How to remove personal information from the internet

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Our lives are increasingly moving online, from social interactions to work, shopping, finance and health. That means there’s a vast amount of personal information about you out there, held on different servers around the world.

It would be nice to think that all of this information is securely safeguarded, but the reality is that data breaches are a fact of life. Your personal information could be for sale on the dark web right now.

The situation isn’t helped by “data broker” websites, which collect publicly available information to compile profiles of individuals. Yours could include your address and phone number, personal interests and demographics – and again, it’s available to anyone who’s willing to pay.

All of this online information violates your privacy, and it can be used by cybercriminals to target you for fraud. Here’s how to protect yourself from intrusions and threats by removing your online information from the internet.

What information is out there?

There’s probably more information about you online than you realise. If you use social networks, your full name may well be visible to the public, along with details such as your sex, date of birth, marital status and location. Your first step should be to check your privacy settings in every service you use; You can also audit your Google account settings at

There’s also plenty of private information that could be leaked through hacker attacks, shared documents or simple carelessness. This might include financial and medical records, employment details, property records and details of court proceedings you’ve been involved with.

If you want to take control of your online identity, you need to be aware of your “digital footprint” – and know what

steps you can take to remove information from the internet.

Shut down obsolete accounts and apps

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The internet has been a part of our daily lives for more than 20 years, and in that time you’ve likely signed up for all sorts of websites. It’s worth checking whether your old social media or blogging accounts are still open: even if they’re sitting dormant and inactive, they could be sharing information about you with the world, just like current social networks. It’s best to delete any accounts you’re not using or make them completely private.

Similarly, review what apps you’re using on your phone, and remove any that you don’t need. These can collect and share a lot of information about your personal identity and activity, including your location and your daily routine.

Check the privacy settings in your browser too. Disabling cookies shuts down one way that website operators learn about you (although it can also cause some sites to stop working). Other tracking technologies can be blocked using a browser extension such as Privacy Badger.

If you really want to protect your identity online, consider switching to a privacy-focused browser such as Brave, using a no-logs search engine such as DuckDuckGo and subscribing to a VPN service that conceals your identity and location while you’re online.

Remove yourself from Google

Securing your accounts and apps will help prevent future leaks, but there’s probably a lot of information about you already out there. Try Googling your own name and you might be alarmed by what comes up.

If you see something you don’t want to share with the world, you can ask Google to remove it from future search results. To do this, visit Google’s Content Removal Form, select “Content contains your personal information” and hit Next. On the next page, select the specific item you want removed, and provide any additional details as requested.