How To Remove Personal Information From The Internet

 With cybercrime at an all-time high in recent years, cleaning up your digital footprint should be high on your priority list. But how do you remove your personal information from the internet? That can seem like an impossible challenge to tackle.  

To help you figure all that out, we’ve put together a guide that will cover everything you’ll need to know about removing online information. 

How to remove personal information from the internet?

In short:

1. Opt out of Data Brokers and People Search Sites
2. Remove your personal information from Google
3. Optimize Google privacy settings
4. Delete your social media accounts
5. Optimize the privacy settings of the social media accounts you are not ready to give up 
6. Delete any apps you don’t need
7. Delete any online accounts you aren’t using
8. Cancel your shopping loyalty programs 
9. Opt out from marketing associations 
10. Erase public records 
11. Optimize your phone settings and restrict permissions
12. Optimize smart device privacy settings 
13. Clean up or delete your email accounts
14. Optimize browser privacy settings and clear browsing history

Keep reading for a step-by-step tutorial.

1) Opt out of Data Brokers and People Search Sites

A Data Broker is a business that aggregates information from public records (census and electoral records, court reports), social media platforms and other sources. Data Brokers process the data to enrich, cleanse or analyze it, with the goal of licensing it to other organizations or selling it to the public.

Data brokers are a huge contributor to the trade and sale of your personal information online. To remove your information from data brokers’ databases, we recommend you do the following:

1. Research which data brokers have your personal information (results will vary based on location and other factors),
2. Send data removal requests to each broker that has your data or opt out by following these guides.
3. Periodically repeat the process as new data brokers pop-up. Most brokers will collect your information again even after you opt out. 

2) Remove your personal information from Google

Remove personal info from Google

On April 27, 2022, Alphabet announced a long-awaited feature allowing people to remove personal information from Google’s search results, lowering the bar for having results removed from its Google Search product—good news if you value your privacy.

Submitting a removal request isn’t the quickest or easiest process. Plus, not every piece of your personal information that shows up on Google is eligible for removal, and there are no strict eligibility criteria—each removal request is evaluated by Google.

Follow the video guide below to get this step done:

Remove an image from Google

Removing an image from Google requires a separate process. You’ll have to contact the webmaster that holds the image and request it to be taken down. If this doesn’t work, head over to the “remove an image from Google” page and fill out a request form. Scroll down to find the instructions based on your reason for requesting removal.

The options are:

• Remove image with sensitive financial, medical, or national ID info.
• Remove non-consensual explicit or intimate personal image or “revenge porn.”
• Remove involuntary fake pornography.
• Remove personal image hosted on a site that has exploitative removal practices.
• Remove image of a minor (anyone under 18).
• Remove image for legal reasons.

Removing mugshots falls under “legal reasons”. You can either contact the website that published your mugshot directly or ask Google to remove it from their image search results. In both cases, you may be required to provide supporting documentation to prove that the information is misleading (because you’ve been acquitted or the case was dismissed, for example), you have been the victim of identity theft, or it puts you at risk of physical harm.

 You can find our detailed guide on how to remove images from Google here.

Remove your info from other search engines

If your personal information showed up on Google, it’ll likely show up on other search engines too. In most cases, like with Bing and Yahoo, you’ll have to contact the webmaster of the site that contains your information to have it taken down. If the case is more urgent—like if you’ve been the victim of identity theft or are under threat of physical harm, for example—we recommend you reach out to the search engine’s customer support and contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and local law enforcement. 

3) Optimize Google privacy settings

Head over to the Google activity controls page to delete any stored data and turn off tracking on web and app activity, location history, YouTube history, and ad personalization. 

TIP: Enable auto-delete on your web and app activity to make sure any new accumulated information will be deleted periodically.  

4) Delete your social media accounts

We are actually responsible for a lot of the personal information that ends up online. And our social media activity is the biggest culprit. Websites and apps like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Tinder collect and share a lot of our personal information. 

The best way to prevent this is to delete all of your social media profiles. Realistically speaking, however, most people aren’t ready to quit social media cold turkey like that. 

What we recommend in this case is to delete any unused or obsolete social media profiles.

5) Optimize the privacy settings of the social media accounts you are not ready to give up 

The customization and options will be different for each website or app you use. However, these are the key settings you should watch out for:

• Information that is public – We recommend you set your social media profiles to private wherever possible so that only your connections can view them.
• Ad personalization – Disable ad personalization to avoid marketing companies getting (and sharing) your data. 
• Data sharing with third parties – Turn off or restrict data sharing wherever possible. This is responsible for spreading a lot of your information online. 
• Online activity tracking – Turn off activity tracking to avoid being targeted by consumer behavior predictions.
• Location tracking – Turn off location tracking to keep your whereabouts private. We also recommend deleting any location history. 

