How to Remove Yourself From the Internet

Have you ever Googled yourself and felt uneasy about how much personal information came up in the search results? Do you get tired of all the spam calls and emails flooding your inbox? Are you concerned about identity theft or other risks from having your data exposed online?

If so, you may have wondered – is it possible to remove yourself from the internet?

While completely wiping your existence from the online world is practically impossible, you can take steps to minimize your digital footprint and better protect your personal data.

In this detailed guide, we‘ll cover:

• The dangers of having your information online
• Where advertisers, scammers and shady corporations get your data
• Actionable ways to cut off data access at the source
• Leveraging automated data removal services to opt-out at scale
• What to expect after removing personal data from the internet

Let‘s dig in…

Why You Should Consider Removing Yourself From the Internet

Having your personal details available online comes with many downsides:

Endless Spam and Robocalls

Marketers get their hands on your contact information and flood your inbox with promotions. Scammers spoof your number to make illegal robocalls.

According to a survey by Incogni, 97% of Americans received spam emails in 2021 while a staggering 94% got robocalls.

This constant distraction and nuisance is reason enough for many people to limit their digital footprint.

Higher Likelihood of Fraud and Identity Theft

The more data fraudsters can find about you online, the easier it is for them to commit identity theft.

Personal details like your full name, date of birth, addresses and social security number can be pieced together from various sources to fully impersonate you. Stolen identities can be used to open fraudulent bank accounts, take out loans and destroy your credit.

Victims spend an average of 200 hours and over $1000 out-of-pocket restoring their identity, according to an Identity Theft Resource Center report. And full recovery can take years.

Increased Risk of Cyberstalking and Reputation Damage

Cyberstalkers leverage personal details like phone numbers, home addresses, workplace information and daily habits to harass victims online and in real life.

And something as simple as old social media posts being taken out of context can damage your reputation and cost you jobs, relationships or educational opportunities down the line.

Higher Insurance Premiums and Loan Rates

Car insurance providers may increase your premiums if they find data suggesting you‘re a risky driver. For example, Allstate‘s Drivewise program uses a mobile app to monitor driving habits like speed, hard braking and phone usage.

Lenders can raise interest rates if they discover you have a habit of late payments or bad credit history.

The less data available about you, the lower your risk profile. Limiting your digital footprint keeps costs down.

Discrimination Concerns

Personal data can unfortunately be used to discriminate against you. Employers may pass you over for a job if they find out about illnesses, disabilities, religious beliefs, political affiliations or other sensitive information.

Mortgage lenders could reject you over something as simple as using gambling or porn apps. Health insurers may charge you more or deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions, genetics and other data they shouldn‘t legally be using to make decisions.

By removing as much personal data from the internet as possible, you avoid giving organizations the chance to potentially discriminate against you down the line.

Where Marketers, Scammers and Corporations Get Your Data

Now that you‘ve seen the compelling reasons to remove yourself from the internet, let‘s examine the various sources bad actors get their hands on your personal information – often without your consent.

Public Records

Huge amounts of personal and sensitive information are legally public record that anyone can access:

• Property records – Names, addresses and assessed home values.

• Marriage and divorce records – Full names, dates of birth, details on your partner and children.

• Voter registration records – Names, addresses, political party affiliations and voting history.

• Court records – Details of any civil or criminal cases your name appears in.

• Bankruptcy filings – Financial and employment details.

• Death notices – Full names, dates of birth, next of kin, causes of death.

Your Own Online Activity

You directly provide a treasure trove of personal data through your online activity:

• Social media profiles – Full names, photos, addresses, employment details, religious/political views, life events, interests, friends/family connections and more.

• Shopping accounts – Names, emails, mobile numbers, addresses, payment information and entire purchase histories.

• User accounts – Email addresses, passwords, interests and web activity spanning years.

• Email inboxes – Signatures often contain names, job titles, phone numbers and addresses. Email content reveals everything from financial data to travel plans.

• Smartphone apps – Access your contacts, messages, browsing history, precise location and more. Games and social apps can share your activity with hundreds of data partners.

