How To Remove Your Sensitive Information From the Dark Web

Is It Possible To Remove Your Data From Dark Web Sites? 

Data breaches hit an all-time high in 2025, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), with 3,322 publicly reported leaks impacting 278.8 million people. 

If you’ve received a data breach notification, there’s no reliable way to scrub your data from the dark web. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a service they can’t deliver. 

The good news is that, while you can’t remove your data, you can take steps to render it useless to hackers, scammers, and identity thieves. 

A leaked password stops mattering the moment you change it, and a stolen Social Security number (SSN) becomes much less risky when you freeze your credit and monitor your accounts. The key is to know what’s been leaked and how to secure yourself against attacks. 

Why Is It So Hard To Remove Your Information From the Dark Web?

Once your data is posted to the dark web, it's typically copied and reshared across multiple forums and marketplaces within hours. There's no single record to delete, and no legitimate service can hunt down every copy on your behalf.

That's also why any company charging you specifically for dark web removal, rather than monitoring or providing broader data cleanup, is misrepresenting what's possible.

The one exception: law enforcement occasionally dismantles entire dark web marketplaces. For example, in June 2025, European law enforcement agencies worked together to dismantle “Archetyp Market” — a dark web forum and illegal drug marketplace with more than 600,000 registered users. 

Unfortunately, you can’t control or count on these takedowns to clean up your leaked data. 

How To Find Out What Personal Information of Yours Is on the Dark Web

The dark web is different from the “surface web” in that it isn’t indexed by search engines like Google, and websites are often hosted on URLs made of long, random strings of letters and numbers. 

This makes it incredibly difficult to navigate on your own, and it’s why you need specialized tools to scan breach dumps, forums, and marketplaces on your behalf. 

There are three main tools you can use to find out what information has been leaked to the dark web: 

1. Free dark web scans

Tools like HaveIBeenPwned and Aura’s free dark web scanner use your email address to scan known data breaches for your information. They can provide a one-time snapshot of some of your current vulnerabilities, but they can’t scan or monitor for more sensitive information — such as your SSN, financial accounts, or home address. 

2. Password manager alerts

Some password managers monitor data breach alerts for your saved credentials. While this is useful, it’s limited to only the credentials that you’ve saved in the password manager.

3. Dark web monitoring services

Specialized dark web monitoring tools continuously scan millions of data points for more of your sensitive information. This gives you the most immediate and actionable information and ensures that you know sooner rather than later when you’ve been the victim of a breach. 

For example, Aura’s all-in-one online safety solution includes the most extensive dark web monitoring (when compared to other leading identity theft protection providers). Aura monitors over 260 unique pieces of personal information, including your SSN, financial account details, home and auto titles, passport number, and more. 

Is dark web monitoring worth it? Yes, with two conditions: the service has to monitor more than just your email address and password combinations, and you have to actually act on what it finds. A staggering 36.9% of identity theft victims reported losing over $10,000 in 2025. Without quick action, leaked information left unaddressed can lead to serious losses. 

What To Do If Your Information Is Already on the Dark Web

• Freeze your credit with all three major bureaus
• Report the leak to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• Lock down your Social Security number 
• Change leaked or reused passwords, and enable two-factor authentication (2FA)
• Watch your accounts for signs of misuse
• Secure your devices against unauthorized access
• Clean up your exposure on data broker sites and on Google
• Be alert for follow-on phishing

If any of your personally identifiable information (PII) has been leaked to the dark web, you shouldn’t take chances. Work through this list to lock down your most sensitive accounts and protect your finances from scammers. 

Freeze your credit with all three major bureaus

A credit freeze blocks new-account fraud (even if your SSN is fully exposed) by preventing anyone from accessing your credit files. Credit freezes are free, reversible, and won’t impact your credit score. While these freezes can’t reverse data leaks, they minimize the damage that cybercriminals can cause if your SSN is on the dark web.

To place a credit freeze, you’ll need to contact each of the three major credit bureaus individually (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). You’ll be asked to confirm your identity, and then each bureau will provide a PIN code that you can use to lift the freeze when needed.

