How to opt out of data brokers in Canada (2026 guide)

Data brokers are companies that collect personal information from public records, apps, marketing lists and each other, then sell or publish profiles of real people. People-search sites are the visible end: type a name and city, and you may get an address, phone number, age range and relatives. Here’s what Canadian law lets you do about it, and how to actually do it.

What the law gives you

Everywhere in Canada (PIPEDA). Businesses that collect, use or disclose personal information in the course of commercial activity are covered by PIPEDA, and the Privacy Commissioner’s research on data brokers notes that this can include brokers doing business in Canada. You can:

• ask what they hold about you, where they got it and who they’ve shared it with (Principle 9). They generally have 30 days to answer.
• challenge information that’s inaccurate or incomplete and have it corrected
• withdraw consent, subject to legal or contractual limits, and complain to the Privacy Commissioner if they don’t respond properly

There’s no general federal right to deletion yet. The proposed Bill C-36 would add one in certain circumstances.

In Quebec (Law 25). Quebec’s private-sector law goes further. According to the Commission d’accès à l’information, you can require a business to stop publishing information about you, or to de-index it from searches for your name, when that publication breaks the law or causes serious harm to your privacy or reputation that clearly outweighs the public interest. You can also object to your information being used for marketing. Businesses must answer within 30 days, and no answer counts as a refusal.

Search results. In August 2025, the federal Privacy Commissioner found that Canadians have a right, in limited circumstances, to have information about them de-listed from search results for their name, when there’s a serious risk of harm that outweighs the public interest. Google declined to follow the recommendation, and in August 2026 the Commissioner asked the Federal Court to order it. De-listing doesn’t delete the page; it just stops it appearing when someone searches your name.

How to opt out, step by step

1. Find your listings. Search your full name with your city, and your phone number, on a few people-search sites and on a search engine. Note the exact page addresses.
2. Use the site’s own opt-out first. Most have a form, usually linked from the footer as “Do not sell,” “Opt out” or “Privacy.” Many ask you to confirm by email. Use a separate email address if you’d rather not hand over your main one.
3. If there’s no form, send a written request to the company’s privacy officer. Ask them to remove your listing, stop disclosing your information, and tell you where they got it. In Quebec, cite your right to have publication stopped or de-indexed.
4. Keep a record: the page address, the date you asked, and their answer.
5. Check again in a few months. Brokers often re-list people when they buy fresh data. That isn’t you doing anything wrong; it’s the business model.
6. Escalate if ignored. Complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or in Quebec to the Commission d’accès à l’information.

A note for Californians

If you live in California, the state now runs a single deletion request for every registered data broker, called DROP. Since August 1, 2026, registered brokers have had to check it at least every 45 days. It only covers California residents, but it shows where things are heading.

What you can do today

Search your name and city on two or three people-search sites and see what comes up. If it’s a lot, start with whichever listing shows your home address. That’s the one that matters most.

How Frame helps

Frame keeps an open catalog of data broker opt-out pages in our data-brokers-list repository, and gives you step-by-step guides and ready-to-send removal letters for the brokers that list you. Every check only runs on details you’ve proven are yours, and you approve every request before it goes out.

Sources

• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Data Brokers: A Look at the Canadian and American Landscape
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, PIPEDA Principle 9: Individual Access
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, PIPEDA Principle 3: Consent
• Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, Vos droits
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Canadians have a right to have information de-listed in limited circumstances, August 27, 2025
• Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Notice of application filed with Federal Court, August 28, 2026
• California Privacy Protection Agency, DROP for data brokers