For many people, their personal information is easily discoverable via a simple Google search. Details like your address and phone number are listed on people search sites and data broker sites, with much more information available to those willing to pay.
We’ve launched a free service that scans these types of sites for your information, offering a thorough accounting of where your data is listed.
How does the free data exposure scan work?
You’ll first need to enter your personal information, which we keep safe in accordance with our privacy policy. Then the tool will immediately scour numerous data brokers and people-search sites for your details, producing a list of all the places where your data appears. This process takes about 30 seconds.
There is no signup or credit card information required for this free scan. And you don’t have to be an ExpressVPN subscriber. Anyone in the U.S. can use it.
Knowing your exposure is the first step to protecting your data. Once you see what’s out there, we’ll also show you how to remove your data. Try our free scan here.
Risks of data exposure by data brokers
Your personal data is being collected and sold online—without your consent. This makes you vulnerable to spam, scams, and identity theft.
Data brokers collect personal information about individuals and organize the data to create detailed profiles, which are sold or licensed to other third-party companies. Examples of these personal details include your date of birth, home address, and phone number. People often have little knowledge or control over how their data is used.
People-search sites are online platforms that allow users to look up information about individuals. These sites aggregate and display data from various public records and other sources, providing details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, social media profiles, and sometimes even financial or employment information.
Both of these types of sites lower your privacy by making it much easier for anyone to find out your information.
How to remove your details from websites
You can ask for your personal information to be taken down from these sites yourself, but it’s a time-consuming and complex process. You have to contact each one individually and do it over and over again, as your data might reappear. This manual process can take over 300 hours per year.
You might consider our Data Removal service, which comes free with ExpressVPN’s two-year plan. Here’s what it does:
- Searches for your personal information listed by data brokers and people-search sites.
- Requests each site take down your details, saving you the hassle.
- Repeats this process regularly, ensuring your data is removed wherever it reappears.
Sign up for ExpressVPN’s two-year plan to get Data Removal and our full suite of identity protection tools.