If you are in immediate danger, call 911. If you need support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7: call 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788[1]. Texting the voice number will not reach an advocate; the text line is a separate shortcode. You can also reach RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673[2].
This article is not legal advice and is not a substitute for a personalized safety plan. It covers practical steps for reducing your digital exposure through data broker removal, but no single tool or service can guarantee complete safety. If you are working with an advocate or attorney, bring these options to them so you can decide together what fits your situation.
Why Data Brokers Are a Safety Risk for Survivors
People-search sites like Spokeo, Intelius, BeenVerified, and PeopleFinders collect and sell personal information, including home addresses, phone numbers, relatives’ names, and past addresses. Anyone can search these sites, often for free or for a few dollars. For survivors of domestic violence, stalking, or harassment, this means an abuser can locate a new address within minutes of a Google search. The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) has highlighted this risk directly, partnering with removal services to help their member organizations protect survivors whose safety depends on address confidentiality.
Step 1: Check What Is Already Out There
Before you start removing information, search for yourself. Open a private or incognito browser window and search your full name, any former names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Check the major people-search sites: Spokeo, WhitePages, BeenVerified, Intelius, PeopleFinders, Radaris, and TruePeopleSearch. Write down which sites have your current address or other sensitive details. If you share a household with family members, search their names too. As NNEDV’s Safety Net Project notes, someone may search for a relative who lives with you or has lived with you in the past, hoping to find clues about your location.
Step 2: Understand Your State’s Address Confidentiality Program
Most U.S. states operate Address Confidentiality Programs (ACPs), sometimes called “Safe at Home” programs. Washington state created the first ACP in 1991, the first program of its kind in the country, and since then most states have followed[3]. The National Association of Confidential Address Programs, the body the state programs themselves belong to, lists only five states with no program at all: Alabama, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming[4]. Arkansas offers a narrower protection that covers driver’s license records only. Two states that recently had no program now do: South Carolina’s Address Confidentiality Program opened through the Attorney General’s office in October 2025[5], and Georgia’s Safe at Home program began accepting applications on July 1, 2026[6]. This map changes from year to year, so check the current NACAP list rather than relying on any static one, including this page.
ACPs provide eligible survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking with a legal substitute address, typically a state-managed P.O. Box. Once enrolled, your mail is forwarded to your real address privately, and state and local government agencies must accept the substitute address as your legal address of record. This keeps your actual home address off public records like voter registration, driver’s licenses, and court filings. Enrollment is free and protection typically lasts three to five years, with options to renew.
ACPs are strong protections, but they have limits. They apply to government records going forward. They do not remove your address from data brokers who already hold your information from older records, property filings, or commercial databases. That is where data broker opt-outs come in.
How to Enroll
Contact your state’s Secretary of State office or Attorney General’s office and ask about the Address Confidentiality Program. Most states require that you have recently relocated (or plan to relocate) to an address unknown to your abuser, and that you are working with a victim advocate who can help with the application. Your local domestic violence shelter or legal aid organization can connect you to an advocate.
Step 3: Remove Your Information From Data Brokers
You have two options for data broker removal: do it yourself, or use a paid removal service.
Manual Opt-Outs
Every major people-search site has an opt-out process, usually accessible through a link at the bottom of the site. You submit a removal request, verify your identity (usually via email), and wait for the listing to be taken down. The process varies by site and can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks. The catch is that data brokers re-add information over time from public records, marketing databases, and other sources. NNEDV’s Safety Net Project suggests keeping a list and checking those sites every three to six months if you are doing manual opt-outs, because listings often reappear[7].
Paid Removal Services
If tracking dozens of sites every few months feels overwhelming (and for most people it does), a paid removal service handles the opt-outs on your behalf and monitors for reappearances. Services like Incogni, DeleteMe, Optery, and Aura scan data broker sites, submit removal requests, and send you regular reports showing what was found and removed. NNEDV itself partnered with Abine, the company behind DeleteMe, to offer discounted removal services to its member organizations[8]. Treat that as context, not as a product endorsement: NNEDV’s Safety Net Project says plainly that it does not endorse any specific subscription service, and it stresses that these opt-outs can all be done yourself for free if you have the time[7].
No removal service can guarantee that every trace of your information will disappear permanently. Data brokers source information from many places, and new listings can appear. What these services do is dramatically reduce your exposure and catch reappearances that you might miss on your own.
