The BeenVerified opt out is free and takes about five minutes per record. 

You open the removal page, search for yourself by name and state, pick the listing that matches, click Proceed to Opt Out, enter an email address, clear the CAPTCHA, and then click the verification link BeenVerified sends you. Nothing happens until you click that link, and it expires after 48 hours. BeenVerified says removal takes 24 to 72 hours; most listings go dark within a day, some take a week.

That is the short version. The long version matters because BeenVerified is one of nine consumer brands run by the same company, its opt-out does not reach the others, and the record you remove can be rebuilt from fresh data a few months later. This guide covers the form, the traps, the sister sites, the state-law routes that reach further than the form does, and what to do when the request is ignored.

What This Guide Covers

How the BeenVerified opt out works step by step, what BeenVerified actually publishes, why the record exists in the first place, how to find every listing before you submit, the Do Not Sell route under state privacy law, California’s one-request DROP system, what to do when the opt-out fails or the record comes back, the eight sister sites that share BeenVerified’s parent, and how to clear the old listing out of Google. There is a short FAQ at the end and a summary if you only need the steps.

BeenVerified Opt Out At A Glance

What BeenVerified Publishes

BeenVerified is a subscription background-check and people-search service. Anyone who pays the monthly fee can pull a report on you that combines your full name and known aliases, current and past addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, age and birth month, relatives and associates, property records, vehicle records, social media profiles, employment and education history where it has been scraped, and criminal, court and bankruptcy records where they exist. Free visitors see a teaser: name, age, city, a few relatives, and a prompt to pay for the rest.

Two things make BeenVerified more of a problem than the average people-search site. First, the teaser pages are indexed. A Google search for your name plus your city will often return a BeenVerified page in the first few results, and that page names your relatives and your street. Second, BeenVerified sits on top of a shared data layer that feeds eight other consumer brands under the same parent, The Lifetime Value Company. Remove yourself from BeenVerified and the same record is still live on PeopleLooker, NeighborWho and Ownerly until you remove it there too.

None of this data comes from you. BeenVerified aggregates public records (county property and court filings, voter rolls where they are public, corporate registrations), commercial data purchased from other brokers, and scraped web content. That is also why the record comes back: the sources keep flowing, and a removed record is rebuilt when a new address or phone number arrives that matches your identity.

Is BeenVerified Legit?

Yes, in the sense that it is a real company, it charges real money, and the reports are assembled from real records. BeenVerified, Inc. was founded in 2007, is headquartered in New York, and is owned by The Lifetime Value Company, which also runs PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly, Bumper, ReversePhone, NumberGuru, PeopleSmart and MoneyBot5000. It is registered as a data broker where states require it and it honors opt-outs. It is not a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which means its reports legally cannot be used for employment, tenant screening, credit or insurance decisions, and the site says so.

The complaints you will find online cluster around two things: the subscription, which auto-renews and which people find hard to cancel, and the accuracy of reports, which mix records for people with similar names. Neither affects the opt-out, which is a separate, free process that does not require an account. If you are trying to cancel a BeenVerified subscription rather than remove your data, that is a different procedure: log in, go to Account, choose Cancel Membership, or call 1-844-823-2869. Cancelling the subscription does not remove your record and removing your record does not cancel a subscription.

The Two Removal Routes, And When To Use Each

Route 1 is the public opt-out form. It is fast, it needs no proof of identity beyond an email address, and it removes the specific listing you select. Use it first, always.

Route 2 is a state privacy law request: the Do Not Sell or Share link, or a formal deletion request under the California Consumer Privacy Act or one of the other state laws BeenVerified recognizes. It is slower (up to 45 days, extendable to 90), it may require identity verification, and it reaches further: it can cover data BeenVerified holds about you that is not shown in a public listing, and it creates a paper trail you can escalate on. Use it when the form fails, when you have multiple listings under variant names, or when you live in a state whose law gives you a deletion right and you want the record gone from the database rather than hidden from the site.

