How to Remove Yourself from Phone Directories

If you have a landline phone number, then you will be included in your local phonebook by default. You have to ask your phone company to keep your information anonymous if you don�t want your information public (and this usually costs a fee). There are no official phonebooks for cell phone numbers. So, you might think that means your cell phone number is private and can�t be used to access your personal information. Wrong! Just signup to a reputable reverse cell phone directory and type in your cell phone number. You will not only see your name come up, but may also see other personal information too. For people who value privacy, it is unfortunately very difficult to get yourself removed from these listings.

Reverse phone directories � many which also offer people search services � are not connected with your phone company. If you ask your phone company to keep your number anonymous, the phone company will keep it out of their publications but it will not prevent it from getting into online directories. The reverse phone directory or people search company will get your phone number and personal information from other ways � such as buying lists from credit bureau companies.

The only real way to opt out of online phone directories is to visit each of them individually and request to have your information removed. This is nearly impossible simply because there are so many online phone directories and you would have to visit them each individually, signup, and then request the information be removed. You would also have to keep up to date with new phone directories and people searches online. Further, you would have to avoid ever giving out your personal information to companies/agencies again (which is impossible for most people) because this information could find its way back onto the directory.

One way that you can get most of your information removed from online directories is going over to OptOutPreScreen.com. This is a service which will let you remove your name and info from the data lists which are sold by 3 massive credit reporting bureaus. You can also go to DMAchoice.org and put yourself on the Do Not Mail list. It will cost you $1 to do this but will cut back on some of the information which finds its way to the net, and also cut back on spam.

Aside from these methods, the best way to keep your personal information private is by taking preventative measures. When you are online, you should never give out your personal information like telephone number or email without first reading a website�s privacy policy. Most reputable companies will not share your information but many will compile lists and sell the information off to marketing companies, which in turn sell it to other data collectors like reverse phone directories. If you haven�t already done so, you also want to make sure that you have opted out of the White Pages. You may have to call them every month to make sure that your information doesn�t get shared though, which is a big hassle. Unfortunately, in this day and age of information sharing, it isn�t easy to stay anonymous!