Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

Do you want to erase your tracks to escape the internet? Although the virtual world brings joy to many people, for others it is a burden. It's not always possible to erase all of your tracks, but you can check out this article to remove the majority of personal information from social networking sites and apps.

Steps

1. 

   Consider carefully before deleting an account. Since most of these steps are irreversible, you lose information, lose your position in the virtual world, and in some cases lose the chance to recreate an account with the same name.
   • Is there any other way to resolve this issue? For example, change your name online or use an email account that is different from the one you normally use. For example, if your current email address is related to something bad, you can create another email address to use exclusively for professional activities like sending resumes and applying for school. scholarship.
   • If you are worried about old news on Twitter, delete the entire message instead of deleting the account.
   • If you want to avoid being tracked online, consult how to deal with stalkers to protect yourself.
   • If you are exposed to false information or are defamed online, contact the authorities for advice on filing a lawsuit.

2. 

   
   
   Find your info on Google. The best way to help you see what information to remove is to find out what information others can find about you. Put your name in quotation marks when you do a Google search to get the most relevant results. The next thing to do is make a note of all the web pages with your name.
   • If you have a popular name, add city or occupation names when searching.
   • For the best results from your Google searches, you can check out how to use advanced Google search tips.

3. 

   
   
   Have Google delete your information. Good news for Europeans: from 2014, you can ask Google to remove your personal information from their search results. Click on this link to access the request for information deletion.
   • No matter where you are, you can always ask Google to remove un-updated content from search results. The only requirement is that you must remove or change your content so that the current version on Google is no longer relevant. Information removal tool displayed at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?pli=1.
   • After completing the steps in this article, search results related to you will disappear over time unless it is stored somewhere.

4. 

   
   
   Delete social media accounts and games. As social media and game services become more and more popular, these will be the first places where other people look for your information online. It will be hard to remember all the accounts you created over the years, but start by deleting information from popular sites. This does not help you delete information from the "Deep Web" but is a good start. Let's start with the following list:
   • Delete Facebook account permanently
   • Delete Instagram account
   • Delete Twitter account
   • Delete YouTube account
   • Delete your LinkedIn account
   • Delete Twitch account
   • Delete TikTok account
   • Delete your Pinterest account
   • Delete the Foursquare account
   • Delete your Minecraft account
   • Delete your Steam account
   • Delete Soundcloud account
   • Delete the Flickr account
   • Delete Google or Gmail account
   • Delete your MySpace account
   • Don't forget sites like Ning, Yahoo Groups and private forums. If you are unable to delete your account on private forums, ask the forum administrator to delete your posts.

5. 

   Delete websites and / or blogs. If you created your blog or personal website through a free service like Blogger, Wordpress or Medium, you can delete all the content and close your account. If you paid your service provider's account maintenance fee, contact them to close your account and delete the website.
   • If your website or blog is public, it is possible that the content was hosted by the Archive.org Wayback Machine. Try to determine if your website has been hosted. While there is no official way to unsubscribe your website, some webmasters have successfully sent DMCA pirated content takedown notices to [email protected].
   • Be sure to remove any accounts with third-party advertising tools, statistics management, and extensions.
   • If you have submitted articles to online editors or freelance writers, you can delete them by contacting the webmaster.
   • If your content has been reposted on other blogs, contact the blog owner to have them remove your name and content.

6. 

   Cancel profiles and sign up for dating services. You may not use your real name on your online dating profile but have linked an email address, phone number, or other identifying information. Find ways to remove your info from the following popular dating sites and apps:
   • Delete your Tinder account
   • Delete OKCupid account
   • Remove eHarmony account
   • Delete a MeetMe account
   • Delete Zoosk account
   • Delete the profile on the Ashley Madison site

7. 

   Remove your name from data broker sites. At age 18 or over, you can find your name on the people search pages that show up in Google search results. These sites buy your personal information and share it publicly, sometimes for a fee. The good news is that you can often delete your information on these pages with relative ease. Here are a few quick links:
   • InstantCheckmate: https://www.instantcheckmate.com/opt-out
   • Intelius: https://www.intelius.com/optout
   • FamilyTreeNow:: https://www.familytreenow.com/optout
   • Spokeo: https://www.spokeo.com/optout
   • Check with your mobile carrier to make sure your information isn't being made public online. If so, ask them to remove all the information.