Step 0: Find Every Listing Before You Submit Anything

The opt-out form removes one record at a time, and BeenVerified frequently holds two or three records for the same person: one under your current name and address, one under a maiden or former name, one under a misspelling or a middle-name variant. Removing the main one leaves the others live and indexed.

Before you start, search BeenVerified for each name you have used, in each state you have lived in during the past 15 years. Note every listing that is you, with its age, city and the relatives shown, so you can tell them apart from namesakes. Then run the same searches on Google with your name in quotes plus “beenverified” to catch any indexed teaser pages the site search misses. Write the list down. You will work through it in order.

BeenVerified Removal, Step By Step

1. Open the opt-out page directly. Go to beenverified.com/app/optout/search. If that path changes, scroll to the footer of any BeenVerified page and click “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information,” which lands on the same search. Do not use the main search box on the homepage; it leads to the paid report flow.
2. Search for yourself. Enter your first name, last name and state. Leave the city blank on the first pass so you catch listings tied to old addresses. Click Search.
3. Find the right record. Results show name, age range, current city and a few relatives. Match against the list you made in Step 0. If nothing matches, try the variant names; if there is still nothing, you may not have a record, but check the sister sites before you assume that.
4. Click Proceed to Opt Out beside the matching record. Only one record can be selected per request.
5. Enter an email address you can open right now. The address is used only to send the verification link. It does not need to be one BeenVerified already has for you, and using a fresh address avoids adding a live email to their file. Tick the CAPTCHA.
6. Click Send Verification Email. BeenVerified confirms the request is pending and tells you to check your inbox.
7. Open the email and click the verification link. Look for a message from BeenVerified with a subject along the lines of “Verify your opt-out request.” Check spam if it has not arrived in five minutes. The link expires in 48 hours; if it lapses, start again from Step 1. Clicking the link opens a confirmation page. The request is not real until you see that page.
8. Save the confirmation. Screenshot the confirmation page and keep the email. If the record reappears or the request is ignored, this is your evidence.
9. Repeat for every record on your list. Each listing is a separate request and a separate verification email. Work through the variants one by one.
10. Check back in 72 hours. Search the opt-out page again for each name. Then search Google for your name plus “beenverified.” The site listing should be gone within a day or two; the Google result can linger for weeks (see below).

Route 2: Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information

BeenVerified’s privacy policy recognizes consumer rights for residents of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, and the list grows as new state laws take effect. If you live in one of those states you can ask BeenVerified to tell you what it holds, to delete it, to stop selling or sharing it, and to correct it.

The route is the same footer link, which for state-law purposes doubles as the opt-out-of-sale request, or an email to privacy@beenverified.com stating your name, your state, the right you are exercising (deletion, opt-out of sale, or access), and enough detail to identify the record. BeenVerified may ask you to verify your identity; that is permitted under the state laws, and providing a copy of a government ID with the number redacted is usually enough. The company has 45 days to respond, extendable by another 45 with notice.

A deletion request is more useful than the public form in two situations. If you have several listings under variant names, one written request can list all of them. And if the record keeps returning, a deletion request under state law puts BeenVerified on notice that it must not re-sell or re-share your data, which strengthens any complaint you later file with your state attorney general.

If you live outside those states, the form and the email still work, BeenVerified just is not legally obliged to honor a deletion request. In practice it processes them anyway.

California: One Request That Reaches 600 Brokers

California residents have a better option than opting out of brokers one at a time. Under the Delete Act, the state’s Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform (DROP) opened to consumers in January 2026 at privacy.ca.gov/drop. You verify residency once, submit a single deletion request, and every data broker registered with the California Privacy Protection Agency, more than 600 as of mid-2026, is required to process it. Brokers had to start honoring DROP requests on August 1, 2026, and have 90 days from the request to delete your records; after that they must re-check the DROP list at least every 45 days and delete any new match.

Enrollment passed 300,000 Californians by June 2026. Do it even if you have already opted out of BeenVerified by hand, because DROP is the only route that stops the record from being rebuilt: brokers must keep checking the list, so a re-collected record is deleted again automatically. Confirm BeenVerified and its sister brands appear on the CPPA’s public registry before relying on DROP alone; the registry lists each broker’s website and contact details. DROP is for California residents only.

