Remove Your Personal Info Online (KVKK + GDPR)

Remove your personal info from the internet in 6 steps (GDPR + data brokers)

If your phone number, home address or email shows up when someone Googles you, there are two jobs: hide it on Google, then get the site that publishes it to delete it. Claude writes the erasure request. You check it and send it.

This isn't legal advice. Links to the official texts are at the bottom.

1. Google yourself

Search for these and write down every page that comes up (the link + what it shows):

• "Your Name" your city (Google's own tip: your name with your home city, or your name with your home address)
• your phone number in quotes (try it with and without spaces)
• your email address in quotes

Look out for people-search sites and data broker listings, old forum posts, directories and PDFs.

2. Remove results with Google's "Results about you"

1. Go to myactivity.google.com/results-about-you (in the Google app: tap your profile picture > Results about you).
2. Select Get started and enter your name, phone number, home address and email. You can add nicknames, a maiden name, and several phone numbers, addresses and emails.
3. Turn on notifications. Google emails you, or alerts you in the Google app, when results with your info show up. The first one arrives within a few hours.
4. In the To review tab, open a result and select Request to remove.

Found a result yourself? Click the three dots next to it > About this result > Remove result > It shows my personal info and I don't want it there > Contact Info.

Good to know:

• Enter your info exactly as it appears on the page (an old address, a nickname).
• Each request shows as In progress, Approved, Denied or Undone. After approval, it can take a few hours for the result to disappear.
• Google won't remove results from pages owned by educational or government institutions, or by newspapers.
• Some features are still rolling out to users over 18 in certain markets. If you don't see it, or it's for someone under 18, use the detailed removal request form.

3. Check your email on Have I Been Pwned

1. Enter your email at haveibeenpwned.com and hit Check.
2. For every breach it lists: change that password, and the same password anywhere else you used it. Turn on two-factor authentication.
3. Use Notify Me to get a free email if your address shows up in a new breach.

4. Go to the source: the site or data broker

Google's own help page says removing a result from Google Search "doesn't mean that the info is gone from the internet." The info stays on the source page. Deleting it there is the real fix, and once it's gone at the source, it drops out of Google too.

• For every site on your list from step 1, find its Privacy Policy, privacy contact or opt-out page.
• Write down the company's legal name, postal address and privacy or Data Protection Officer (DPO) email.
• If the site has its own opt-out or deletion form, use it. In the EU, you can send the request below as well.
• Long privacy policy? Paste it into Claude and let it pull out the contact details (prompt below).

5. Let Claude write your GDPR erasure request

If you're in the EU, Article 17 of the GDPR gives you the right to have your personal data erased "without undue delay" when one of its grounds applies. For example: the data is no longer needed, you withdraw your consent, you object to the processing, or it was processed unlawfully.

Ready prompt. Fill in the brackets, then paste the privacy policy and the template below at the end:

You're helping me send a GDPR erasure request. Fill in the template below for [COMPANY NAME].

This site shows the following about me: [LINK] - [what it shows: my phone number, home address, email...]

Below is their privacy policy. Find their legal name, postal address and privacy or DPO email in it and add them to the template. If something isn't in the text, write "not found". Don't guess.

Rules:
- Don't touch [MY FULL NAME], [MY EMAIL] or [DATE]. I'll fill those in myself.
- Keep it short, firm and polite.
- Fill in what data they show and where, based on what I gave you.
- At the end, tell me in one line where to send it (privacy email, web form or post), based on the policy.

Privacy policy:
[PASTE IT HERE]

Template:
[PASTE THE TEMPLATE BELOW HERE]

GDPR Article 17 erasure request template:

Subject: Erasure request under Article 17 GDPR

To: [COMPANY LEGAL NAME], Privacy Team / Data Protection Officer
[PRIVACY EMAIL OR POSTAL ADDRESS]

I'm writing to request the erasure of my personal data under Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

My details (for identification only):
Name: [MY FULL NAME]
Email: [MY EMAIL]
Where my data appears: [LINK / PROFILE PAGE]
Data shown: [home address, phone number, email address ...]

I object to the processing of my personal data, including for direct marketing (Article 21). Please:
1. Erase all personal data you hold about me without undue delay (Article 17(1)).
2. Tell me where you got my data (Article 15(1)(g)) and who you have disclosed it to (Article 15(1)(c)).
3. Tell every recipient of my data about this erasure (Article 19).
4. Confirm in writing once it's done.

Under Article 12(3), you must reply within one month of receiving this request. If you need to verify my identity, please ask only for the information you need for that (Article 12(6)).

If I don't get a reply, I'll lodge a complaint with my data protection authority (Article 77).

[MY FULL NAME]
[DATE]

Outside the EU? GDPR may not apply to you. Use the site's own opt-out or deletion form if it has one; you can still send the letter above as a plain deletion request.

6. Track the one-month deadline

• They have to reply without undue delay and within one month of getting your request (Article 12(3)). They can extend that by two more months for complex or numerous requests, but they have to tell you, with reasons, within the first month.
• It's free (Article 12(5)), unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
• If they have reasonable doubts about who you are, they can ask for extra information to confirm your identity (Article 12(6)). Give only what's needed.
• No reply, or a refusal you think is wrong? You can lodge a complaint with your data protection authority, for example in the EU country where you live or work (Article 77).
• Keep a copy of your request and proof that you sent it.

Don't paste your ID into an AI chat

Claude doesn't need your ID number, full address or date of birth to write this. Keep the placeholders and fill them in yourself right before you send.

Sources (checked October 20, 2026)

• Google Search Help: Find and remove personal info in Google Search results
• Have I Been Pwned
• GDPR, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on EUR-Lex: full text (Articles 12, 15, 17, 19, 21 and 77)