In today’s day and age, it is very easy for our personal information to end up on the internet. This could be due to a data breach that occurs at a company for which you have signed up for a service (i.e. SoFi, tumblr) or a data breach that occurs with a current or former employer. Threat actors are at work 24/7 trying to steal people’s information and sell it for monetary gain, but the following steps can be taken as a best effort to redact your personal information from public websites.
Step 1: Figure out which websites have your personal information and write them down
The first step is simple. To redact our personal information from public websites, we need to know which websites still have our personal information accessible. A quick google search of your first and last name will pull up the most relevant results. See what comes up under web results as well as image results. If there are any websites that you would like to redact your personal information from, copy and paste these to a text document to keep track of these as the list may get extensive.
Do you have more than one way of spelling your name? Do you use different variations of your name when creating accounts online? Trying Google searching these variations as well and see what comes up. You can also Google a username that you have commonly used or an email address. You’d be surprised at what information is still hanging around, even if you haven’t used that website in a while.
You should also Google personal information other than your name such as your home address and phone number and note those sources as well.
Step 2: Review your list and start removing information that you can still access
This step would be specific to any personal accounts that you may have come across in step 1. For example, maybe you came across an old social media account that you no longer use but still has some pictures of you publicly available. You can try logging into the account and removing certain information or delete the account completely if it is no longer needed. Most sites also have privacy settings that would allow you to change your account or profile to private, meaning it would not be publicly viewable.
Step 3: For sites that are outside of your control, contact the site administrators or submit an opt-out form
In step 1, if your information is publicly available, you will most likely come across personal information on people search websites such as Spokeo or True People Search. Your information most likely ended up on these sites without you even creating an account.
These websites often have contact information that includes who to reach out to for requesting the removal of your information, or they may have an opt-out form that you can submit for this request.
If some of your personal information appears in Google search results, you can request to have it removed through Google’s removal request tool.
Step 4: Protect your information from being stolen/exposed
Most web browsers have do-not-track features or private browsing so that websites cannot collect your personal information when you visit. When signing up for an account or service, only provide information that is required. These are usually indicated by an asterisk and a “required” field on most sign-up forms. The less of our personal information we divulge, the less likely it is to end up on the internet.
Step 5: Perform a personal information search on yourself regularly
It is good practice to perform these steps every few months to see if your personal information turns up due to a new data breach. Companies will inform you if your personal data was involved in a data break, usually notifying you via email. That would be a good sign to perform these steps again.
It seems impossible to completely remove our digital footprint in today’s world, but taking these steps can serve as a best effort to regain control of our personal information and protect our privacy.