How to Opt Out of MyLife (Remove Your Profile)

calendar Jun 3, 2026 / · 7 min read · data broker opt out people search  ·
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MyLife is one of the slower removals — and that's worth knowing before you start

The Federal Trade Commission sued MyLife.com in 2020 — FTC v. MyLife.com, Inc. — over subscription billing practices and misleading claims about background reports. The agency alleged that MyLife charged consumers without clear consent and made it difficult to cancel. The case is a matter of public record at ftc.gov and it puts the company's track record squarely in context: this is not a broker that has historically made privacy easy.

That history matters when you sit down to opt out. Unlike some people-search sites that process removal requests within days through an automated web form, MyLife requires direct contact, follow-up, and patience. Removals that should take a week sometimes stretch to three or four. Profiles occasionally reappear after an initial deletion. None of that is a reason to skip the opt-out — it's a reason to go in with accurate expectations and a plan to follow through.

The payoff is real. MyLife is a mid-tier data broker in the catalog supply chain. Catalog companies and direct-mail marketers license address data from people-search sites, and MyLife is among the sources they pull from. Remove your record there and you cut off one more upstream feed. It won't stop every catalog overnight, but it is a concrete, traceable action that reduces your data footprint at the source — and that compounds across the ten or twenty other opt-outs you're working through.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit that tracks data-broker practices, notes that people-search sites like MyLife aggregate records from public sources — voter registrations, property records, court filings, and data purchased from other brokers — and resell access to anyone willing to pay. The aggregation model is what makes these profiles sticky: even after deletion, fresh public records or a data-broker resale can regenerate a profile. Persistent follow-up is not paranoia; it is the correct response to how these systems actually work.

How to opt out of MyLife: step by step

MyLife does not offer a self-service removal form on its public site. Removal requires direct contact by phone, email, or both.

  1. Call 1-888-704-1900. This is MyLife's customer support line. When connected, tell the representative you are requesting complete removal of your profile and that you are exercising your right under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to opt out of the sale of your personal information. You do not need to be a California resident to make a CCPA-style request — stating it explicitly puts the request on a documented legal footing and often accelerates handling. Ask for a confirmation number or email confirmation of the deletion request before you hang up.

  2. Email privacy@mylife.com. Send a written request to create a paper trail. Include your full name, current city and state, and any previous cities or states where you have lived if your profile appears to include old addresses. State clearly: "I am requesting removal of all profiles associated with my personal information and I am requesting that MyLife not sell or share my personal information with third parties." This is the CCPA "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" request. Keep a copy of the sent email with the timestamp.

  3. Follow up. If you have not received confirmation within two weeks, call again and reference your earlier request. Mention the date of the original call or email. Representatives are more responsive to callers who can cite a prior ticket or timestamp than to cold requests.

  4. Check for re-appearance at 30 days and 90 days. Search your name on the site after one month and again after three months. If a profile has reappeared, repeat the process. Each removal request resets the clock on MyLife's re-ingestion of public records. It is annoying, but it is finite — most people find that two or three rounds of follow-up produce a durable removal.

Both the phone call and the email are free. You do not need a MyLife account, a subscription, or any payment to request removal. If a representative suggests otherwise, end the call and email privacy@mylife.com directly.

A note on paid-service automation. Paid privacy services such as Incogni, Optery, and DeleteMe include MyLife in their broker lists and will submit removal requests and monitor for re-appearance on your behalf. If you are working through a large opt-out list and value the time savings, these services are a legitimate option. They are not required for MyLife specifically — the phone-and-email route works — but they are worth knowing about if you want a managed approach across dozens of brokers simultaneously.

For a broader strategy that covers the full stack of data brokers, start with the complete data broker opt-out guide.

What to expect after you request removal

MyLife's removal timeline is slow by people-search-site standards. A phone request alone may produce no response for one to two weeks. An email alone may receive a boilerplate acknowledgment without a clear completion date. The combination of phone plus email, with follow-up if nothing is confirmed, is the most reliable path to an actual deletion.

Once a profile is removed, expect it to stay down for several months before any risk of re-appearance. The re-add problem stems from MyLife's ongoing data-ingestion processes: the company continuously pulls fresh public records, and if your name appears in a new court filing, property transfer, or voter-roll update after deletion, a new profile can be generated. This is not unique to MyLife — it is how most aggregator-model people-search sites operate — but MyLife's aggressive re-ingestion makes it one of the more likely brokers to require a second removal.

Set a calendar reminder to check at the 30-day and 90-day marks. A quick name search takes thirty seconds and tells you whether your record stayed down.

The FTC's consumer guidance on data brokers, available at consumer.ftc.gov, recommends keeping records of all opt-out requests — dates, confirmation numbers, email threads — as documentation if a dispute arises. That advice applies directly here.

How this stops catalog mail

The link between MyLife and your mailbox is indirect but real. Catalog companies and direct-mail marketers do not build their own address lists from scratch. They license compiled lists from data aggregators, or they purchase address segments from people-search sites and list brokers who have already done the aggregation work. MyLife is one node in that network.

When your profile is live on MyLife, your name, address, and demographic data are available for licensing. A catalog company looking to expand its mailing list to people matching your profile — age range, geography, household characteristics — can purchase or license that data. Your address ends up on a mailing list you never opted into.

Remove your MyLife profile and you eliminate that particular upstream feed. Combined with opt-outs at Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, and the other major people-search sites, you progressively reduce the number of places marketers can source your current address. Catalogs slow down because the data pipeline feeding them runs dry. This is not an overnight fix — list data already purchased before your removal is still in circulation — but the effect compounds over six to twelve months as old licensed lists age out and marketers refresh them from sources that no longer include you.

The supply-chain logic is why starting with data brokers is more effective than unsubscribing from individual catalogs. Unsubscribing from one catalog stops that catalog. Opting out of the brokers who sell your address reduces the number of new catalogs that can reach you in the first place.

If you are working through a full opt-out campaign, these guides cover the adjacent steps:

For independent information on data broker practices and your privacy rights, the Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains a guide to opting out at eff.org/issues/privacy.

References

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