Ask for something to be removed

Removal requests

Who can ask

Anyone. Whoever controls the site proves it on the site itself; a person whose own data appears in a report proves the email address they give; anything else (legal, safety) is proven the same way. You do not need a CrawlCheck account or licence.

How it is verified

Site control: a token served at /.well-known/crawlcheck-removal.txt on the domain, or a TXT record at _crawlcheck-removal.<domain>. Personal data and other requests: a 6-digit code mailed to the address given, valid for 7 days.

Timeframe

Proven site control is acted on at once: everything held about the domain is deleted and, if asked, the domain is opted out of future scans. Other requests are decided within 30 days of confirmation.

What can be removed

The named text, from every stored copy (reports, history, evidence and the page bytes a scan received); a single record; or everything held about a domain. Factual disagreements about a measurement go to a dispute instead, where the evidence is re-checked.

Appeal

Every decision can be appealed once, within 30 days, with the request id and the token given when it was made. The appeal is decided within 30 days and that decision is final.

What stays

The record's digest inside the day's sealed proof: a hash, anchored in Bitcoin together with every other site measured that day, which cannot be read back into the text. Removing it would break the proof for every other site. One signed removal record says what was done, in counts and digests, with no removed text and nothing about who asked.

Holds

A request stops publication at once. Only a hold delays the erasure itself: an abuse investigation, a legal preservation demand, or evidence for a dispute filed by someone else. A hold lasts at most 90 days unless renewed with a reason; when it ends, the waiting request runs on its own. A site's own open dispute never blocks its own deletion: deleting withdraws it. Holds are counted at /api/holds, never listed by domain.

Your own data in the request

The address you give and the text you ask to remove are used only for this request and deleted 30 days after the final decision. Unconfirmed requests are deleted after 7 days.