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Why You Should Remove Your Personal Information from the Internet
If you think you should remove your personal information from the internet, you are not alone. There are thousands of people that are opting to remove their information from the internet. In this article, we are going to talk about why you should delete yourself from the internet as well as how to go about doing that. Let’s get into it now.
No Privacy
If you value your privacy, having your personal information online is the fastest way for you to lose that privacy. Sites that have your information often have had you opt-in and click an agreement for terms of service and a privacy policy that says they are able to sell or give your information to someone else. Even if you take the time to read through their insanely long agreements, you may not understand some of the tricky jargon regarding your privacy.
Identity Theft
With your personal information available online, it makes it much easier for identity thieves to steal your information and your identity. If they can get information such as your birthday, your mother’s maiden name, your old school, best friend and other information, they may be able to assume your identity and cause big problems in your life. Having your identity stolen is no small challenge, and this crime is becoming more and more popular. This crime alone is reason enough to want to take yourself off the internet.
Catfishing
If people find your information online, they can “catfish” people that you know through instant messaging or email. Many times these catfish professionals will find your information online, make an identical social media profile and then send messages and emails to close friends and family. Most of the time they will ask for money or pull some other type of scam that will have you send money to them.
Taking your personal information off the internet will help your family and friends and not only yourself. If your information is used to catfish your friends and family, it isn’t your fault, and you won’t be in trouble. You may have to prove that it was not you that was pulling the schemes though so if you can stay away from these problems, it is even better than having to remedy them.
How to Delete Your Information & Yourself from the Internet
Now that you understand why you should remove your information from the internet, what do you do about it? Is there a way to delete your information from the internet? While there isn’t a way to make sure that there is no information about you online, there are some things that you can do to reduce the amount of information that is available to the public about you online. While you may not be a total ghost, you will be less visible online than many other people that use the internet.
Is My Information Available Online?
If you have ever created an email account, social media account, bought something online or anything similar, you should know that your information is available to the public online. The information is often not only on the sites where you entered it, but data brokers usually find your information, buy it and sell it to other people. If you have ever been online, it is likely that your information is spread all around the internet. If someone wants to find you and your information, he or she will be able to do it.
Where to Delete Your Information
- Social Media Sites – Social media is where many people have a great deal of information available online. Not only do you have your name on the site, but sometimes you’ll put your current city, hometown, photos, family members, favorite hobbies and more. Any of this information could be used against you in identity theft or through catfishing people that you know. While you might have remembered to delete your information from the major websites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, there could be other social media websites that you forgot about so make sure to be as thorough as possible.
- eCommerce Sites – If you’ve ever shopped on Amazon.com, Zappos or any other eCommerce website, they have stored your information. You need to make sure that you go into the site and delete the information that you have there. The delete option is most often under the privacy settings, but if there is not an option, you can change the information to something random, so your true information is not available.
- Data Brokers – Look on websites like Yellowpages.com and PeopleFinders to see if your information is listed on their website. These websites may make you jump through hoops to get your information taken down. You may even be required to send physical, written letters to ask that your information is taken down.
- Customer accounts – If you have cable, phone service or any other accounts, you most likely have an online account that they set up for your use. Even if you have never used it before, you may still have one that is linked to your account. You can go online and see if you can find and delete it or you can call customer service to ask them to take it down for you.
- Forums – If you’ve been a member of a forum, you’ve most likely put your information on those sites. If you aren’t able to find where to delete your account information, you can contact the webmaster to see if they will help you.
Final Thoughts
Having your personal information available to the public can be a scary thought, but minimizing your information online is a great idea. While you might not be able to take everything down, the above places are a great place to start. If you don’t want to go about taking all of your information down yourself, then make sure to contact us today so we can help you through the process. We understand that your time is precious, so we take care of all of the tedious work of removing your information from the internet.
