Here's How to Remove Your Name From Printed Articles

You may wonder if it is possible to remove your name from a printed or online news article. The simple answer is yes. Your name could be linked to some articles containing false information or information you are uncomfortable with. If you would not like to be associated with such articles, you can either have your name removed from the article or the entire article removed from a Google search or the internet.

Although this is possible, it may be challenging, especially if you are not aware of the right approach to take. Fortunately, there is an easy way to do this. DoNotPay has created Remove My Information product that allows you to with just a few steps. Continue reading to learn the different approaches you can use to take down your personal information from online sources.

How Can You Remove Your Name From an Online News Article?

Below are the main ways you can take down personal information from a printed article on your own.

Contact the news agency	Contact the author
Send a request to the search engine	Contact the webmaster

Remove Your Name From a Printed Article by Directly Contacting the Author or Agency

Before you make any drastic measures to , first try contacting the individual responsible for writing the article or their agency to unpublish it. If they refuse to do so, then it is time to take out-of-the-box measures.

How to Remove Your Personal Information From Data Brokers

Data brokers make huge amounts of money from selling and buying personal data. The firms buy personal data from companies such as credit card firms or directly mine it from apps and websites. They then compile the personal details and create a robust consumer profile that they sell to other firms and platforms.

Using sites such as BrandYourself, you can search your information in the databases of major brokers and have details on who has your data. After getting the name of the data broker with your information, you may try to contact them and request them to delete the data.

Deleting personal information from data brokers is a manual process, typically involving the following steps.

Contacting the data brokers. You can contact them with a fake email or a secondary email.
Request them to opt-out of selling your data or delete your profile with personal information.
If they do not respond to your email, you can decide to visit their offices or call them.

How to Send a Request to Search Engines to Take Down an Article With Your Name

If you find your name linked to an online article without your consent or inappropriately, you can request the search engine to take down the article. Typically, each search engine has established a process of taking down personal information. For example, Google removes articles with personal data with significant risks of identity theft or fraud, such as personal photos, phone numbers, and other personal information.

However, even after removing your name or other personal information from a search engine, the article still exists on the site where it was published. People might still access the article with your data through the URL to the site or through other search engines. One of the best ways to take down an article with your name on the search engine is by contacting the webmaster.

The webmaster is the person who owns the website, and they can help you remove the article entirely from any search engine. You can contact a web admin in the following ways:

Using the "Contact us link." Most webmasters will leave a link with their contact details on the site's homepage. Contact them with the available contact details and file a complaint to have your name opted out in a particular article.
Search the site owner's contact details using Whois (who is). Whois helps you find the webmaster's contact details or the site with the online article having your personal information.

After the webmaster has removed the printed article with your name on their site, you might still be required to contact Google or your search engine and request them to make changes to the search results.

Challenges You Might Face While Removing Your Name From a Printed Article on Your Own

Removing your personal information from data brokers or the internet is a lengthy process, requiring much patience. You might be needed to contact them several times before getting a response.
The whole process is complicated and requires you to contact different parties to have the article with your name completely taken down.
The author or agency can simply refuse to take it down, especially if think they’re not violating any laws.

Remove Your Name From an Online News Using DoNotPay

If you are encountering challenges removing your name from a printed article, DoNotPay has a solution for you. All you are required to do is:

Search "Remove My Information" on DoNotPay.
Choose whether you want to remove your information from Google searches, YouTube videos, or data brokers in general.
If it's for a Google search or YouTube video, tell us more about the specific content you want removed, including the URLs of where it's currently being displayed.
If it's for a data broker, choose which data broker you want your information removed from, or choose the "All-in" option to remove your information from all of them!
DoNotPay will automatically carry out your opt-out requests for each data broker or submit removal requests from the search engines. You can expect to receive confirmation emails from the data brokers.