In most cases, it’s best practice to keep your credit files frozen and only “thaw” them when you need to apply for new credit cards, mortgages, or loans. 

Not ready to freeze your credit? If you need your credit files to remain accessible, you can place a fraud alert by contacting any one of the main credit bureaus (by law, they need to inform the other bureaus of the alert). However, a fraud alert only requires that new lenders confirm your identity before issuing credit — which still leaves your credit file vulnerable to manipulation by scammers. 

You can also consider a credit monitoring service, which will alert you of new accounts, inquiries, or changes to your credit file. 

Report the leak to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Submit a fraud report to the FTC online by visiting IdentityTheft.gov or by calling 1-877-438-4338. 

An official FTC report is necessary for disputing fraudulent accounts and transactions. Victims also receive a personalized recovery plan and an official identity theft affidavit to use during the recovery process. 

Lock down your Social Security number 

An exposed SSN necessitates a response that goes beyond a credit freeze, since SSNs can be misused outside of the credit system entirely — including for tax fraud, employment fraud, or benefits fraud.

• Request an Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This free, six-digit code stops anyone else from filing a tax return with your SSN. The fastest way to get one is through your account at IRS.gov. After verifying your identity, you’ll receive a new PIN by mail each year to use on your tax return.
• Watch for Social Security Administration (SSA)-specific abuse. Check your earnings record through your my Social Security account, and report any earnings that don't match what you received. A discrepancy could be a sign that someone is using your SSN to gain employment or benefits. 
• Request an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from your healthcare provider. Scammers can use your stolen PII to receive care or drugs in your name. Contact your health insurance provider and request an EOB. For help reading your EOB, follow the official resource from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Change leaked or reused passwords, and enable two-factor authentication

Assume any password tied to a leaked email is compromised, even if you haven't seen suspicious activity yet. Change your passwords immediately to limit impact. 

For sensitive accounts, enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) adds a second verification step, such as a one-time code, before anyone can log in, even when using the correct password. 

Cybersecurity experts caution against SMS text-message codes specifically for multi-factor authentication because hackers can intercept them through SIM swapping scams. An authenticator app, such as Authy or Okta, is the safer option.

Best practices for creating strong passwords:

• Make it unique. Reusing a password across multiple accounts means one leak can unlock all of them through credential stuffing.
• Make it long. Aim for at least 10–13 characters to protect against brute-force attacks.
• Make it complex. Combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols instead of choosing predictable passwords like a birthday or pet's name.

Lastly, don’t rely on memory or “cheat sheets” to remember your login credentials. A password manager makes it practical to maintain a library of complex and unique passwords and easily access them when needed. 

Watch your accounts for signs of misuse (email, banking, etc.)

Discovering recent unfamiliar activity or being locked out of your accounts are the clearest signals that you’ve been hacked, and leaked data is being used against you. Scammers employ automated tools to test stolen credentials within days of a breach, making preventative measures essential. 

Watch out for:

• Unusual email activity — inbox rule changes, unfamiliar "Sent" items, or shopping confirmations you didn't generate.
• Unfamiliar transactions and withdrawals on bank or credit card statements.
• New-device login alerts from social media or retail accounts, especially from unfamiliar locations.

Pro tip: Take advantage of services that provide fraud alerts. Your online accounts should warn you of suspicious logins and activity. But hackers may still be able to bypass these security measures. Aura connects with all of your financial accounts to warn you of unexpected or suspicious transactions in near real-time. 

Secure your devices against unauthorized access

Among adults between the ages of 35–64, unauthorized device access overtook scams as the leading cause of identity crimes for the first time in 2026, according to the ITRC’s latest report.

After a breach, it's worth scanning your devices for malware regularly since hackers also use breach notifications (real or fake) as bait to get you to download malicious software. Disconnect from the internet before scanning, and then boot into Safe Mode:

• On Windows: From the sign-in screen, hold Shift and select Power > Restart. After reboot, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings > Restart, and then press F4.
• On Mac: Restart your computer, and hold Shift until the login window appears; you should see a Safe Boot option.

Once in Safe Mode, run a scan with reputable antivirus software. Many free antivirus tools cut corners, so do your homework before trusting one with full device access.