Legal Protections Worth Knowing About
Some states have passed laws that give certain individuals stronger rights to demand data broker removal. The most notable is New Jersey’s Daniel’s Law, enacted in 2020 after the son of federal Judge Esther Salas was murdered at their home by someone who found the address online. Daniel’s Law requires data brokers to stop disclosing the home address or unpublished home telephone number of a covered individual (judicial officers, prosecutors, law enforcement officers, child protective investigators in the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, and their families) no later than 10 business days after a request, with liquidated damages of at least $1,000 for each violation[9]. Note that the clock runs in business days, not calendar days, so 10 business days is roughly two calendar weeks.
Daniel’s Law is significant because it puts real enforcement teeth behind removal requests. However, it currently covers public officials and their families, not the general public. Several states have passed similar laws, and there is growing advocacy to expand these protections to all residents, including domestic violence survivors. A 2025 analysis titled “Brokered Violence,” by Sam Adler, Thomas E. Kadri and Chinmayi Sharma, argued that these laws still force the people they protect to stay one step ahead of the brokers, and proposed a centralized victim registry that shifts the compliance burden onto the brokers themselves[10]. The authors’ full academic treatment is forthcoming in the California Law Review.
Check whether your state has passed its own version of these protections. Your state attorney general’s office or a local legal aid organization can tell you what removal rights you have under current law.
Additional Steps to Reduce Your Digital Footprint
- Lock down social media. Set all profiles to private, remove location data from posts and photos, and review your friends or followers list. Consider removing or renaming accounts entirely if your situation requires it.
- Use a P.O. Box or your ACP address for all new accounts, subscriptions, and deliveries. Every time you use your real address for a purchase or signup, it can re-enter commercial databases.
- Review relatives’ exposure. If a family member’s listing shows your shared address, their information needs to be removed too.
- Be cautious with Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Smart home devices, connected doorbells, fitness trackers, and shared streaming accounts can reveal location information. NNEDV’s Safety Net Project has published guidance on managing risks from these devices.
- Set up a Google Alert for your name so you are notified if new information appears online.
Putting It Together
The strongest approach combines an ACP enrollment (to protect future government records) with ongoing data broker removal (to clean up what is already out there). Neither alone is sufficient. An ACP does not reach commercial databases, and data broker removal does not cover government records. Used together, they substantially reduce the number of places where your address can be found.
If you are working with an advocate, attorney, or law enforcement, share what you have learned here so they can help you decide which steps make sense for your specific situation.
Some links on this site are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission if you sign up for a service. This does not affect our recommendations or the price you pay. For full details, see our affiliate disclosure. For a side-by-side comparison of the removal services mentioned in this article, see our Incogni vs. DeleteMe vs. Optery vs. Aura comparison.
Sources
- National Domestic Violence Hotline. Domestic Violence Support. Lists the 24/7 voice line 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) and the separate text line, START to 88788. thehotline.org
- RAINN. National Sexual Assault Hotline. Free, confidential, 24/7 support in English and Spanish at 800-656-HOPE (4673). rainn.org
- Washington Secretary of State. The original Address Confidentiality Program celebrates its 35th anniversary. Washington created the nation’s first ACP in 1991. sos.wa.gov
- National Association of Confidential Address Programs. Address Confidentiality Programs by State, updated June 18, 2025. Lists Alabama, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming as having no program, Georgia as established, South Carolina as launching October 2025, and Arkansas as driver’s-license confidentiality only. nacap.org
- South Carolina Attorney General. Address Confidentiality Program (ACP). Substitute address for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, stalking, harassment or sexual offenses, established under S.C. Code Ann. 16-25-130. No fee to participate. scag.gov
- Georgia Secretary of State. Safe At Home. Georgia’s address confidentiality program, created by SB 324 (2024) and codified at O.C.G.A. 50-18-150, began accepting applications on July 1, 2026. sos.ga.gov
- NNEDV Safety Net Project. Data Brokers: What They Are and What You Can Do About Them. Advises keeping a list and rechecking sites every 3 to 6 months for manual opt-outs, notes that relatives’ listings can expose you, and states that the project does not endorse any specific subscription service. techsafety.org
- National Network to End Domestic Violence. NNEDV Partners with Abine to Protect Online Privacy. Describes the discounted DeleteMe access offered to NNEDV member organizations. nnedv.org
- New Jersey P.L.2023, c.113 (amending Daniel’s Law, N.J.S.A. 56:8-166.1). Requires nondisclosure “not later than 10 business days after receipt” of a request, sets liquidated damages at $1,000 per violation, and names child protective investigators in the Division of Child Protection and Permanency among covered persons. njleg.state.nj.us
- Sam Adler, Thomas E. Kadri and Chinmayi Sharma. Brokered Violence: Safety for Sale in the Free Marketplace of Data. Lawfare, August 8, 2025. lawfaremedia.org
