Clear.me is a website that helps you understand what personal information is publicly available about you online
Clear.me is a free tool that searches the internet for your name, address, phone number, email, and other personal details that have been published on public websites. It shows you where that information appears — on data broker sites, social networks, public records databases, and other places — so you can see what strangers might find about you with a straightforward search.
The site does not remove information for you automatically. Instead, it tells you where your data is and gives you direct links to the websites that published it, along with instructions for contacting those sites to request removal. You do the removal work yourself, or you can pay Clear.me to handle some of it on your behalf.
Clear.me is one of several services that do this kind of search. Others include Spokeo, PeopleFinder, and Whitepages. The main difference is that Clear.me focuses on showing you what is out there rather than selling access to that data to other people.
Key Takeaways
- Clear.me searches public websites and data brokers to show you what personal information about you is published online.
- The service is free to use for searching, though you pay if you want Clear.me to contact websites and request removal on your behalf.
- Clear.me does not remove your information directly — it gives you the links and instructions to contact each website yourself.
- Your information may appear on dozens of sites, and each one has its own removal process and timeline.
- Removal requests sometimes take weeks or months, and some sites may not honor them or may republish your data later.
How to search for your information on Clear.me
Go to Clear.me and enter your name in the search box. The site will ask for your email address so it can send you the results. You do not have to create an account or provide payment information to do a basic search.
Clear.me will then search its database and show you a list of websites where your name, address, phone number, or other details appear. The results usually include a thumbnail image of what the page looks like, the website name, and a link to the actual page. Some results may be for other people with your name, so read carefully to confirm the information is actually yours.
The search takes a few minutes to an hour, depending on how common your name is and how many results the site finds. You will receive an email with a link to your full results page, which you can view and share.
What information Clear.me typically finds
Clear.me searches for your name paired with your address, phone number, email, age, and relatives' names. It looks on data broker sites (companies that collect and sell personal information), public records databases, social media platforms, background check websites, and people search engines.
The results often include your current and past addresses, phone numbers you have used, family members' names, and sometimes your age or birth year. You may also see results from sites you have never heard of — many data brokers buy information from public records and resell it without your knowledge.
Clear.me does not search private social media accounts, email inboxes, or password-protected sites. It only shows information that is publicly visible to anyone with an internet connection.
Removing your information after you find it
Once you see where your information appears, you have two options: remove it yourself or pay Clear.me to do it. If you remove it yourself, you click the link to each website and look for a "remove my information" or "privacy request" option. Most data brokers have this somewhere on their site, though it is often buried in the footer or privacy policy.
The removal process varies by site. Some ask you to fill out a form and verify your identity by email. Others require you to send a letter or make a phone call. A few may ask you to provide a copy of your ID to prove you are who you say you are. Each site has its own timeline — some remove information within days, others take weeks or months.
If you pay for Clear.me's removal service, the company contacts these sites on your behalf and handles the back-and-forth. This costs money and is not included in the free search. Clear.me charges per removal, so the total cost depends on how many sites have your information.
Why your information keeps reappearing
Even after you remove your information from a data broker, it may show up again months or years later. This happens because data brokers constantly buy new information from public records, court documents, and other sources. If you move, get a new phone number, or appear in a public record again, that information gets added back to their databases.
Some sites also ignore removal requests or do not process them correctly. A few may republish your data after you have already removed it. This is why many people treat data removal as an ongoing task rather than a one-time fix.
You can also set up a monitoring service through Clear.me that alerts you when your information reappears on public sites. This costs extra but saves you from having to search manually every few months.
Clear.me compared to other data removal services
Clear.me is not the only service that searches for and removes your personal information online. Spokeo, PeopleFinder, Whitepages, and DeleteMe all do similar work. The main differences are in price, how many sites they monitor, and whether they offer ongoing monitoring.
DeleteMe, for example, focuses on removing your information and includes ongoing monitoring in its subscription. Spokeo lets you search for free but charges for removal. Clear.me's free search is more generous than some competitors, but its removal service costs more per request.
Before you choose a service, search for your name on Clear.me for free and see how many results come up. If there are only a few, you may be able to remove them yourself in an hour. If there are dozens, paying for a removal service might save you time and frustration.
What Clear.me cannot do
Clear.me cannot remove information from sites that do not honor removal requests, and it cannot force websites to take down your data. It also cannot remove information from private social media accounts, your employer's website, or sites where you have posted content yourself.
If your information appears on a website you created or control, you will need to remove it directly. If it appears on a social media platform like Facebook or Instagram, you can contact that platform's support team, but Clear.me cannot do it for you.
Clear.me also cannot prevent new information about you from being published in the future. If you appear in a news article, court record, or public document, that information may eventually show up on data broker sites again, and you may need to request removal multiple times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Clear.me actually free?
The search is free — you can look up your name and see where your information appears without paying anything. You only pay if you want Clear.me to contact websites and request removal on your behalf, or if you want ongoing monitoring alerts.
Does Clear.me remove my information from Google search results?
No. Clear.me removes your information from data brokers and people search sites, but not from Google. To remove results from Google, you need to contact Google directly through their removal request tool, or you can ask the original website to take down the page and then request that Google remove the cached version.
How long does it take to remove information from all the sites?
It depends on how many sites have your information and how quickly each one responds. Some sites remove data within a few days, others take weeks or months. If you use Clear.me's removal service, the company handles the requests, but you should expect the full process to take several weeks to several months.
Will my information stay removed?
Not always. Data brokers constantly update their databases with new public records, so your information may reappear months or years later if you move, change your phone number, or appear in a new public record. Many people use monitoring services to catch when their information reappears and request removal again.
What if I find information about someone else on my Clear.me results?
If the results include another person's information, you can report it to Clear.me, but you cannot request removal of someone else's data. That person would need to search for themselves and request removal. If you see someone else's sensitive information published online, you can contact the website directly and ask them to remove it.