Imagine if anyone can find out everything about you by just typing in your phone number. That’s how reverse lookup sites like USPhoneBook work. Just type in a phone number, and it will tell you whose it is, where the person lives, their known relatives and associates, and other contact information. It can be helpful when you’re the one doing the searching but creepy when you realize others can search for your information too.
That’s why we strongly recommend opting out of USPhoneBook, and we’ll show you in this guide how to do just that. However, there are a lot of people search sites like USPhoneBook. We’re talking hundreds of them. If you want an easier way to opt out of most of them, we tested Incogni and named it our favorite data removal service because it opted us out of 100 sites in one week. For now, though, one site: USPhoneBook.
>> Read More: A 2024 Guide to Data Removal Services
What Is USPhoneBook?
As the name implies, USPhoneBook specializes in collecting information related to phone numbers. Instead of trying to tie information to your name, USPhoneBook ties all of your information to your phone number. That said, it can still be used like a normal people search or data broker site by looking up someone’s name or address instead. By specializing in phone numbers, however, they make it easy for someone to find all of your information based on your number alone.
Pro Tip: You can keep your phone number hidden on the internet. It’s not an easy task though. You’ll need to remove it from Google, all of your social media profiles and any websites listing it as a point of contact. We made a step-by-step guide to removing your phone number from the internet you can follow.
How Do I Opt Out of USPhoneBook
There are a few ways to opt out of USPhoneBook. We told you our favorite is through Incogni — and we’ll talk about that — but first, we’re going to go over opting out manually. That way you can opt out right now without pulling out your wallet.
How to Remove Your Data Manually From USPhoneBook
To remove your data from USPhoneBook for free, you’ll need to do it manually. The whole process only took us five steps:
- Go to the opt out page. Before you can opt out, you need to find USPhoneBook’s opt-out page. It’s way down in the footer with a link called “Do Not Sell My Personal Information.” Since we’re opting out with you, here’s the link: https://www.usphonebook.com/opt-out. On that page, you need to check both boxes and enter your email.
- Find your record. After you submit your email address, you need to find your record. USPhoneBook directed us right to the search bar. We used our phone number to find our record, but you can use your name or address as well.
- View your record. Once you find your record, things get a bit confusing. On USPhoneBook’s opt-out page, they say to click the “VIEW FULL ADDRESS & PHONE” button, but our record didn’t have that button. Instead, you need to hit the “GET DETAILS FOR” button. That page is where you can request the removal of your information.
- Request the removal of your record. When you get to the page with all of your details, that’s where you can request the removal of your record. We clicked the “Remove Record” button to initiate our opt-out request.
- Confirm your opt-out request. After you click the “Remove Record” button, you’ll get an email from USPhoneBook to confirm your request. The link expires within 24 hours, so make sure you can access your email when you make your opt-out request. Once we hit the link, we were directed to a page confirming the removal of our information.
FYI: It can take up to 72 hours for USPhoneBook to take down your profile, but when we checked 24 hours later, our records were already removed. Similar to when we opted out of PeopleLooker, USPhoneBook’s opt-out process was impressively fast.
>> Up Next: How to Opt Out of LexisNexis
Use Data Removal Sites and Services to Opt Out of USPhoneBook
Sure, opting out of USPhoneBook doesn’t take too long. It’s a pretty easy process you can do with a few clicks of a button. We just did it ourselves, so we know. But it’s far from the only site that sells your information. Opting out of all of them would take a long time — at least if you do it all manually. This is where data removal sites and services come in. They handle the entire opt-out process for you to erase your information from these people search sites and data brokers.
By outsourcing the opt-out process to an automated service, we were able to get our information removed from 100 sites within a week. That was when we used Incogni. That’s not the only one we’ve tested though. We also tested Optery. They hire professionals to remove data on your behalf. That means they didn’t get results as quickly, but over time, they could remove our data from more sites. We broke down our experiences with the two in our Incogni vs. Optery comparison.
