There is no such thing as total privacy on the internet, since every time you use the internet, register for an account, buy anything, post something on a forum, search on Google, or use search engine results, you’re revealing something about yourself. This article is triggering if you find it upsetting. You may want to look into removing your online footprint.
Using these simple steps, you can permanently remove yourself from the web.
While social media sites like Facebook have been gathering and selling people’s data for years, the current Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal is bringing the practise to the attention of the broader public.
We must be cognizant of our privacy concerns while utilising the internet. A whole host of social networks have been compromised in some way or another over the last few years, and we’ve just begun to explore it.
It is critical that you begin managing your online presence if you have hundreds of internet accounts. Personal information may be difficult to remove, but there are many measures you may do to obscure your online trail.
Look inside yourself.
It is essential to do a self-search on Google to begin with. The first step is to search for your name on Google. Search your name plus additional variables (such as the city you live in).
By doing this research, you will become aware of the amount of information available. You will acquire a good understanding of the environment by doing this research. Therefore, it estimates how much work remains.
First, go through your social media accounts and remove any personal information.
Deleting your social media accounts is the most essential step. You can frequently find plenty of information about yourself on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Deactivating your social media accounts is a huge waste of time.
Facebook lets you deactivate and delete your account, according to Security Baron. deactivation enables your account to quickly re-establish your presence on the site in the event that you temporarily leave. Erasure calls for deletion, which means that once data is saved, Facebook cannot access it, as long as you don’t login for the two weeks it takes to re-activate your account.
The steps you take to delete your data on sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram are identical, so make sure you review the process before you begin.
Contact site owners
Once you find information about yourself that has been published online, you must contact the website’s owner. Most of the time, it will be necessary to erase the material yourself. You have very little influence.
To avoid data collection sites, you must remove yourself from these locations.
With so many Internet businesses in existence that gather your personal information and sell it to marketers and other interested parties, there is a wealth of companies available on the internet for you to interact with. Spokeo, PeopleFinder, and Whitepages.com are some important sites.
Although you may go one by one and get your information deleted from these sites, it is not an easy procedure. A policy is unique to each website. With the first kind, you’ll need to mail actual documents,
while with the second you’ll need to call.
Regardless, it may be done in a more straightforward manner by using DeleteMe, a service offered by Abine. With a one-year subscription, the service gets through all the boring and repetitive tasks for you for around $130. The site will monitor your name every few months to make sure you’re not included on these sites again.
Looking at the pieces of the puzzle
The worrisome thing about the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook debacle, recent data breaches, and the recent rise in cyber attacks is the fact that once you’ve relinquished control of your data, your internet habits, and personal information, you have little control over your personal information, online behaviours, and data. An further, and compelling, point of view is that we’re just scratching the surface of this phenomenon. Now is a wonderful moment to concentrate on the best ways to safeguard yourself in the future.
But although you can’t completely get rid of your whole digital past or presence, you can significantly restrict what others are able to discover and use, and it is certainly worth the effort.
