How to Remove Your Private Data from the Internet

When you’re on the World Wide Web, chances are, so are your private data. Literally, anyone can access your personal information. This can be a frightening prospect, but it’s not too late to do something about it. While you can’t totally get yourself out of the internet, there are ways you can take to remove your private data. Here’s how:

Delete or deactivate your accounts

Remove your old accounts on social media, web services, or shopping sites. You may have forgotten your account with MySpace, but your data is still out there. Go to those sites again and find the Privacy or Security settings to deactivate your account or permanently delete them.

You can always Google how to remove your private data from these sites. Just type in “how to delete,” then type in the site you want to delete yourself from and go on from there.

Delete your information from data collection sites

Data brokers are companies that get paid to collect your information. A few examples of these are Spokeo, PeopleFinder, or WhitePages. They gather your data from your browsing history and other online activities. These then sell them to companies that would like to advertise to you.

This can be a laborious endeavor but don’t great, and you can get help from sites such as DeleteMe and other similar websites. For a minimal fee, they’ll remove you from these websites. They will also update you every few months to ensure you’re nowhere on these sites.

While these sites do a decent job of removing your private data from these broker sites, there is a catch. Most likely, you’ll also be removed from Google search results. This means that it would be difficult for anyone to search for you. You can always check these services for their workaround for issues like this.

Delete your information directly from websites

Again, this is a backbreaking task, but to make it easier, go to your phone company or service provider first to check if you aren’t listed on them. Also, check for any comments, posts, or replies to any forum or blog you may have written way back. You can contact the webmaster to have these removed.

However, web admins aren’t obligated to remove your post just because you requested it. In situations such as these, you can jump to the next step.

Send a legal removal request to Google

If you find that deleting your personal information from these websites proves to be problematic, you can contact Google. Send them a legal removal request so you don’t have to deal with stubborn web admins who won’t grant your request. This may take time, so be patient.

Get rid of outdated search results

Think of all the possible places where you have your personal information and data. It could be your former employer’s staff page or something along those lines. You can contact them to request your info’s removal and update their page. 

If your name still comes up on that page, the page could be cached on Google’s servers. Again, you have to contact Google about this and submit the URL so that they will update their servers. This isn’t a guaranteed solution as you’re at the mercy of the tech giant, but it’s still worth trying.

Delete your old email accounts

Check for old email accounts that you may have already forgotten. Go to those websites and try to remove yourself from them. The steps will vary, and you may have forgotten many of them, but it’s always better to leave no stones unturned. 

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