>> Learn More: Kanary vs. Incogni
Use Incogni to Opt Out of USPhoneBook
Like we said, Incogni is our favorite service for opting out of USPhoneBook. To use it, we needed to provide them with personal details like our place of employment, phone number, email address, full name and physical address. That’s how they find records matching our information and request its removal on our behalf. Once you put in that information, though, they handle the rest.
FYI: You can bundle Incogni with Surfshark VPN and antivirus. When we tested Surfshark VPN, it ended up being one of our favorite VPNs. Surfshark antivirus made our list of our top antivirus software as well. By bundling these services, you get a complete digital protection package.
Incogni makes it easy to search for your information and remove it from USPhoneBook.
What Happens Once I Opt Out of USPhoneBook?
After opting out of USPhoneBook, your record gets deleted within 72 hours. USPhoneBook is a bit better than most people search sites since it actively tries to avoid creating a new record for you based on new public records. That’s not a guarantee, but it’s more than we could say when we opted out of TruthFinder. We still recommend checking back in every year or so to make sure USPhoneBook hasn’t made a new record on you.
>> Read About: Five Easy Opt-Outs to Protect Your Identity and Privacy
Why Should You Opt Out of USPhoneBook?
Making your personal details difficult to find online helps keep you safe. Opting out of USPhoneBook makes it more difficult to find information about you online. They readily send all of your publicly available information to anyone with your phone number and a few dollars. Here are a few of the main reasons we opted out of USPhoneBook:
- Identity theft risks: Identity thieves use the information from sites like USPhoneBook as a starting point to bypass your security questions and get into your accounts. All they need is your phone number to start the process.
- Hide from stalkers: Stalkers can use USPhoneBook to search for your old number and find your new number. They’ll also get your current address and place of employment — two things we don’t want our stalkers to know.
- Reduce spam calls: Opting out can cut down on the amount of spam calls you get too. Call centers use USPhoneBook to get your name once they get your number. That way they can call you by name and make it seem like they know you.
Final Thoughts: How to Opt Out of USPhoneBook
We think everyone should opt out of USPhoneBook. It doesn’t serve you in any way, and the opt out process is pretty easy. We completed the whole opt-out process in under 20 minutes. That includes the time it took us to figure out which button to press once we found our record, since USPhoneBook’s instructions gave us the wrong name for the button.
Even though opting out of USPhoneBook is easy, there are hundreds of sites just like it actively selling your information to anyone with some extra cash in their wallet. That’s why we like to use Incogni to remove our data from these sites. It automates the whole process for us, so we don’t need to lift a finger aside from the initial setup — which only takes about 30 minutes. Whichever way you choose to remove your data from people search sites and data brokers, know that it’s well worth the effort or money.
USPhoneBook FAQ
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Does it cost money to remove my data from USPhoneBook?
You can opt out of USPhoneBook manually for free, just like we did.
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Will opting out of USPhoneBook prevent them from collecting my information?
While opting out doesn’t prevent USPhoneBook from collecting your information, they say that they do their best not to collect more of your data in the future. That’s more than most people search sites do.
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Where is the “VIEW FULL ADDRESS & PHONE” for opting out of USPhoneBook?
Recently, USPhoneBook changed the names of a few of their buttons, but they seem to have forgotten to update their opt-out instructions. Click the “GET DETAILS FOR” button instead. It brings you to the page where you can request the removal of your data.
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Why is my information back on USPhoneBook after I opted out?
USPhoneBook gets their information from thousands of different sources. They try not to recollect information from users who opt out, but some information slips through the cracks, and they could still end up creating another record of you. You’ll need to request the removal of the new record to get your data removed.
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Can I opt out of all people search sites at once?
There is not a way to opt out of all people search sites at once like the National Do Not Call Registry. However, you can use data removal services like Incogni to automatically submit opt-out requests on your behalf to remove your data from hundreds of people search sites and data brokers. Within a week, Incogni removed our information from 100 such sites.