8. 

   Cancel shopping and payment accounts. Sites like eBay and Amazon show other users your public version profile, and that information can be easily found using search engines. You would also want to delete these accounts, but if you want more thorough processing, you can also delete payment accounts like PayPal and Venmo. Try to remove your account from the following popular shopping and payment services pages:
   • Delete an Amazon account
   • Delete an eBay account
   • Delete Venmo account
   • Delete Paypal account
   • Delete the Square account
   • Don't forget to delete your registration information from your local ad groups, Craigslist account and Etsy profile.

9. 

   Find ways to "disguise" accounts that cannot be deleted. Some sites do not allow you to delete your account, but only give you the option to "disable" (your information is still in the system) or to give up your account. If you have serious legal or security problems that require you to remove your account, contact the site's administrator or technician; At least you can change your name to conceal your true identity. If you can't get someone to interfere with this, you can try the following:
   • Login and delete all personal information. If you cannot leave some fields blank, enter a fake name, such as Hero Rom or Nguyen Van A. You will do this for all non-deletable accounts and remember to use different information for each account. account so that they are not linked. If you wish to provide another email address, the website will send a confirmation email; That means you cannot use virtual email addresses. This is the reason for the next step.
   • If you don't have a difficult-to-identify email address to link to your account, create another free email address that doesn't contain information related to you.
   • After creating an anonymous email account, you will add this email to the indelible account and confirm. Once you've completed this step, make sure to check to make sure your real email address is no longer displayed in this account.

10. 

    Consider hiring an expert. If you have trouble or find things too difficult, contact a company that specializes in data deletion. These services have a fee, but that money is completely worth it when you want to delete data in a short time. Choose a service with the following factors:
    • It is possible to remove your information from the "web sink" in addition to basic services.
    • Have an agreement with the data source supplier.
    • Good reviews.

11. 

    Delete your email account (optional). After you are satisfied with the deletion of your information from the internet, you may want to delete your email account too. However, delay deleting your email account until you are satisfied with your traces of the internet, as you still need an email address to request pages to remove personal information.
    • If the email address is unrelated to your name, make sure your name and personal information are not visible on profile. For example, if you use a free web email service like Gmail or Outlook.com, sign in to the site, open the settings, and replace your real name with a different one.
    • If you have a fee for the email service, please contact the company for advice. Even premium web email services will be staffed with customer support staff.
    • Always make sure you don't delete important archived information before deleting your account. Transfer necessary information to a memory card or other memory.
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Advice

• Some information will not be deleted, such as whether you are mentioned in news articles and interviews.
• Ask a friend to remove your photo (or the one you take) from their social media accounts.
• You can use the keyword "whois" or an online domain search service to find out the website owner you need to contact. This is a very useful way when a website does not provide an email address. Look for "admin email" (the administrator's email) and "server data" in the search results.
• If you are miserable because your name and information are everywhere on the internet and don't know what to do next, contact a privacy support service like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for advice.
• If you are exposed to false information or are defamed online, contact the authorities for advice on filing a lawsuit.

Warning

• What you post online will be difficult to erase. So always be careful what you share in the virtual world: because "prevention is better than cure".
• Be prepared for the backlash of network administrators who insist they "have a right" to disclose information. Some people don't take personal matters or privacy seriously and see it as opposed to what they are doing. Be firm and if needed, seek assistance from a privacy attorney or organization when your privacy issue needs to be resolved urgently or thoroughly.
• Some sites use a "psychometric" approach to encourage you to keep using it. Comments like "all your friends will miss you" (all your friends will miss you) are used to make you change your mind because no site wants to lose users. If you hesitate, place a friend's photo right in front of you, select "delete" on that page and call to see a friend for a coffee chat. This way, you will quickly get over the feeling of regret.