How to remove yourself from ContactOut
ContactOut is a recruiting-focused tool that finds people’s personal and work emails and phone numbers, often pulled from LinkedIn and the wider web. Removing yourself stops your contact details appearing to recruiters using it.
To remove yourself from ContactOut, submit the official opt-out request at contactout.com (Opt-out form; takes about Varies, difficulty: Easy). Removal is free — you never have to pay a broker to take your listing down. Brokers re-scrape public records, so re-check in a few months or use monitoring that re-removes new listings automatically.
Personal and work email addresses and phone numbers scraped from the web and professional networks, sold to recruiters.
Why removing yourself from ContactOut matters
On ContactOut, anyone can look you up — often for just a few dollars — and pull personal and work email addresses and phone numbers scraped from the web and professional networks, sold to recruiters. That is more than enough to target you with spam and phishing, fuel robocalls, or in the worst cases enable stalking, doxxing or identity theft. Removing your ContactOut listing cuts off one of the easiest public sources of that data about you.
Opting out of ContactOut is quick and straightforward — it works via opt-out form, and removal times vary. It is free: under U.S. privacy laws ContactOut has to honor opt-out requests, so never pay a "removal" fee. Most people finish it in just a few minutes.
How to opt out of ContactOut, step by step
Go to contactout.com/opt-out.
Enter the email address(es) you want removed and submit.
Confirm via any verification email.
Re-check periodically, as it re-scrapes the web for contact data.
Link verified June 2026 — brokers change their forms, so confirm it’s the official contactout.com opt-out before entering anything.
Watch out: ContactOut specializes in finding personal emails behind work profiles — opt out with both your personal and work addresses to fully suppress the link.
Sample opt-out letter for ContactOut
Some brokers accept (or require) a written deletion request by email. Here’s a ready-to-send template addressed to ContactOut — open it in the generator to add your details and your state’s legal basis.
To the Privacy / Opt-Out Team at ContactOut, I am writing to request that you remove my listing and delete all personal information you hold about me, and that you stop selling or sharing it. I am making this request as a consumer exercising your opt-out and deletion process. To identify my records: Full name: [Your full name] Please take the following actions: 1. Delete all personal information you have collected about me. 2. Suppress my profile so it no longer appears on your website or any affiliated/partner sites. 3. Stop selling, sharing or licensing my personal information to third parties. 4. Confirm in writing once these steps are complete. Please process this request and respond within 45 days. If you need to verify my identity, contact me using the details above — but please do not require more information than is necessary to do so. Thank you for your prompt attention. Sincerely, [Your full name]
ContactOut is one of hundreds
Removing ContactOut is a great start — but your data is on many more sites, and ContactOut can re-list you within weeks. PersProtect removes you from 499 broker and people-search sites and keeps re-checking so you stay off.
Scan all 499 sites — free →Removing yourself from ContactOut, answered
What does ContactOut expose?
Your personal and work emails and phone numbers, tied to your professional identity. The opt-out suppresses those contact points.
Is it free to opt out?
Yes.
Opt out of other data brokers
See the full list of 100+ brokers and the Google/Bing removal steps in the data-broker opt-out guide. New to this? What is a data broker? · Comparing services? Best data-removal services 2026.