6) Delete any apps you don’t need

Most of our phones are loaded with a ton of unused apps. But when it comes to data privacy – less is more. Many of the apps on your smart devices collect your personal information, from your location to your online habits. While a lot of us can’t function anymore without apps like Google Maps or Messenger, you should consider clearing out anything you can live without.

When uninstalling apps you don’t need, keep in mind that you should first check the privacy and account settings to make sure your data is also deleted. In some cases, you’ll have to contact the developer directly to remove your personal information. 

Once you’ve deleted the unnecessary apps, we recommend you regularly go through your devices to check on existing apps’ privacy settings and continue to delete the apps you don’t use. 

7) Delete any online accounts you aren’t using

The same goes for your online accounts. With all the accounts we open throughout our lives, it’s easy to lose track of the ones we no longer use. Unfortunately, these websites are still likely sharing your personal information. So make sure you delete anything you aren’t using anymore. This includes old social media profiles, blogs, and e-commerce sites. 

To help you dig up old accounts you’ve long forgotten, we recommend you check all of your active email accounts. Search your inbox for keywords such as “welcome,” “Thanks for signing up,” “account,” and “registration.”

Once you’ve tracked them down, go to the account settings on each site to delete or deactivate your account. If you have forgotten the log-in credentials, try resetting them or contacting their customer service.  

8) Cancel your shopping loyalty programs 

This step will be hard for the shopaholics out there. While they can be great for savings, all loyalty programs store your shopping history, and many of them sell that information to data brokers. 

The good news is that some loyalty programs have the option to opt out of having your data sold. You can check their websites for a “do not sell my information” setting. If you don’t find this option, we highly recommend you deactivate your account. 

9) Opt out from marketing associations 

The next step would be to opt out of any marketing associations that might have your data. These associations help marketers make the best use of your data. 

While marketing associations give consumers the option to regulate how they handle your data, these selections usually require cookies and are device or browser-specific. So keep in mind that if you don’t have cookies enabled, clear your browser cookies, or change devices, your choices won’t be saved. 

With that in mind, here are some of the largest marketing associations you’ll want to opt out from:

• The Data & Marketing Association 
• The Network Advertising Initiative 
• The Digital Advertising Alliance – AdChoices and AppChoices 

10) Erase public records 

A lot of the personal information online comes from public records such as court records or Department of Motor Vehicles files. You won’t be able to delete this information everywhere, but most US states allow you to request they delete sensitive information like your contact details or social security number. 

You’ll have to contact your county clerk’s office directly with these requests. 

11) Optimize your phone settings and restrict permissions

Next, you’ll want to adjust your phone settings. Though there are many options when it comes to phone privacy settings, the most important ones are location tracking and app permissions. The exact locations for these settings will vary according to the operating system and device, however, 

For most androids, you will be able to access the location settings through the Privacy and safety section of your settings menu. The app permissions can be found in the Application manager. 

For iOS, the location services can be found in the Privacy section of your settings, while app permissions can be adjusted individually through each app. 

TIP: Turn off Bluetooth when you’re not using it, as many tech companies like Google can locate your device when it connects to nearby devices or Bluetooth beacons. 

12) Optimize smart device privacy settings 

Devices such as smart TVs and speakers are also collecting your personal information. 

Many televisions use automated content recognition for targeted advertising by tracking what you watch. You can disable this feature through your TV privacy settings menu.

Even devices as inconspicuous as speakers pose a threat to your privacy. In some cases. The audio recorded by these devices can be reviewed by contractors. Even worse, hackers can use your speakers to eavesdrop on you.

You can avoid these privacy issues by adjusting the privacy settings on most of these devices. You can find the instructions for two of the most popular smart speakers below:

• Alexa – Adjust the privacy settings here. 
• Google Home – Go to the Account tab on your phone app, select “My Activity” and delete all recordings. You can also enable the automatic deletion of future recordings.

TIP: Always mute your smart speaker when you aren’t using it.

13) Clean up or delete your email accounts

Many people underestimate email accounts’ impact on their online privacy and security. Recent statistics show that emails are responsible for 92% of malware attacks. Many companies also use technologies such as invisible image pixels to track your online activities and collect data. 