Clean up your exposure on data broker sites and on Google

Dark web data may be incomplete, but cybercriminals can pair it with legitimate data sources — such as data brokers and people search sites — to build a fuller profile of their victims than any single breach exposed on its own.

Closing this gap matters nearly as much as responding to the original leak, because it's what lets scammers cross-reference a leaked SSN with your real address and phone number.

There are two methods for removing your data from public data broker sites: 

• Manually opt out from data broker databases. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse maintains a database of most public data brokers, with links to their individual opt-out pages. However, there are likely thousands of data brokers in the United States alone, making manual removal requests a time-consuming and unreliable process. 
• Sign up for an automated data broker removal service. These services automate the opt-out process with hundreds of data brokers at a time. Even better, they regularly rescan broker databases to ensure that your information hasn’t been added again. Popular options include Aura, DeleteMe, Optery, and Privacy Bee. 

If your sensitive information is being hosted on websites that appear in Google search results, you can also send a takedown request directly to Google. This won’t delete the data, but it should prevent it from showing up in search results. 

Be alert for follow-on phishing

Sensitive information exposed in a data leak can be used to power more sophisticated and convincing scams. In the aftermath of a breach, you should be on high alert for suspicious messages and requests for money, credentials, or information. 

Watch for:

• Unexpected contact from unknown senders, especially with urgent or repeated requests for your personal information.
• Spelling and grammar mistakes in messages, even in messages that otherwise look official.
• Invitations from strangers to unfamiliar Telegram or WhatsApp groups.
• Emails and messages containing links to unfamiliar websites.

Related: How to tell if someone is scamming you online →

Steps To Take To Protect Your Personal Data Going Forward

The best defense against repeated exposure is to reduce the amount of data that is both publicly available and held with companies that are susceptible to breaches. 

• Use guest checkout when shopping online. Avoid creating accounts with every store and service, as these accounts expand your risk profile. While this adds an additional step when checking out, it keeps your card details and address out of the company’s database. 
• Limit what you share. Newsletters, apps, and discount codes rarely need more than your name. Skip the phone number and address unless it's essential.
• "Poison" your profile on non-essential accounts. For signups that don't require verified details, like a one-off discount code or a newsletter, deliberately entering a slightly altered name, old address, or different birthdate makes any future leak of that record harder to tie back to your real identity. This only applies to accounts that don't require accuracy. Never do this for financial, medical, or government accounts.
• Use email aliases so your primary inbox stays out of company databases that you don't fully trust. Aura's free email aliases forward legitimate messages to your main account automatically.
• Delete unused accounts. Old accounts may use weak (or reused) passwords, putting your stored information at risk. Aura’s data removal tool connects with your email to uncover unused accounts you may have forgotten about. 
• Tighten your social media privacy settings. Public posts that include your phone number, birthday, or geotagged location give scammers a head start. Tighten up your social media privacy settings on each platform that you use. 
• Consider a password manager, virtual private network (VPN), and antivirus as one bundled habit, not a one-off download. Used together, they cut off several of the most common ways that data actually ends up leaked in the first place: weak passwords, unsecured networks, and malware.
• Check your digital footprint. With data scattered across the web, it’s difficult to know exactly how at risk you are. Aura provides a free tool that checks your vulnerability across the dark web and public sources with just your email.

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Final Thoughts: Your Data Is Staying on the Dark Web, But That Doesn’t Make You Powerless

Hackers on the dark web won’t delete your leaked data, and no service can promise otherwise. What you can do is make your data worthless to whoever has it: a password that no longer opens anything, an SSN that a lender can't act on, or a data broker profile that's been scrubbed or scrambled.

An identity theft protection service like Aura brings these pieces together: dark web and data breach monitoring, automated data broker removal, and a full device security suite (including antivirus software, a VPN, password manager, and email aliases) — so prevention and response work off of the same alerts, instead of relying on a half dozen disconnected tools. 

Aura offers a 14-day free trial for new customers and a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans, so you can see firsthand whether the free tools have missed critical warning signs that help keep you and your family safe online.