Your data is of great value to companies that collect information about you and sell it to marketers. Completely removing your digital footprint from the Internet is an almost impossible task, even if you go completely offline.
The reason is that your digital footprint already exists.
However, it’s not all hopeless. There are several steps you can take to reduce your online footprint. Below, we’ll look at six steps to help you tackle this daunting task.
6 ways to remove your information footprint
According to the commonly accepted definition, personal information includes data such as phone or social security numbers, financial or medical information, and personal details.
If such information falls into the wrong hands, it can seriously threaten your privacy and security. This can lead to data breaches, fraud, identity theft, blackmail, harassment, and other dangerous situations.
The best way to prevent serious threats is to minimize your online personal information. Here are six steps to help you remove as much of your personal information as possible from the web.
-
Refuse to allow data collection by brokers and people search sites
Completely getting rid of your personal information online is a difficult task because even after deletion, it may remain online in the form of personal records. Data brokers and people search sites actively collect and distribute this data, making it available to third parties, including marketers, insurance companies, and just curious people. This creates challenges to complete privacy in the online world.
A quick Google search can reveal several sites that publish or sell personal information. However, many data brokers do not index their profiles, making the process of identifying all of them challenging.
To determine which data brokers store your information, you need to look for options that operate in your area and send data deletion requests to each of them. Otherwise, a recently visited account on an online store, a writing paper service, or an online bulletin board will not forget about you and may have collected your data.
To save time, you can use automated data removal services such as Incogni. They offer a convenient way to identify data brokers and people search sites where your data is stored, and they regularly send requests to remove information from there.
-
Use a VPN when surfing the Internet
Although Incognito mode can be useful for certain purposes, it is unsuitable for online data protection.
Incognito can hide your online activity from other users, but your ISP and hackers can still access your data.
A more reliable option is to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). When you connect to a VPN, your device establishes an encrypted channel between it and the VPN server. This secure channel keeps your data secure and protects it from unauthorized access.
-
Delete unused online accounts
If you have been actively using the Internet for a long time, you may have several forgotten accounts in various online services. Even though you no longer use these accounts, they may continue to store and transmit personal information. Therefore, paying attention to all created accounts and deleting them if necessary to protect your personal data is important.
To protect your privacy, it is recommended that you delete all old accounts that you no longer use. This could be an email account, a social media profile, an account on an e-commerce site, or even a blog you once maintained.
However, you may not remember all of your forgotten accounts anymore. To discover them, you should search your inbox using keywords such as “Welcome,” “Sign Up,” and “Get Started.” This way, you can find accounts you may have forgotten before and delete them.
-
Uninstall apps that are not in use
How many apps installed on your devices, do you really need? Recent studies indicate that most apps will likely share your personal information with third parties.
To ensure the security and privacy of your data, it is recommended that you first request data removal from the companies that provided these apps and then uninstall all unnecessary apps from your devices.
-
Delete data from Google
Google is a huge source of information, but unfortunately, this also includes personal data.
However, you can delete your stored data using the Google activity management page. You can even set up an automatic deletion to avoid data accumulation in the future.
If you want to further protect your privacy, you can request that information be removed from your search results pages. To do so, you can contact the website owners directly or use the online form provided by Google to request that your personal information be removed.
-
Configure privacy settings across all devices and accounts
Once you’ve deleted the accounts and apps you don’t use, it’s time to optimize your privacy settings on the ones you choose to keep. This includes online accounts, apps, browsers, and devices.
Privacy settings may vary from platform to platform or service to service, but there are a few key settings that you should pay attention to. These include settings for location tracking, activity monitoring, customized advertising settings, and data sharing with third parties.
How does your personal information get on the Internet?
Many free online services provide them without payment, but in reality, they profit by collecting and using users’ personal information. This data has become a valuable asset and has even been nicknamed the “new oil” of the digital economy.
Importantly, your personal information becomes a valuable resource for companies that collect data, and they can use it to analyze user behavior, personalize ads, and other commercial purposes.
Often, users are unaware when and to what extent their data is collected and used. This is partly due to cookies and complex privacy policies that few people read. In reality, however, you leave a data trail wherever you go. Your actions and interests can be recorded and used for various purposes.
Final Thoughts
Online privacy is an extremely important aspect of the modern digital age. With the development of technology and increasing dependence on online services, protecting your personal information is becoming especially important. Online, we shop, communicate with friends, exchange personal messages, and leave a digital footprint almost everywhere. This data can be used to analyze our behavior, create profiles, personalize ads, and other purposes that may compromise our privacy and security.
Given the growing threat of cybercrime and data breaches, understanding and recognizing the risks associated with using personal information is becoming critical. When we send information online, we entrust its storage and processing to third-party companies, so we must be vigilant and take active measures to protect our data. Proper use of privacy tools, deleting outdated accounts, and setting the most secure options in online services will help us reduce risks and preserve our privacy online.
