10. Are my searches on Spokeo private?
Yes. All searches you perform are completely anonymous. We do not disclose your search history to anyone.
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