To minimize the risks associated with email use, you should first deactivate any old and unused email accounts. You’ll want to stick with providers such as Google or Outlook that use encryption to protect your data. We also recommend you try high-security email providers such as ProtonMail, StartMail, or Mailbox.org.

For email accounts that you want to keep, there are several things you can do to stay safe:

• Always sign out from devices that don’t belong to you.
• Use two-factor authentication.
• Try not to use public networks while using your email.

• Set up separate email accounts and use unique passwords for different things like online shopping, banking, or account management for other sites and apps.
• Never send sensitive information by email. 
• Adjust the privacy settings to opt out of email scanning and disable images to avoid pixel tracking. 

14) Optimize browser privacy settings and clear browsing history

The last step to removing your personal information from the internet is to optimize the privacy settings on your browser and clear your browsing history. Browsers store a ton of data, including passwords, cached files, and records of the websites you visit. This can be dangerous if hackers gain access to your device. 

We’ve already talked a lot about cookies, but they are one of the biggest tools websites use to track your online activity and gather your personal information. Making sure you eliminate or minimize the number of cookies on your browser will stop a lot of your data from being leaked right at the source. 

Thankfully, it’s pretty simple and easy to control this. Just go to the browser settings and disable cookies. More and more browsers like Firefox and Safari automatically block third-party cookies as a default. We also recommend adding browser extensions like ad-blockers for added security. 

Once you have done this, go to the history tab on your browser and clear history, cookies, and cached images and files. Make sure to do this regularly to keep the browser from accumulating more data. 

Want to know which browsers are most private? See private browsers for iOS users and best Android browser for privacy.

FAQ

What should you do before you start removing your information?

There are a few steps you should take before you start to remove your personal information from the internet. Believe it or not, this is the hardest (and most important) part of the process. But if you take the time to do these things, you’ll thank yourself later!

1) Start with a Google search to find out what information others can see

Removing your information from the internet can feel like an impossible task. A great place to start and gain your bearing is with a quick Google search. This way, you can find out what information is readily available online and what others can see. 

1. Use incognito mode to prevent autofill and online tracking. 
2. Look up important information that could be linked to you such as your name, address, and even family members.
3. Take notes of what you find, including any social media sites and data brokers that come up. 

Here are some advanced Google searches that may help you identify pages with your data:

• “First name Last name” “City”
• “First name Middle name Last name” “city”
• “First name Last name” “address”
• “First name Middle name Last name” “address”
• “address”
• “First name Middle name Last name”

TIP: set up a Google Alerts notification on your name so that you can stay up to date whenever new information pops up online. 

2) Decide how much information you want to remove from the internet 

Once you have a good idea of how much exposed data you have online, it’s time to decide how private you want to go. Though 86% of Americans have tried to reduce their digital footprint, not everyone is ready to take all their personal information offline. 

Some questions you’ll want to answer are: 

• What tools and services are you not ready to give up?
• What kind of information are you uncomfortable leaving online?
• What are the benefits of the tools and services you want to keep using vs the risks of leaving the information they require online?

If you don’t want to wipe your data from the internet completely, you will have to strike a delicate balance between the tools and services you want to keep using, the amount of information you want to be erased, and the risks you are willing to take. 

TIP: Always remove PII (Personally Identifiable Information) that has the potential to create significant risks of identity theft, financial fraud, harmful direct contact, or other specific dangers.

Always remove the following if you come across it:

• Confidential government identification (ID) numbers like US Social Security Number
• Bank account numbers
• Credit card numbers
• Images of handwritten signatures
• Images of ID docs
• Highly personal, restricted, and official records, like medical records
• Personal contact info (physical addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses)
• Confidential login credentials

3) Browse the internet in private

The first step is more of a preventative measure, but it will go a long way to protecting your data privacy in the future. Browse the internet in private whenever you can. 

The best way to make your internet activity private and secure is with a trusted VPN such as Surfshark. This will encrypt your data, creating a secure tunnel so that your personal information isn’t susceptible to external attacks.    

If you can’t purchase a VPN, we recommend enabling private browsing on your browser. This will ensure you don’t leave behind a trail of history, passwords, or cookies. Here are the private browsing options for some of the most popular browsers:   

• Chrome – Incognito mode
• Mozilla Firefox – Private browsing
• Microsoft Edge – InPrivate browsing 
• Safari – Private browsing  

Don’t stop your data removal journey

We know there were a lot of steps in our guide, but if you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You have greatly reduced your digital footprint!

Online privacy and security require a never-ending effort so many of the steps on our list should be revisited regularly. While it does take time and dedication, we believe your safety and privacy are always worth it.