How to Opt Out of Tracers

Tracers, owned by Enformion, is a powerful data broker that aggregates billions of public and proprietary records to provide skip tracing, people search, and background check services. Unlike consumer-facing people-search sites, Tracers primarily serves professional users such as private investigators, debt collectors, law firms, and insurance companies. If your personal information is in the Tracers database, it means professionals can look up your address, phone number, relatives, assets, and more with a few clicks. Here is how to opt out.

What Data Does Tracers Collect?

Tracers aggregates data from a wide range of sources to build detailed profiles on individuals. The types of information available through Tracers include:

• Names and aliases: Current and former names, including maiden names
• Addresses: Current and historical addresses going back decades
• Phone numbers: Landline, cell phone, and unlisted numbers
• Email addresses: Current and former email accounts
• Relatives and associates: Family members and known associates
• Property records: Real estate ownership, deeds, and tax assessments
• Vehicle registrations: Car, truck, and motorcycle registrations
• Court records: Civil and criminal case filings
• Bankruptcy filings: Federal bankruptcy records
• Professional licenses: State-issued professional licenses
• Social media profiles: Linked online accounts

This data is used for locating individuals, conducting background checks, verifying identities, and supporting legal investigations. Because Tracers serves a professional market, the depth of data available is often greater than what you would find on a consumer people-search site.

Step 1: Visit the Tracers Opt-Out Portal

Tracers provides an online opt-out process through their privacy portal:

1. Go to: tracers.com/opt-out/
2. Enter your email address and name: You will need to provide an email address where Tracers can send a verification link, along with your name.
3. Complete the reCAPTCHA: Verify that you are a human by completing the CAPTCHA challenge.
4. Submit the form: Click submit to initiate the opt-out process.

Step 2: Verify Your Email

After submitting the opt-out form, Tracers will send a verification email to the address you provided:

1. Check your inbox: Look for an email from Tracers within a few minutes of submitting your request.
2. Check your spam folder: The verification email may be caught by spam filters.
3. Click the verification link: You must click the link within 24 hours or your opt-out request will expire and you will need to start over.

Step 3: Complete the Opt-Out Form

After clicking the verification link, you will be directed to a detailed opt-out form:

1. Fill in your personal information: Enter your full legal name, current address, and any other identifying details requested. This information must match what Tracers has on file so they can locate and remove your records.
2. Provide additional details if prompted: Tracers may ask for previous addresses or other identifying information to ensure they match the correct records.
3. Submit the completed form: Review your entries and submit.

Step 4: Verify Your Removal

After the 30-day processing window, verify that your information has been removed:

• If you know someone with a Tracers account (such as a licensed investigator), ask them to run a search for your name
• Check other data broker sites that may source data from Tracers to see if your information has been reduced
• Search for your name on general people-search sites to assess your overall online exposure

What to Do If Your Data Reappears

One of the frustrating realities of data broker opt-outs is that your information can reappear after removal. This happens because:

• Tracers continuously ingests new data: Public records are updated regularly, and new data imports can re-add your information to the database.
• Other data brokers share data: Even if Tracers removes your records, partner databases may feed the information back in.
• Public records are the original source: As long as your information appears in property records, court filings, voter registrations, and other public databases, data brokers can re-harvest it.

If your data reappears, you will need to repeat the opt-out process. This is not a one-time fix but an ongoing maintenance task.

Additional Steps to Reduce Your Tracers Exposure

Since Tracers pulls from a wide range of sources, reducing your footprint across those sources helps prevent your data from being re-added:

• Opt out of other data brokers: Tracers may source data from other aggregators. Opting out of major brokers like LexisNexis, Acxiom, and people-search sites reduces the data pipeline feeding into Tracers.
• Remove your information from public records where possible: Some states allow you to redact personal information from voter registration rolls or request confidential address programs.
• Use a P.O. Box or mail forwarding service: Reduce the number of public records tied to your home address.
• Limit social media exposure: Make your social media profiles private and remove personal details like your phone number and home city.

Key Points to Remember

• Tracers serves professionals, not the general public. Its users include investigators, law firms, debt collectors, and insurance companies with licensed access.
• The opt-out is not guaranteed to be permanent. Data may reappear as Tracers ingests new public records.
• You must verify your email within 24 hours. Missing the verification window means starting over.
• Matching information is critical. The details you provide in the opt-out form must match what Tracers has on file, or they may not be able to locate and remove your records.

Removing your data from Tracers is one important step, but it is just one of many data brokers that hold your personal information. The ongoing nature of data broker opt-outs, where information can reappear weeks or months after removal, makes manual management a full-time job. PrivacyOn automates this process across 100+ data brokers, continuously monitoring for your information and submitting removal requests on your behalf so you do not have to repeat the cycle yourself.