How To Erase Your Digital Footprint

This article explains how to erase your digital footprint and why it might be a good idea for your online privacy and reputation.

If you want to erase your digital footprint, you might be surprised to learn it’s not as easy as you think.

And since we often receive questions like, “How do I clear my digital footprint?” or “How do I get rid of 99% of my digital footprint?”, we’ll look at some efficient ways to minimize your online presence.

Today, most people use the internet to stay in touch with friends and family, or to display their work.

But while an active online presence may have many benefits — popular social media accounts, websites and forums offer exposure to millions of other users worldwide — it can also leave you vulnerable to hackers, identity thieves and cyber attacks.

Phishing, personal data breaches, extortion and identity theft fall within the top eight types of internet crimes reported to the FBI.

If you’re reading this, your personal information is probably available to the public. When your personal data is floating around online, it may be the perfect target for hackers and criminals.

Plus, as much as you might want to erase your digital footprint, it can never be done completely. The good news? The following tips provide an excellent starting point for monitoring your digital hygiene and exercising control over what the public can access.

Do you want to know when your sensitive data appears in search engines and data broker sites? Contact us today at 866-349-0130 to learn more about protecting your online identity.

Is Your Digital Footprint Permanent?

If you want to erase your digital footprint, first know that much of what ends up online is there permanently. Deleting all information about you from the internet is nearly impossible. 

Why is it so hard to erase your digital footprint entirely?

Mostly because we all leave traces of information wherever we go. These may include email addresses, online form data, old social media accounts, and digital transactions. These interactions require certain information, and fragments of that information stay online indefinitely. 

There’s also the fact that many sites track our activity through search inquiries or cookies.

In the U.S., almost 40% of internet users are worried about how companies use their personal data online. Plus, more than 41% of internet users turn on ad blockers as a way to protect their privacy online. And almost 29% do so specifically to stop companies from collecting their personal data.

Altogether, it’s simply not realistic to assume you can find and remove every single piece of information about you online. However, you can remove quite a bit of it, and much of what you can’t remove can be buried through content suppression tactics.

Our internet privacy experts will protect you from identity theft, phishing attacks and other online threats. Call us at 866-349-0130 for more information about keeping your online activity and personal information safe.

4 Tips to Erase and Manage Your Digital Footprint

To get started with removing your information from online sources and preventing new data from popping up, follow these best practices.

1. Delete All Unused Online Accounts, Including Email

One of the quickest ways to reduce your digital footprint is to delete accounts you no longer use.

Old social media profiles, shopping logins, forum profiles and defunct email addresses all contain personal data about you, including:

• Full name
• Address
• Phone number
• Payment information

On top of adding to the accessible information about you, dormant accounts tend to have weaker security, including outdated passwords and poor privacy protections. This makes them excellent targets for data breaches.

When you have less data floating around online, there are fewer chances for cyber criminals and automatic web crawlers to collect and use your information.

Once you’ve identified the old accounts you no longer use, delete them completely. If that’s not possible, remove all of your personal data, disconnect them from any apps and services they’re connected to, and update the login information with a strong password.

2. Remove Yourself From Data Collection Sites

There are hundreds of companies out there that are known as data brokers. These companies gather information about you without your consent and then sell it to third parties. 

By compiling your public records, social media activity and purchase history, data brokers can build exceptionally detailed profiles with your personal information. From there, that information can be used to target you with advertising, create profiles on people search sites, and add you to marketing databases. 

By opting out of data broker platforms, you can reduce your online footprint and limit the ways that people can find information about you. Most of these sites have removal processes that are relatively easy to follow, though they may be time-consuming. 

It’s also smart to set up a listening tool like Google Alerts so you know anytime new information surfaces about you online.

If you don’t have the time to find and remove yourself from the many data broker sites on the internet, you can work with an online reputation management company to tackle the job for you.

We work on behalf of our clients to monitor their online activity and data and remove personal information from the search engines. Give us a call at 866-349-0130 to learn more.

3. Don’t Use Too Many Apps

While there are many apps that make daily life convenient, every time you sign up for another app, you introduce an additional privacy and security risk to your life. Considering many people have numerous apps they don’t actually use, keeping those accounts active is an unnecessary risk.

Also consider this: There are many apps that aren’t built well or have been abandoned by the developer. This exposes you even more to security risks since it’s easy for malware, viruses and worms to compromise those apps and, as a result, your device.

There are also a lot of apps that collect your information and share it without your knowledge, bypassing privacy laws.

By limiting how many apps you have on your device, you present fewer opportunities for your information and device to be used in a malicious way. Stick to the apps that you trust — ones made by reputable developers and that have clear privacy policies.

4. Delete Your Digital Footprint From Social Media

Social media platforms are among the largest contributors to your digital footprint. 

Social media is incredible for connecting you with people all over the world and giving you the chance to partake in all sorts of communities of like-minded people. However, these platforms also collect a ton of personal data, and every time you post new content, that data only grows.

The information you signed up with — name, email address, connected apps, etc. — is just the beginning. Your social accounts also include your location information, browsing habits and network of friends. All of this presents the risks of identity theft, online harassment, privacy breaches and unwanted tracking.

First, remove your information from sites you no longer use, and then close those accounts. Then, audit your existing social media profiles to limit how much information you share. For example, instead of including your full name, consider using only your first and middle name. It’s also smart to remove specific location information from your content. 

Overall, make sure that the posts and information you share don’t have enough personal data that it can be used against you.

Keep Online Threats at Bay With Professional Privacy Services

At InternetPrivacy.com, we offer data removal services to get rid of your personal information and help you protect your identity and the identities of your loved ones in Google Search and beyond. Our services include deep web scans, data removal, ongoing monitoring and detailed reporting.

You deserve to protect your personal and sensitive information online. To keep your social media posts and other sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands, you can trust our decade-plus of experience defending individuals and businesses on the internet.

Do you need help removing your personal information from data brokers, Google Search and third-party services? Get in touch with us today by calling 866-349-0130 for a free consultation.