How to find yourself on Google? [2025] | Incogni

Finding yourself on Google might seem simple: 

Just type your name, hit “enter,” and look at the results.  

But often, it’s not that easy. 

You might see results for other people with the same name, unrelated pages, or sometimes nothing at all.

To uncover everything about yourself—and get cleaner, more accurate results—you need to go beyond just your name.  

Using Google’s advanced search features can help you dig deeper, filter out the noise, and make sure you see the full picture of what’s online about you.

At the end, we’ll also show you how to remove your information from the sites you find.

Here’s how to do it.

How to use Boolean operators in Google to find your personal data

Running a Google search can be much more customized than just typing a keyword.  

You can use search operators—special words and symbols that make your searches more accurate.

For example, you might search for your name along with your phone number, address, or nicknames you used when creating online accounts.  

This helps you cut through the noise of irrelevant results and find only what really matters.

Here’s a quick cheat-sheet:

Operator	Purpose	Example
” “	Exact match	“John A. Doe”
OR	Alternatives	“John Doe” OR “J. Doe”
site:	Search within a site	site:linkedin.com “John Doe”
related:	Search for similar sites	related:whitepages.com
–	Exclude site/word	-site:facebook.com
filetype:	Search specific file type	filetype:pdf “John Doe”

Use quotation marks for exact matches

If your searches show many irrelevant results, you can narrow them down by using quotation marks (“ ”).  

Quotation marks tell Google to look only for exact matches.

Here’s an example:  

“John A. Doe”

→ This will only show results that contain the exact phrase.

This search uses one operator:

• “ ” → tells Google to look only for exact matches.

But it’s not the only one you can use.

Use OR to search for alternatives

There are plenty of data points you can use to find websites exposing your information.  

This can include your name, variations of your name, nicknames, and more.

You don’t have to search for each one separately.  

Instead, you can use the OR operator in your search to look for multiple options at once.

TIP: When searching for your digital footprint, consider looking up:

• Your full name and variations
• Maiden name
• Phone numbers
• Home or work addresses
• Email addresses
• Usernames and nicknames
• Old schools or workplaces

Here’s an example:

"John A. Doe" OR "John Doe" OR "johndoe123" OR "[email protected]" OR "555-123-4567" OR "(555) 123-4567" OR "+1 555 123 4567"

→ This shows results containing any of the exact phrases in quotes.

This search uses two operators:

• “ ”
• OR → tells Google to look for alternatives.

Let’s go even further.

Use site: and -site: to target or exclude websites

You can also narrow down your results by including or excluding certain sites from your searches.  

To do this, use the “site:” operator to search within a specific website, or the minus (“–”) operator to exclude certain sites.

This helps you get rid of popular platforms that might flood your results.

Here’s an example:

("John A. Doe" OR "John Doe" OR "johndoe123" OR "[email protected]" OR "555-123-4567" OR "(555) 123-4567" OR "+1 555 123 4567") -site:facebook.com -site:linkedin.com -site:x.com

→ This search finds your exact data outside Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

This search uses five operators:

• “ ”
• OR
• (  ) → they dictate the order of operations
• site: → searches only within a specific website
• – (minus sign) → excludes words (or sites) from your results.

Things get a bit complex at this point—we get it.

But it’s not the end.

Use filetype: to find your data in documents

Your data doesn’t have to appear on a webpage directly.

It can also show up inside documents available for download, such as PDFs, Word files, or spreadsheets.

Many recruitment and job portals store resumes in downloadable formats such as PDF or Word documents and Google may index some of them.

You can search through these files by using the “filetype:” operator.

Here’s an example:

("John A. Doe" OR "johndoe123" OR "555-123-4567") (filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc OR filetype:docx OR filetype:xls OR filetype:xlsx OR filetype:csv)

→ This shows only results with your exact phrases inside listed downloadable files.

This search uses four operators:

• “ ”
• OR
• (  )
• filetype: → searches only within a specific file type.

These aren’t all the search operators Google Search recognizes, but we believe this selection is the most useful when searching for your exposed data.

Here are some additional operators you can use if you want to run even more advanced searches:

• intext: → restricts the search to words appearing in the page body text
• inurl: → searches for words in the URL itself

Now, let’s use these operators to really dig in.

