Get Your Details Off Data Broker Lists: What Works in 2026
Scammers quote your address and phone because data brokers sell them. California's free DROP tool now works; what it covers and what other states can do.
The caller knew your street and your last employer, so you assumed they were legitimate. That kind of detail is often for sale. You can’t erase it all, but in 2026 one tool got a good deal stronger, at least for Californians, and there are steps for everyone else.
Your details move through data brokers, companies that collect and sell information about people they have no direct relationship with. A scammer doesn’t need to hack anything to get your phone number, age and relatives’ names. Reducing those records won’t stop every call. It does remove some of the material that makes a pretext sound convincing, and our earlier piece on swatting and exposed personal details shows how far that material can travel.
If you live in California
California’s Delete Request and Opt-out Platform, known as DROP, sends one request to what the state says is “over 600 registered data brokers.” It is free: “we will never charge you to use DROP.”
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| January 1, 2026 | DROP opens; Californians can submit requests |
| August 1, 2026 | Data brokers begin processing requests, and must access DROP at least every 45 days |
| November 2026 | The state says all brokers in DROP should have completed their first download and upload cycle |
| Ongoing | Status updates in DROP can take up to 90 days to appear |
Practical points:
- You confirm residency through the California Identity Gateway. You can enter details directly or use Login.gov if you already have an account.
- The state says the average request “takes five minutes or less,” according to its DROP toolkit.
- You can submit for another California resident, such as a child or an elderly relative.
- Start from privacy.ca.gov, typed by hand. Don’t use a link from a text or an ad. Anything asking you to pay for DROP is not DROP.
If you live anywhere else
We did not find a nationwide equivalent to DROP. Outside California, there are two practical routes.
Take your details out of Google results
Google’s Results about you tool, at myactivity.google.com/results-about-you, lets you enter your name and contact details and then checks Search for results showing them. Keep its limits in mind:
- You can request removal of results showing your phone number, home address or email.
- Removal doesn’t delete the information from the source website, so you still need the site owner for that.
- Google generally won’t remove results from educational or government sites or newspapers.
- Google can notify you when new results appear, which turns this into a monitoring habit.
Opt out at the biggest people-search sites one at a time
Most people-search sites run their own opt-out page, usually linked in the footer as “Do not sell” or “Remove my info.” It’s tedious, so spend one hour on it and work through the sites that appear first when you search your own name and city.
Paying a removal service
Commercial services will do the opt-outs for a monthly fee. They can save time, but we did not test any for this article, and they use the same routes you can use for free. If you try one, check what it covers and how it handles your information. Remember that to find your records it needs the very details you are trying to protect.
The other half of the problem
Brokers are only one source. The same details leak through habits you control:
Public posts
Birthdays, schools and travel dates on open profiles. Our holiday travel privacy pass walks through a quick review.
Breaches
Data taken from companies is out of your hands. Our 30-minute lock-down plan focuses on what still can be controlled.
Your own accounts
Old shopping and forum accounts can hold an address and phone number you’ve long forgotten.
A plan you can finish
- Today (Californians): file a DROP request at privacy.ca.gov.
- This week: turn on Results about you and request removals for your phone and address.
- This month: spend an hour opting out of the top people-search sites.
- After the new year: search your name again and check the DROP status.
A shorter listing doesn’t make a caller trustworthy or untrustworthy. Keep the habit that matters regardless of what any stranger knows about you: if someone reads your details back to you, that proves only that they have your details. Hang up and call the organization on a number you found yourself.
What to do when a caller already knows your details
The point of this project is to shrink what’s available, but you will still get calls from people who know more than they should. Keep three responses ready. If a caller recites your address or birth year, don’t confirm or correct it. If they use a family member’s name to build trust, end the call and phone that relative yourself. And if an email quotes an old password, change that password wherever you used it and ignore the demand; a leaked password is evidence of a breach, and it doesn’t show anyone has accessed your device.
Older relatives usually have the longest paper trail in these databases, along with landline numbers that haven’t changed in decades. If you’re helping a parent, do their search too, and offer to sit with them for an afternoon of opt-outs. In California, DROP explicitly allows someone to submit a request on behalf of another resident.
Remember that listings return. Brokers receive new data continually, so it is worth repeating the Google check and the top people-search opt-outs once a year. Pair that with an annual look at what your own public profiles show.