These 6 Effective Ways To Remove Yourself From The Internet

Be careful when sharing your personal data on the internet. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - When you browse the Internet, social media and online shopping sites, it is very likely that your personal information will be made available to the public. This is quite worrying.

Given that if an irresponsible person finds your personal data, then your data will certainly be misused by these bad actors.

So how do you delete your personal data from the Internet, and stop a company from getting to your information? The answer, of course, is no. Unfortunately, you can never completely erase yourself from the Internet, but there are ways to minimize your digital footprint, which will lower the chances of your personal data getting out of there.

Here are some ways to do it as quoted by VOI from CNET, Monday, October 11.

Delete or Deactivate Account

This first step asks you to delete your social media accounts as well as on shopping sites that you visit frequently. Such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr and MySpace. By deleting the account, it is possible that your personal data will not be spread, and will be destroyed through company systems.

Delete Your Data from Broker Site

There are companies out there that collect your information. They are called data brokers, by collecting data on everything you do online and then selling that data to interested parties, mostly for advertising and selling goods more specifically to you.

Allowing this information to circulate on the internet can be dangerous. Trolls are likely to misuse names, phone numbers, addresses, or online accounts. If you wish to have your personal data removed from the data broker's site, you need to contact them and ask for it to be removed.

But keep in mind, when you remove yourself from these data broker sites, you will mostly also be removing yourself from Google search results, making it harder for people to find you.

Delete Your Info Directly from Website

You can check with your phone company or cellular service provider to make sure you are not registered online and have them delete your name if they are. If you have done anything else related to online registration, please contact the website immediately.

Steps If the Site Owner Doesn't Want To Delete It

If someone uploaded your sensitive information such as your Social Security number or bank account number, and the webmaster of the site that uploaded it won't delete it, you can submit a legal takedown request to Google to have it removed.

You may have to use Google's legal powers to remove your personal information from such recalcitrant sites. The removal process can take some time, and there is no guarantee it will work, but it can't hurt to give it a try.

Clear Search History

Let's say there's a web page with information about you that you want to get rid of. Where when you search for your name on Google, the page still appears in your search results, even though you can't click on the link. This means an older version of the page that is cached on Google's servers.

Luckily, Google has a tool for removing outdated URLs. If you send that URL to Google, the company will update its servers, removing cached search results so that you are no longer associated with the page.

Delete Your Email Account

If you currently have multiple email accounts, we recommend choosing an email that you no longer use. Because, email stores a lot of your personal data indirectly, such as your phone number, date of birth, your location and much more. Some accounts can still be open for a certain period of time if you wish to reactivate them.