Websites where your personal data might be exposed

When you search for your name, you’ll probably get a lot of results from the social media accounts you use.  

But that’s not what we’re after here.

The goal is to find pages that expose your information without your knowledge or consent.  

To uncover these sites, it helps to target them directly—and we’re here to help.

Below, you’ll find some sites you should pay special attention to.

Check people search sites for your profiles

Ever heard of people search sites or data brokers?  

In short, these are businesses that make money by collecting, organizing, and selling your personal data.

Because of this, profiles with your information may be exposed on people search sites like whitepages.com, spokeo.com, and beenverified.com.

Here’s how to check if your information is there:

Use the “site:” search operator to narrow results to these specific websites.

Here’s an example:

("John A. Doe" OR "[email protected]") (site:whitepages.com OR site:spokeo.com OR site:beenverified.com)

→ This shows only results with your exact phrases on the listed sites.

To make your searches even more effective, you can use an additional search operator:

• related: → finds sites similar to the one you specify.

Example:

("John A. Doe" OR "[email protected]") (site:whitepages.com OR site:spokeo.com OR site:beenverified.com OR related:whitepages.com)

→ This shows results similar to the website you specified.

Here’s a list of some of the more popular people search sites:

• truthfinder.com 
• instantcheckmate.com 
• intelius.com 
• spokeo.com 
• truepeoplesearch.com 
• peoplefinderfree.com 
• cocofinder.com 
• findpeoplefast.net 
• realpeoplesearch.com 
• easypeoplesearch.com 
• greatpeoplesearch.com 
• whitepages.com. 

While the list may seem long, it’s actually just a small part—there are hundreds of people search sites operating in the US, and any of them could expose your data.

The good news is you don’t have to track them all down yourself.  

There are services that specialize in removing your data from these kinds of websites, so you don’t have to do anything yourself.

Think Incogni, DeleteMe, or Optery.

Search paste sites for leaked information

The dark web isn’t the only place where your data might be exposed in large text dumps.

Some websites indexed by Google can do the same thing by exposing sensitive information inside public text snippets.

Sites like pastebin.com or justpaste.it are platforms where people store and share text online, often used by programmers for sharing code.

Most pastes don’t contain sensitive data, but sometimes—by accident or on purpose—personal information can be uploaded.

Once that happens, the paste may be indexed by Google and become searchable.

It’s a good idea to run a quick search to make sure your data isn’t exposed there.

Here’s an example:

("johndoe123" OR "[email protected]" OR "555-123-4567") (site:pastebin.com OR site:justpaste.it OR site:ghostbin.com OR site:controlc.com)

→ This shows only results with your exact phrases on paste sites.

Just like with people search sites, you can use the related: operator to browse through similar sites.

Here’s a list of popular paste sites:

• pastebin.com 
• justpaste.it 
• ghostbin.com 
• controlc.com 
• hastebin.com 
• 0bin.net 
• rentry.co 
• zerobin.net 
• gist.github.com 
• privatebin.info 
• pastes.io 

What to do if you find your personal data exposed

Say you’ve managed to find a few websites that expose your personal information.  

Now what?

You have a few options:

1. Delete it yourself—This only works if the information is on online accounts you control and can access.
2. Request Google to hide it from search results—This won’t remove your data from the source; it just stops it from showing up in search results.
3. Contact the websites directly—You can ask webmasters to take your data down (sometimes there’s an opt-out request form provided), but this can take time and doesn’t guarantee success.
4. Use data removal services—If you choose a service (like Incogni) that handles custom requests for non-data-broker sites, you can submit a link and let them handle it for you.

(If you’re interested in a detailed removal process, check out our guide on how to remove your data from the internet.)

How to remove your data from Google with Incogni

If you subscribe to Incogni’s Unlimited plan, you can have your personal information removed from the internet with just a few clicks. 

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Log in to your Incogni account.
2. Select “Custom Removals” from the upper menu.
3. Submit links to pages that expose your personal information (they have to link to the specific pages that contain your information).
4. Confirm and wait for Incogni to handle the rest.

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