To get a deceased relative's profile taken down from a people-search site, use the site's own opt-out form or privacy contact, explain that the person has died and that you are family or the executor, and ask that the listing be suppressed. There is no central registry that does this for every site, and state privacy laws are written around living residents, so whether a site acts is largely up to the site. Some sites' opt-out forms simply take the listing's details without checking who is asking; others will want to know your relationship to the person. Separately, a deceased relative's profile often lists living family members — and each of them can send a request about their own information under the usual rules.
This guide covers what you can ask for, where to send it, and three related steps people often handle at the same time: marketing mail, Google results, and the credit bureaus. Throughout, "remove" means ask to remove: each site decides what to do with a request.
Why the profile is still there
People-search sites build profiles from records they collect, and a profile can stay up after the person has died, still showing an address, phone number and a list of relatives.
That last part matters. A people-search profile is partly made of other people — spouses, children, siblings. If you are named on a deceased parent's profile, your name, and sometimes a link to your own profile, may be visible there.
What the law covers, and what it doesn't
US state privacy laws give rights to living residents. The California Attorney General, explaining who the CCPA covers, defines a California resident as "a natural person ... who resides in California." The Attorney General's page describes the rights to know and delete as rights of that resident, and does not describe a way for family to file on behalf of someone who has died. Treat a request about a deceased relative as a request the site may honor under its own policy, not one it is required to.
The CCPA does let a person authorize an agent to file requests for them, and the Attorney General notes a business may ask for proof of signed permission. That is for living consumers.
Your own information is different. If you are a living relative named on the profile, you can ask the site to delete or stop selling your information under your state's law, if it has one. See state privacy laws with a right to delete.
Step 1: find the listings
Search the main people-search sites for your relative's name and last known city. Check sites focused on family history too — genealogy and memorial sites publish different information from people-search sites. Save each listing's URL.
The free kit gives you search links for the most common people-search sites in your browser, and a checklist to track each one. Our directory is at /sites/.
Step 2: send each site a request
Use each site's opt-out page. Our guides give the page, the verification step and any known problems:
Some forms ask only for details that match the listing. That's Them's form, for example, requires a full name, street address, city, state, ZIP code, email and phone (checked 2026-10-06) — the record's details plus a contact email for the confirmation. Where a site verifies by email, the confirmation goes to the address you enter.
Where a site has no form, or the form will not accept the request, write to its privacy address. A short message is enough:
Subject: Request to remove the listing of a deceased person
[Name of deceased] died on [month, year]. I am their
[relationship / executor of their estate].
The listing is at: [profile URL]
Please remove or suppress this listing. I am also named on
it as a relative; please remove my information as well.
[Your name]
Do not send a death certificate unless the site asks for one, and if it does, consider whether you are comfortable sending it to that business. Removal is not guaranteed — some sites don't comply, and some take a long time.
Genealogy and memorial sites
Family-history and memorial sites work differently from people-search sites. Some route changes through an account rather than an opt-out form — our Find a Grave guide, for example, records that a memorial is edited by its manager, with a support ticket as the other route. Our guides cover several:
For an obituary on a funeral home's website, ask the funeral home that posted it.
Step 3: Google results
Google's Results about you tool is for your own information. Google's help page says that a request submitted through it on behalf of someone else, from your own Google account, "may be denied," and points to its detailed removal request form instead. That form asks whether the content is about you or about "someone I am authorized to represent (parent, guardian, lawyer, etc.)", and covers addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, among other information. Whether Google acts on a request about a deceased person is Google's decision.
Google removes results from its search, not from the site. See our guide to Results about you.
Step 4: stop marketing mail
DMAchoice, run by the Association of National Advertisers, keeps a Deceased Do Not Contact List. Per its page (checked 2026-10-06):
- "Friends, relatives and caregivers" can register someone who has died.
- It asks for the person's name, address, phone and email, the month and year of death, and your name, email and relationship.
- There is a $6 administrative processing fee.
- It says "We expect that you will see a reduction in your promotional mail within three months."
See how to remove yourself from marketing mail lists for the related opt-outs.
Step 5: tell the credit bureaus
This is separate from people-search sites, but it is often done at the same time. Equifax's help page says:
- Only "the spouse of the deceased person or a representative legally authorized to act on the person's behalf" can report a death. If you are not the spouse, you will need court documents showing your authority.
- You mail a copy of the death certificate with the person's legal name, Social Security number, date of birth and date of death, plus your own name, mailing address and government-issued ID.
- Equifax's address for this is Equifax Information Services LLC, P.O. Box 105139, Atlanta, GA 30348-5139.
- "When one bureau adds a deceased notice to the person's credit file, it will notify the other two."
Step 6: check the pages again
Open each listing URL again once a site says it has acted. Profiles can be rebuilt from new records under a new URL, so it is worth searching again later. See how to check a removal worked and why your information reappears.