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Remove yourself from SmartBackgroundChecks

Estimated time: 10 minutes. Difficulty: easy.

Steps

  1. Open the SmartBackgroundChecks opt-out page. Cookies and JavaScript must be on or the tool refuses to work.
  2. Enter an email you can open right now, tick the box confirming you are the subject of the record, solve the CAPTCHA and click "Accept Terms & Start Removal".
  3. Search for yourself by name plus city and state (or by address or phone number) and click your name in the results.
  4. On your record, click the yellow "Request My Record To Be Removed" bar. You can request up to five records in one session — use that for old addresses and name variations.
  5. Open the validation email from SmartBackgroundChecks (check spam) and click the link. No phone number or ID required.
  6. They quote about 72 hours. Search smartbackgroundchecks.com again after a few days to confirm.
SmartBackgroundChecks and FastBackgroundCheck run near-identical opt-out tools, but each site needs its own request. Written, emailed or phoned requests are explicitly slower than the online tool. The site cannot pull cached copies out of Google — that is a separate fight. Data refreshes from public records, so re-check every few months.
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