In this digital age, it’s very likely that our personal information will be available to the public. And by “public” we mean everyone, anywhere on the planet. And while you can never completely remove yourself from the internet, there are ways to minimize online footprint. Here are some ways to do so:
- Delete or deactivate shopping, social media, and web service accounts
Think about which social networks you have profiles on. In addition to the big ones like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, do you still have public accounts on sites like Tumblr, Google+, or even MySpace? Maybe Reddit? What shopping sites are you registered on? Common ones might include information stored on Amazon, Gap.com, Macys.com, and others.
To get rid of these accounts, go to your account settings and simply look for an option to either deactivate, remove, or close your account. Depending on the account, you may find it under Security or Privacy or something similar.
- Remove yourself from data collection sites
There are companies that collect your information. They’re called data brokers, and they go by names like Spokeo, Whitepages.com, PeopleFinder, and many others. To remove your tracks from them, the easiest way is to use a service like DeleteMe at Abine.com. For about $130 you become a member for a year, and the service will do all the necessary procedures to remove you from these websites. It will even check every few months to make sure your name hasn’t been added back to these sites.
- Remove your information directly from websites
First, contact your phone company or mobile provider to make sure you are not listed online and have them remove you if you are. If you want to remove an old forum post or old blog, you will need to contact the webmaster of those sites individually. You can check the “About Us” or “Contact Us” section of the website to find the right person to contact, or visit www.whois.com and search for the domain name you want to contact.
- Remove personal information from websites
If someone has posted your sensitive information, like your social security number or bank account number, and the webmaster of the site it was posted on doesn't take it down, you can send a legal request to Google to have it removed. The process can take some time and there's no guarantee it will be successful, but it's the best option you have if you find yourself in such a vulnerable situation.
- Remove old search results
Let’s say there’s a website with information about you that you want to get rid of. Like your former employer’s personal page, months after you changed jobs. You can contact them to update the page. There’s a chance that after you delete it, when you Google your name, the page will still show up in search results – even though your name is nowhere to be found when you click the link. This means that the old version of the page is stored on Google’s servers. That’s where this tool comes in. You submit the URL to Google in the hope that it will update its servers, deleting the cached search result, so that you’re no longer associated with the page. There’s no guarantee that Google will remove the cached information, but it’s worth a try.
- And finally, the last step you'll want to take is to remove your email accounts
Depending on the type of email account you have, the amount of steps you'll need to take will vary. You'll need to log in to your account and then find the option to delete or terminate the account. Some accounts will remain open for a certain amount of time, so if you want to reactivate them, you can. An email address is required to complete the previous steps, so make sure this is your last one.
