Can I have a judgment taken off AustLII?

Rarely, and not because you dislike the outcome. Suppression, statutory anonymity and a handful of administrative errors are the live routes. The dedicated article sets out the actual letters.

Are data-broker opt-outs worth doing?

Yes, as a hygiene programme, not as a single Saturday. Australian listings recycle from White Pages remnants, leaked databases and company extracts. You will be back.

The copies that were never a post

Records and brokers

People-search sites, court lists, AustLII, ASIC, ABN Lookup, news archives and the old White Pages — public records and commercial scrapes that outlive any social post.

Rows of labelled archival files on metal shelves — Photograph: Pru.mitchell. Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. See all image credits.

Not every harmful URL is a post. A surprising amount of the Australian name-search problem is a broker page, an old company extract, a court list or a news archive. This hub is the unglamorous half of the job: data-broker opt-outs, court lists and AustLII, ASIC and ABN residue, news archives and White Pages leftovers.

When the record is also ranking, finish the job in search and archives. When the record is defamatory rather than merely public, read Australian law before you write to the publisher.

Guides in this hub

Letter boxes standing along a suburban street

Records and brokers

White Pages, electoral rolls and old-web leftovers

The Australian name-search problem often starts as a phone-book row or an old roll line that was never a social post. Sensis remnants, historical electoral products and scraped PDFs still feed people-search clones.

Elise Hart · 23 June 2025 · 11 min read

A person sitting and reading a broadsheet newspaper

Records and brokers

News archives: correction, update or takedown

Most Australian newsrooms will correct a mistake. Almost none will unpublish an accurate story because you have moved on. The live work is the correction, the right of reply, and the Google leftover.

Elise Hart · 5 June 2025 · 11 min read

A row of suburban letter boxes on a residential street

Records and brokers

ASIC, ABN Lookup and residue after a restructure

Cancelling an ABN or deregistering a company does not erase the public record. It changes a status flag. Brokers, director addresses and historical extracts keep circulating long after the letterhead dies.

Elise Hart · 7 May 2025 · 11 min read

An empty historic courtroom with wooden benches

Records and brokers

Court lists, AustLII and the myth of disappearing judgments

Daily court lists are not judgments, and AustLII is not a newspaper. Open justice, suppression and statutory anonymity decide what can come down. Embarrassment almost never does.

Elise Hart · 13 April 2025 · 11 min read

Rows of labelled archival files stored on metal shelves

Records and brokers

People-search and data-broker opt-outs for Australians

A broker listing is a dossier assembled from other dossiers. Australians can opt out of many of them, but identity checks, clones and Google leftovers mean this is a programme, not a Saturday email.

Elise Hart · 30 March 2025 · 11 min read

Frequently asked questions

Can I have a judgment taken off AustLII?: Rarely, and not because you dislike the outcome. Suppression, statutory anonymity and a handful of administrative errors are the live routes. The dedicated article sets out the actual letters.
Are data-broker opt-outs worth doing?: Yes, as a hygiene programme, not as a single Saturday. Australian listings recycle from White Pages remnants, leaked databases and company extracts. You will be back.