How to Remove Yourself From PeekYou

To opt out of PeekYou, find your PeekYou profile page, copy its URL, and submit it through the removal or opt-out link in PeekYou’s site footer or privacy policy. You’ll typically give an email address and confirm the request from a link PeekYou sends you. It’s free, each profile needs its own request, and because PeekYou gathers links from around the web, it helps to tighten the source profiles too so a new page doesn’t rebuild itself.

PeekYou is different from most people-search sites. Rather than starting from public records, it’s built around your online footprint: social media accounts, personal websites, blogs and mentions, grouped under your name. That means the peekyou opt out removes the page, but the links on it point to places that are still public. This guide covers both halves. For a plan covering many sites at once, see our guide to removing yourself from people-search sites.

What PeekYou shows about you

A PeekYou profile collects what can be found about a name online and presents it on one page. It can include links to social media accounts, usernames, personal or work websites, photos, news mentions, and sometimes basic details such as age, city and possible relatives drawn from other sources. It may also point to paid background reports offered by partner sites.

The effect is a shortcut. Someone who would otherwise need to search several platforms can find your accounts and usernames in one place. For people dealing with harassment, that shortcut is what makes PeekYou worth dealing with early.

PeekYou pages also get things wrong. It’s common to see a profile that mixes your accounts with those of someone who shares your name. That can be a reputation problem of its own if the other person’s content isn’t something you’d want linked to you.

Before you start

• Find every profile. Search your name on PeekYou, with and without a middle initial, and with any usernames you use regularly. Open each result that lists your accounts or city.
• Save each profile URL. Copy the full address from the browser bar, not the search results page.
• Use a separate email. A dedicated address for privacy requests keeps your main inbox out of more databases.
• Screenshot what’s shown. Keep a quick record of which accounts and details appeared. It makes the source cleanup easier later.

Step by step: the PeekYou opt-out

1. Open PeekYou’s own site. Type peekyou.com into your browser instead of clicking an ad.
2. Find the removal route. Look in the footer for an opt-out, removal or privacy link. The privacy policy also explains how to ask for removal.
3. Paste your profile URL. Enter the exact profile URL you saved, plus your name and email address as the form asks.
4. Give a short reason if asked. “I want my personal information removed” is enough. You don’t need to explain further.
5. Submit and confirm by email. Open the confirmation email from PeekYou and click the link. Check spam if it doesn’t arrive. Unconfirmed requests are usually not processed.
6. Repeat for each profile. Submit each URL separately.
7. Check back. After some days, reload each saved URL and search your name again on PeekYou.

Removal pages change over time, and yours may look a little different. The steps that matter stay the same: find your own profile URL, use PeekYou’s official route, confirm by email, then check.

Tighten the sources PeekYou links to

This is the part that makes the opt-out last. PeekYou can only link to what’s publicly visible. If your social accounts stay public and searchable by name, a new page can be assembled from them later, on PeekYou or on any similar site, such as the IDCrawl aggregator.

• Review each linked account. Use the screenshots you took. For each account, decide whether it should be public, private or deleted.
• Turn off search-by-name where you can. Several social platforms let you control whether your profile appears in search engines or can be found by email or phone number.
• Retire old usernames. Old accounts you no longer use are the easiest to delete, and they often carry the most outdated personal details.
• Separate personal and professional. Keep one public professional profile under your name and make personal accounts private.

Our guide on how to clean up your digital footprint goes through this platform by platform.

What the opt-out covers and what it doesn’t

Item	Removed by the PeekYou opt-out?
The PeekYou profile you submitted	Yes, once confirmed and processed.
Other PeekYou profiles for you	No. Each URL needs its own request.
Your social media accounts and websites	No. They stay as public as your settings allow.
Paid background reports on partner sites	No. Those sites run their own opt-outs.
Other people-search and aggregator sites	No. Each has its own process.
The Google result for the old profile	Not immediately. Google updates it after recrawling, or sooner with a refresh request.

If PeekYou mixes you up with someone else

If a profile under your name links to another person’s accounts, you have two choices. You can ask for the whole page to be removed through the opt-out, which is usually simplest. Or, if the page is mostly someone else, focus on removing any links or details that are actually yours.

Sharing a name with someone whose online presence is a problem is a wider issue than PeekYou. Our guide on having the same name as someone with a bad reputation explains how to make sure searches find the right person.

Why a PeekYou page can come back

Aggregators rebuild pages as they find new material. A new social account, a new job page or a news mention can be enough to create a fresh profile. That doesn’t mean the first opt-out failed. It usually means there’s something new and public to link to.

• Search yourself on PeekYou every few months, and after opening a new public account.
• Submit any new profile URL the same way.
• Keep the source accounts tidy so there’s less to gather.

If you’re working through a long list of sites, our data broker opt-out list suggests an order, and our guide on whether data removal services are worth it helps you decide whether to do it yourself.

Clean up the Google result too

PeekYou pages often appear in Google for people’s names. Once your profile is gone, use Google’s “Refresh outdated content” tool so Google updates or drops the old result. If your phone number, home address or email appears in search results, Google’s “Results about you” tool lets you request removal of those results from Google.

A worked example

This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client.

Kwame, a graduate student, has been getting unwanted messages from someone he met once at a conference. The person seems to know his gaming username and an old photography blog. He searches his name and finds a PeekYou page linking both, alongside his current social accounts.

• He screenshots the page and saves its URL, then finds a second PeekYou profile under his gaming username.
• He submits both URLs through PeekYou’s removal route using a new email address, and confirms each request.
• He makes his personal social accounts private, turns off discovery by phone number where the platform allows, and deletes the old blog.
• He checks back the following week. Both PeekYou pages are gone, and he submits a Google refresh request for an old snippet.
• He reports the messages on the platform where they arrived and keeps copies in case they escalate.

Removing the PeekYou pages cut off the shortcut. Locking down the accounts stopped a new page, on any site, rebuilding the same picture.

Common mistakes

• Removing the page but leaving the sources public. The links will be found again.
• Submitting the search results URL. Use the individual profile URL.
• Missing username-based profiles. Search your common usernames as well as your name.
• Skipping the confirmation email. The request usually isn’t processed without it.
• Paying for removal. PeekYou’s own process is free.

When to get help

You can do this yourself, and most people should. Help makes sense when harassment is involved, when your accounts and details are spread across many aggregators, or when a same-name mix-up is affecting how people see you. Our personal reputation management service handles opt-outs, re-checks and the wider cleanup. If someone is contacting or following you, our guide on what to do about online harassment covers the steps beyond removal. We’ll be clear about what can be removed and what needs ongoing monitoring.

Frequently asked questions

Is the PeekYou opt-out free?

Yes. You need your profile URL and an email address for confirmation. You shouldn’t be asked to pay or create an account to remove your page.

Does removing my PeekYou profile delete my social media accounts?

No. PeekYou only links to them. Your accounts stay as public as your settings allow, so review privacy settings on each one if you don’t want them found by name.

How long does PeekYou take to remove a profile?

It depends on processing, and it’s typically days rather than hours. Google may keep showing the old result for longer until it recrawls the page or you submit a refresh request.

Why is there a new PeekYou page about me?

Usually because something new and public, such as a new account or web mention, gave the site material to build a fresh page. Submit the new URL and tighten the source account.