When The BeenVerified Opt Out Does Not Work

No verification email. Check spam and promotions folders, then wait 15 minutes. If it still has not arrived, resubmit with a different email provider. Some corporate mail filters block BeenVerified’s sending domain outright.

The link expired. Start over. There is no way to re-send the email for an old request.

“We could not find a record.” Either you have no listing, or it is under a variant name or an old state. Try the variants from Step 0 and try leaving the state blank if the form allows it.

The listing is still live after 72 hours. Search again to be sure you are not looking at a second record for the same person. If it is the same record, email privacy@beenverified.com with the date of your request, the name and city on the listing, and your confirmation screenshot. Ask for written confirmation of removal. Support typically responds within three business days.

The record shows someone else’s details mixed with yours. Opt out of it anyway. A merged record is still indexed under your name.

You cannot see the listing because you are outside the US. BeenVerified geo-blocks parts of the site. Use a US-based connection or ask someone in the US to run the search and forward the listing details; the opt-out itself can then be submitted with your own email.

Why Removed Listings Come Back

An opt-out tells BeenVerified to suppress the record you selected. It does not stop the company from ingesting new data. When a new source arrives, a change-of-address filing, a new phone number, a fresh scrape of a social profile, BeenVerified’s matching system may create a new record for you rather than attach the data to the suppressed one. That new record is live and indexed until you opt out again.

BeenVerified also states that it may retain data for legal and operational reasons after an opt-out, which is standard for the industry and means the underlying file never fully disappears; only the public listing does. The practical answer is a calendar reminder every three to four months to re-run the searches from Step 0, or an automated removal service that does the checking for you, or, for Californians, DROP.

Who Actually Runs BeenVerified

BeenVerified, Inc. is a subsidiary of The Lifetime Value Company (LTV), a private company based at 48 West 38th Street in Manhattan. LTV operates nine consumer brands off shared data infrastructure:

• BeenVerified, the flagship people-search and background-check service.
• PeopleLooker, a near-identical people-search product marketed separately.
• NeighborWho, property records and owner lookup by address.
• Ownerly, home valuation and property data, which exposes owner names against addresses.
• Bumper, vehicle history by plate or VIN, which can surface owner information.
• ReversePhone and NumberGuru, reverse phone lookup, which tie your number to your name.
• PeopleSmart, a B2B contact-data product aimed at sales teams.
• MoneyBot5000, an unclaimed-funds search.

Each brand has its own opt-out page and its own privacy address (privacy@peoplelooker.com, and so on). Every independent guide that has tested it, and our own experience, finds that a BeenVerified opt-out does not clear the sister sites. After your BeenVerified requests are verified, search PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly, Bumper (by any plate you have held) and ReversePhone (by your number) and submit each one separately. Budget half an hour for the full set.

Clearing The Old Listing Out Of Google And Bing

Removing the page from BeenVerified does not remove it from search results immediately. Google keeps a cached copy and the snippet until it recrawls the URL and finds it gone, which can take days or weeks for a low-traffic page.

To speed it up, copy the exact URL of the old listing from your Step 0 notes and submit it to Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool (search “refresh outdated content” to reach it). Google checks that the page now 404s or no longer contains the text and drops it from the index, usually within a few days. Bing has an equivalent Content Removal tool in Bing Webmaster Tools that accepts URLs without site ownership. If the listing contained your home address, phone number or email, you can also use Google’s Results About You tool, which lets you request removal of pages exposing personal contact information regardless of whether the source page is still live.

Escalating, If The Request Is Ignored

If a verified opt-out is still live after two weeks and privacy@beenverified.com has not responded, send a written request by post to BeenVerified, Inc., 48 West 38th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018, citing the date of your verified request and, if you live in a state with a privacy law, the statute you are relying on. Keep a copy.

Beyond that, complaints go to your state attorney general’s consumer protection office (California residents can also complain to the California Privacy Protection Agency), and to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov. A people-search site ignoring a verified opt-out is exactly the kind of pattern regulators look for, and a documented complaint with your screenshots attached is more likely to get a response than another email.

