Your byline is public. Your home address doesn't have to be.
Your home address, phone number, and family connections are exposed across people-search sites. We search for where they're published, start taking it down, and keep checking so it stays down.
Run a free scan
Your byline is the starting point. Your address is the destination.
Data broker sites connect your public name to your home address, phone number, and household members. Your published work is how people find you. Those sites are how someone uses that to find where you live.
Bylines connect to personal records
Your name appears on every story. Name plus city is all a broker needs to surface your home address, phone, and household members. The more you publish, the more discoverable the connection.
People-search sites make your address easy to find
Anyone who wants to find where you live can do it in a few searches. Investigative subjects, readers who take a story personally, and coordinated harassment campaigns all start the same way. Removing your address from those sites takes away the easiest path.
Your household shares your exposure
Brokers list "associated people" on your profile, including spouses, adult children, and sometimes parents, tied to your shared address. Removing the household's listings protects the people who share your home, not just you.
Threat levels shift with story cycles
A routine story today can go viral tomorrow. The removals that help most are the ones already in place before you need them, so the calm window is the time to start.
Background reading: Data brokers and stalking risk
See which sites are publishing your home address, phone number, and family connections, then start taking them down.
Run a free scanHow Delist removes and keeps your information off
Find your exposure
We scan data brokers, people-search sites, AI services, and public records for your name, phone, email, and address. You see exactly which sites have your information, including the byline-to-address connections that matter most.
Remove it
We submit opt-out requests to every site we find you listed on: automated forms, CCPA and state-law deletion requests, and escalated follow-ups when a broker doesn't respond.
Verify each removal
We confirm each removal after it processes. If a broker ignores the request, we keep escalating, and refile if a listing reappears.
Keep watching
Broker databases refresh from public records on their own schedule, so a confirmed removal can resurface. We run a full scan every month, and when a listing comes back, we catch it and restart the removal. We'll reach out if a site ever needs something from you directly.
Delist vs. doing it yourself
Swipe to compare all columns ↔
| Manual opt-outs | Generic privacy tools | Delist.ai | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coverage approach | Sites you identify | Varies by provider | Brokers, AI, search, breach data |
| Re-listing detection | You notice it yourself | Periodic | Monthly scans |
| Household coverage | Repeat for each person | Varies | Add members |
| Time to initial removals | Days of manual work | Hours to days | Hours |
| Legal deletion requests | Draft and send yourself | Rarely | CCPA + state law |
| Ongoing maintenance | Repeated research and filing | Periodic check-ins | Mostly automatic |
Common questions from journalists
Should I do this before or after publishing a sensitive story?
Earlier is better. Removals take days to weeks, so having protection in place before a story runs gives it time to work. If a story is already out, we start right away.
Does this interfere with being a public journalist?
No. We target broker and people-search sites that publish your home address, phone, and family connections. Your published work, professional social media, newsroom contact pages, and press appearances stay untouched.
Can my newsroom cover this as a benefit?
Some newsrooms already do, alongside physical security training and digital tools. If yours doesn't, this is a low-cost addition to a journalist safety policy. Each journalist gets their own profile and coverage.
I use a pen name. Does that help?
It helps if it's consistently separated from your legal name. But if your real name appears on a voter roll, deed, or utility record at the same address, brokers can bridge the two. Pen names slow casual discovery, not determined searching.
What about freelancers without newsroom support?
Freelancers are usually more exposed than staff: same byline visibility, no institutional support behind it. Individual plans give you the same coverage newsroom programs provide for staff journalists.
See what is exposed, and start taking it down.
A free scan shows which sites are publishing your home address, phone number, and family members. You'll see the results right away.
Run a free scanThe scan is free. Removal and ongoing monitoring require paid coverage.