You may be unaware of this, but your personal information is not solely yours. It is bought, sold, and also gets shared by the websites that you most frequently use. In fact, most people think that advertisers know way too much personal information about them. The reason why marketers want to acquire your personal information is that it helps them create personalized ads. This is a way for them to get more sales or clicks to their website. Therefore, no matter if you are subscribed to the Spectrum Packages, you must limit your use of the internet and avoid providing too much information about yourself.
Getting yourself removed from people-search sites is one way to remove your personal information from the web. You can find more tips in this article.
5 Ways to Help You Remove Personal Information from the Internet
Let’s get one thing straight here; it’s impossible to remove your personal information from the internet. However, there’s no need to fret! There are some ways that can help you minimize your digital footprint. And when you take those steps, it will become really difficult for others to profit from your personal data. So, what are those ways? Well, let’s shed some light on them.
1. Get Yourself Removed from People-Search Sites
To find out if your data is available online, Google yourself. Yes, you read that right! Type in your name along with the city where you live. Now, scroll through the result page. There are some chances that you will find your personal data on websites like Spokeo, Pipl, Mylife, and Whitepages. And if you do, then welcome to the world of people-search data broker sites. These platforms exist to gather personal information, which can include your name, address, date of birth, email address, and phone number.
Once you find your information on one of these sites, you sure would be a bit worried. But don’t stress! You see, most sites will offer you to opt out. And you can do that by sending them an email request. But there are some sites like WhitePages where you would have to make an account to submit the request for info deletion.
2. Delete Unused Accounts
People usually tend to forget about their old and unused accounts. But why should you do that? Well, maybe this will convince you; The New York Times recently shared an article in which a mother who had uploaded the pictures of her children on Flicker found out that those images were uploaded into a huge facial recognition database without her consent after she stopped using the platform.
You have to know that the internet companies are consolidating continuously. This means that user data can be transferred from one company to another easily. For example, there was once a popular social media platform called Classmates. The site was later acquired by the company, Intelius which is a major data broker that specializes in people-search sites. The CEO of Intelius stated that the purchase of Classmate provided them with a lot of information regarding the people along with their school picture.
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3. Make Your Social Media Accounts More Secure
If you are someone who uses social media platforms more frequently, then make sure to check the privacy settings often. You have to ensure that your account is secure and that no stranger can have access to it. Many different social media sites often bury these settings deep into menus, making it hard for people to maintain their privacy. This is because these platforms like to make money from targeted advertising. Therefore, they try to keep your accounts as exposed as possible so that your preferences and behaviors can be recorded to build a marketing profile. You should consider deleting your old posts or tweet often.
4. Remove Your Personal Information from Google
Google is the largest collector of data. This is why you should think about taking some time off to get rid of your personal information from the search giant. You can do that by accessing Google’s activity controls, where you will be able to manage ad personalization, YouTube history, and web & app activity.
Even if you have removed your personal data from Google, it will appear in cached Google search results. So, what should you do? Well, you can go to Google Search Console and request to delete your information from the search engine. And also ask them to clear the cache.
Conclusion
Internet is not the place to share your personal information. And if you do that, then companies are going to take advantage of that. They will be selling your data for their own monetary benefit. Therefore, you must take some steps to stop it from happening. And this article will help you make your first move. How? Well, just consider all of the aforementioned ways to remove your personal information from the web, and you will be fine!