The Same Record Lives On A Dozen Other Sites

BeenVerified is one of roughly 30 people-search sites that matter for search visibility, and the same public records feed all of them. If a Google search for your name shows BeenVerified, it almost certainly also shows Spokeo, Whitepages, FastPeopleSearch, PeopleFinders, TruthFinder, Intelius and Radaris. Removing yourself from one leaves the rest. 

We have separate step-by-step guides for the Spokeo opt out, the Whitepages opt out, the FastPeopleSearch opt out and the Acxiom opt out, and a broader guide to removing personal data from data broker sites that covers the rest of the list and the order to work through them.

If you would rather not do 30 forms by hand and then repeat them every quarter, an automated removal service submits and re-submits the requests for you. Our roundup of the best personal privacy protection services in 2026 compares the main options.

When To Bring In A Reputation Management Team

An opt-out solves a BeenVerified listing. It does not solve a search results page where the people-search sites are the least of the problem: a news article, a court record on a third-party site, a review, a forum thread. Those need a different toolkit, and a data broker cleanup is usually the first step of a larger project rather than the whole of it.

When The Exposure Is Bigger Than One Listing

ReVerb works with individuals and businesses whose search results need more than a form. That includes suppressing or removing harmful pages, handling the data broker sweep across every site at once, and building the positive presence that pushes the rest down. If you are dealing with a listing that has already caused a problem, or a name search that is costing you work, start with our lists of the best reputation management firms in 2026 and the top content removal services for individuals and businesses, or contact ReVerb directly through our reputation management page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the BeenVerified opt out free?

Yes. The opt-out form is free and does not require an account or a subscription. Anyone asking you to pay to remove a BeenVerified listing is selling a service you can do yourself in five minutes, though paid services do earn their fee if they also handle the other 30 sites and the quarterly re-checks.

How long does BeenVerified take to remove your information?

BeenVerified says 24 to 72 hours after you click the verification link. Most listings disappear within a day. Google can take longer to drop the cached result; use the Refresh Outdated Content tool to speed that up.

Does the BeenVerified opt out remove me from PeopleLooker and NeighborWho?

No. PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly, Bumper, ReversePhone and NumberGuru are all run by BeenVerified’s parent company but each needs its own opt-out request.

Why is my BeenVerified listing back after I opted out?

BeenVerified keeps collecting data, and a new address, phone number or scraped profile can create a fresh record that is not covered by the earlier suppression. Re-run the opt-out, and set a reminder to check every three to four months. Californians can use DROP, which forces brokers to keep deleting re-collected records.

Do I need to give BeenVerified my ID to opt out?

Not for the standard form; an email address is enough. A formal deletion request under a state privacy law may require identity verification, and a redacted ID copy is normally accepted.

Can I opt out on behalf of a family member?

The form does not check who is submitting, so in practice yes, as long as you can open the verification email. For a state-law deletion request on someone else’s behalf you will need their written authorization.

Does opting out cancel my BeenVerified subscription?

No. They are separate systems. Cancel the subscription from your account settings or by phone; opt out of the listing through the removal form. Do both if you want both.

Is BeenVerified a consumer reporting agency?

No. Its reports cannot legally be used for employment, tenant, credit or insurance decisions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the site says so. If someone used a BeenVerified report to make one of those decisions about you, that is a separate legal issue worth raising with a consumer attorney.

The Short Version

Go to beenverified.com/app/optout/search, search your name and state, click Proceed to Opt Out on the matching record, enter an email, clear the CAPTCHA, and click the verification link within 48 hours. Repeat for every variant of your name. Then do the same on PeopleLooker, NeighborWho, Ownerly and Bumper, because the BeenVerified opt out does not reach them. Submit the old URL to Google’s Refresh Outdated Content tool. If you live in California, enroll in DROP so the record is deleted again every time it comes back. Everyone else: calendar reminder, every three to four months, or a removal service that does it for you.