How to Opt Out of OldFriends

OldFriends (old-friends.co) is a platform designed to help people reconnect with high school classmates and old acquaintances. While it operates differently from traditional data brokers, your name, school, and graduation year are still publicly listed — and that's enough to make some people uncomfortable. Here's what you need to know and how to remove yourself.

What Is OldFriends?

OldFriends is a reunion-style social platform where users can register to find — or be found by — people they went to school with. Unlike aggressive data brokers that sell personal information to advertisers or background check companies, OldFriends takes a more restrained approach:

• They do not sell your email address or other contact information to third parties
• Messages are forwarded without revealing whether they were received or whether you have an account
• Contact information is not given out directly — the platform acts as a middleman
• Publicly visible data still includes your name, the school you attended, and your graduation year

That said, even limited public exposure can be a concern. If your name and high school graduation year are visible to anyone who visits the site, it contributes to your broader digital footprint — information that data aggregators can combine with other sources to build a more complete profile.

What Information Does OldFriends Display?

When someone searches OldFriends, they can typically see:

• Your full name
• The high school or school you attended
• Your graduation year
• Whether you have registered on the platform

Direct contact details like your phone number, home address, or email are not publicly displayed. However, the combination of your name, school, and graduation year is enough for someone to identify and locate you through other means.

How to Opt Out of OldFriends

Step 1: Opt Out of Future Messages

OldFriends provides a dedicated opt-out page that lets you stop receiving forwarded messages from the platform. To use it:

1. Go to old-friends.co/optOut.php
2. Enter the email address associated with your account or listing
3. Submit the form to opt out of future contact attempts forwarded through the platform

Step 2: Request Personal Information Updates or Removal

If you want your name, school, or other details updated or removed from the site entirely, OldFriends does not have a self-service deletion tool. Instead, you'll need to contact them directly:

1. Navigate to the Contact page on old-friends.co
2. Use the contact form to submit a request explaining what you want removed or corrected
3. Be specific: state your full name, the school listed, and whether you want your record updated or deleted entirely
4. Expect a response within 5 business days, per their stated policy

Keep a record of your request — note the date you submitted it and any confirmation or reference number you receive.

Step 3: Follow Up If Needed

If you don't hear back within a week or your information remains visible after a response, submit a follow-up through the same contact form. You can also reference applicable privacy laws — depending on your state, you may have the right to request deletion of your personal data under laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or similar state regulations.

Is OldFriends a Serious Privacy Threat?

Compared to data brokers like Spokeo, BeenVerified, or Whitepages, OldFriends is relatively low-risk. Their privacy policy is more consumer-friendly, they don't sell data to marketers, and they don't publish home addresses or phone numbers. For most people, OldFriends ranks lower on the priority list when doing a full privacy cleanup.

However, here's why it still matters:

• Data aggregation: Smaller sites like OldFriends contribute data points that aggregators combine with other sources to build detailed profiles
• Stalking and harassment risks: Even school and graduation year data can help a bad actor narrow down your identity and location
• Digital footprint reduction: Every site that lists your name is one more place someone can find you — and one more place you have to monitor

Tips for a More Complete Privacy Cleanup

• Check public records sites first. OldFriends and similar reunion platforms often pull from the same public records that feed larger data brokers. Removing yourself from the major sources reduces what smaller sites can display.
• Search your name regularly. Set up a Google Alert for your name to catch new listings as they appear.
• Use a separate email for opt-outs. When submitting removal requests, use an email address you don't mind being associated with removal requests — not your primary account.
• Document everything. Keep a spreadsheet of which sites you've requested removal from and when, so you can follow up systematically.

Privacy cleanup is ongoing work. Sites like OldFriends are just one piece of a much larger puzzle that includes dozens of data brokers, public records aggregators, and people-search engines — all of which can list your information without your knowledge or consent.

PrivacyOn automates removal requests across 100+ data broker and people-search sites, monitoring them continuously so that when your information reappears, it gets taken down again. Rather than manually tracking dozens of opt-out forms and contact requests, PrivacyOn handles the entire process on your behalf.