How to Opt Out of BeenVerified (Remove Your Record)

calendar Jun 5, 2026 / · 6 min read · data broker opt out people search  ·
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BeenVerified is one of the biggest pipes feeding your inbox

Every week, millions of Americans receive unsolicited catalogs, credit card offers, and promotional mailers they never requested. A significant share of that mail traces back not to a business you shopped with, but to people-search data brokers — companies that aggregate public records, voter registrations, property filings, and social media profiles and sell the resulting dossiers to marketers, employers, landlords, and anyone else willing to pay.

BeenVerified is one of the largest and most widely used of these brokers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, data brokers routinely compile detailed profiles on hundreds of millions of Americans without their knowledge or consent, and sell access to those profiles through subscription services. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which has tracked data broker practices since 2012, lists BeenVerified among the people-search category of brokers — a category characterized by aggregating data from courthouse records, address history, relatives, and even estimated income. When a catalog company buys a mailing list, there is a high probability that your name and address reached them through a chain that includes at least one people-search broker.

The good news: BeenVerified offers a free, self-serve opt-out. Completing it removes your record from BeenVerified's public-facing search and, by extension, reduces the data available to the list buyers downstream.

How to opt out of BeenVerified: step by step

The opt-out process requires only a few minutes and no account. Here is what to do:

  1. Navigate to the opt-out portal. Open a browser and go to https://www.beenverified.com/app/optout/search. This is BeenVerified's official self-service removal page.

  2. Search for your record. Enter your first name, last name, and the state where you currently live (or the state where you appear in the most records). Click the search button.

  3. Locate your listing. The results page will display one or more entries that match your name. Look for the record that shows your current or most recent address. If multiple records appear — common for people who have moved — you will need to handle each one separately.

  4. Click to select your record. Click on the listing that matches you. BeenVerified will display a profile preview showing the information it holds: address history, age, possible relatives, and other details compiled from public records.

  5. Submit the opt-out request. Click the opt-out button on that profile page. You will be prompted to enter an email address. This is used only to send a verification link — BeenVerified does not add this address to marketing lists (you can also use a temporary email address if you prefer).

  6. Verify via email. Check your inbox for a message from BeenVerified. Click the verification link inside. This step is required to complete the removal.

  7. Repeat for every matching record. If you found multiple listings in step 3, return to the search results and repeat steps 4–6 for each one.

That is the entire process. No credit card, no account creation, no fee. If you have a common name, build in a few extra minutes to sort through the results and identify your specific records accurately.

A note on paid automation services: Tools like Incogni, Optery, and DeleteMe submit opt-out requests to dozens or hundreds of brokers on your behalf on a recurring schedule, which is useful because records reappear. If you want to cover the full landscape of brokers beyond BeenVerified, these services are worth considering, though they come with a subscription cost. For a starting point on doing it yourself across the most common brokers, see Remove Yourself from Data Broker Sites: The Complete Opt-Out Guide.

What to expect after you opt out

Timeline. BeenVerified states that removal requests are typically processed within 24 hours to a few business days. You can verify by returning to the opt-out portal and searching your name again after two or three days — your listing should no longer appear.

The re-addition problem. Opting out is not permanent. BeenVerified (like most data brokers) continuously ingests new public records. If your name appears in a new court filing, property transfer, voter registration update, or similar document, a new profile may be created weeks or months after your original removal. The FTC has noted this recurring nature of data broker records in its guidance on consumer data rights. Setting a calendar reminder to re-check your listing every three to six months is a practical countermeasure.

The multi-broker reality. BeenVerified does not operate in isolation. According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the people-search industry includes dozens of active companies — Spokeo, Intelius, Whitepages, MyLife, Radaris, and many others — that maintain overlapping but not identical datasets. Removing yourself from BeenVerified alone will reduce your exposure but will not eliminate it. Each broker maintains its own database and requires its own opt-out. Working through the major ones systematically is more effective than stopping at any single site.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and FTC both maintain resources on data broker rights. For California residents, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) provides additional deletion rights that apply to brokers operating in the state, independent of each broker's voluntary opt-out process.

How this stops catalog mail

The connection between a people-search broker opt-out and catalog mail may not be immediately obvious, but the supply chain is direct. Catalog companies and direct-mail marketers typically do not compile their own mailing lists from scratch — they license them from data aggregators or list brokers, who in turn purchase or license consumer data from companies like BeenVerified. When your name and current address are present in BeenVerified's database, that information is available for purchase by any subscriber, including list brokers serving the catalog industry.

Removing your record from BeenVerified cuts one of the primary upstream sources. If enough of those upstream sources no longer carry your address, list brokers assembling new mailing lists will not find you, and the catalog companies buying those lists will not mail to you. The effect is not immediate — lists are purchased in bulk and used for months — but over a typical six-to-twelve-month horizon, systematic broker opt-outs produce a measurable reduction in unsolicited mail volume. Pairing broker opt-outs with direct opt-outs from catalog companies themselves (via the DMA Choice program, for instance) accelerates the result.

Think of data brokers as the wholesale tier of the junk mail economy. Retail stores — catalog companies — buy from wholesalers. Cutting the wholesaler supply is the highest-leverage point.

External resource: The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Surveillance Self-Defense project at https://www.eff.org/ provides broader context on minimizing your digital footprint, including guidance relevant to data broker exposure.

References

  1. Federal Trade Commission. Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability. https://consumer.ftc.gov/ (retrieved 2026-06-08).
  2. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Data Broker Database — People Search category. https://privacyrights.org/ (retrieved 2026-06-08).
  3. BeenVerified. Opt-Out Portal. https://www.beenverified.com/app/optout/search (retrieved 2026-06-08).
  4. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Surveillance Self-Defense. https://www.eff.org/ (retrieved 2026-06-08).

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