How to erase yo urself from the Internet?


It won't be easy to untangle your information from the Internet if you've been using it for a long time. Whenever you share anything on the Internet, you normally relinquish ownership of that data. It may still be yours, but controlling who gets access to it and what they do with it is quite tough.

The first step is to find what's out there so that you can figure out what you'll have to brush away. A whole industry has sprung up around "data scraping," in which firms scrape the information you provide on the Internet, store it in databases, and then sell it to other businesses and organisations. It may be difficult or impossible to remove your data from their databases, but we'll go through a few options below.

It's simple to locate and delete, anonymize, or conceal accounts that you use on a daily basis. But what about previous accounts on dead or forgotten websites?

Steps to Erase Yourself from the Internet

You can follow the steps given below to erase yourself from the Internet −

Step 1

If you want to remove your Internet presence, the fantastic place to start is removing social media accounts. You'll keep generating data and maintaining an online presence as long as you keep utilising these accounts.

Step 2

Social media is only a small part of the Internet. You should also deactivate any online shopping accounts, dating websites, or other services to which you may have subscribed.

Step 3

It's quite simple to delete accounts, but there's a lot more to do. The next step is to begin reviewing and cleaning up any websites where your data is stored. Begin by generating a list of all the websites you recall actively using (creating logins, leaving comments, replying to forum posts, and so on).

If you own a domain, then "whois.com" will very certainly have a record of it. Maybe you used to have a free WordPress blog. Close any sites you own or have registered with your email address. Remove yourself from discussion boards. If you delete your account on some boards, your messages will be deleted as well.

Step 4

Fighting Google may appear to be an insurmountable effort, but they already have the tools to assist you in removing undesired results from the Internet. Google, for example, has a method in place to erase your sensitive data from search results if it is exposed. On the other hand, you may always send an email to the site's owner and request that particular information be removed.

Step 5

This is one of the final tasks since you'll need your email to finish the preceding procedures, especially if you're seeking to remove accounts connected with your email address. It is, however, a necessary halt on this road and should be very simple. If you use Yahoo, keep in mind that you'll need to go into your account and set it for termination, which won't happen straight away. The data will be deleted in most circumstances within 180 days.

Updated on: 23-Mar-2022

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