Data Brokers – The Shadow Industry Selling Your Data

Data brokers are the secretive middlemen collecting, analyzing and profiting from the sale of your personal information.

There are over 4000 data broker companies worldwide dealing in the trade of people‘s personal data – a $250+ billion industry.

These brokers get their data from:

• Public records
• Your online activity
• Information sold to them by banks, insurers, social networks, retailers and more

Data brokers combine online and offline data to build comprehensive profiles containing:

• Full names, aliases and signatures

• Addresses, phone numbers and emails

• Dates of birth, marital status and death records

• Financial, employment and educational histories

• Property ownership and value details

• Political affiliations and charitable donations

• Religious beliefs and firearms permits held

• Social security and driver‘s license numbers

• Physical attributes like age, height, weight, tattoos

• Household demographics like income, ethnicity, number of children

• Criminal records, bankruptcies, lawsuits

• Family connections, relationships, neighbors

• Browsing histories, app usage, online shopping

• Travel histories based on mobile location data

• Inferences drawn about you based on related people‘s data

This extremely detailed data gets packaged into profiles and sold to corporations, law enforcement, insurance providers, employers, marketers, political groups and more – usually without your explicit consent.

Now that you‘ve seen the various ways your personal details end up online, let‘s go over actionable ways to start cutting off this data access at the source.

How to Limit Data Exposure from the Top Sources

While you can‘t delete public records or past online activities, you can take steps to minimize future exposure.

Secure Social Media Accounts

Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter can enable random strangers to view tons of personal information if your privacy settings aren‘t locked down.

• Review all privacy and security settings in your accounts. Set as much as possible only viewable by yourself or close friends.

• Remove personal details like addresses, ages and place of employment from your profile.

• Limit old posts and photos visible on your timeline to only recent updates.

• Disable location tagging and be selective about check-ins. Don‘t broadcast your daily habits.

• Decline promotional email lists you‘ve been added to through social logins.

• Revoke app permissions frequently accessed social accounts don‘t need.

• Use privacy checkup tools to audit visibility.

• Delete accounts outright you no longer use. Deactivating is not enough.

Be Selective With Apps

Mobile apps request access to tons of data they have no need for. And many share data with hundreds of hidden third-parties.

Before installing apps, research what permissions are necessary for core functionality vs what‘s excessive. Avoid apps wanting access to:

• Contacts
• Location
• SMS messages
• Microphones
• Cameras
• Photo library
• Files on your device
• Calendars
• Call logs

Also beware of apps:

• With no privacy policy or that share data "with partners"

• Made by unknown or sketchy developers

• Rated poorly or called out for privacy violations

• Offering free sticker packs and filters that provide little utility

• Over 5 years old and no longer updated

Only install apps you absolutely need. Browsers can do most of what apps can without the privacy risk.

Use Privacy-Focused Services

You can further limit data collection by using privacy-focused online services:

• Search engines – DuckDuckGo instead of Google

• Browsers – Firefox or Brave over Chrome

• Email – Protonmail rather than Gmail

• Cloud storage – Tresorit or Sync instead of Dropbox

• Video calling – Jitsi not Zoom or Skype

These alternatives collect and share significantly less personal information. Their business models aren‘t built on excessive data gathering and monetization.

Opt-Out of Data Brokers

Cutting off data brokers should be your top priority. Even if you do everything above, these shady businesses will still buy, build and sell detailed dossiers about you.

Lucky for us, laws like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) require brokers to remove personal data if requested by a user. Each provides opt-out procedures to comply with the law.

The problem is following their myriad opt-out procedures is extremely time consuming. There are over 4000 brokers worldwide and each has their own complex steps.

Research from privacy company Incogni estimates it would take the average person over 300 hours to opt-out of all the brokers trafficking their data. And even after opting out, most brokers re-add your data in short order.

Thankfully, there‘s an easier way to opt-out at scale…

Leveraging Automated Data Removal Services

To remove yourself from data broker profiles in any practical way, you need to automate the opt-out process.

Services like Incogni and DeleteMe have devised automated systems to handle data removal at scale.

Here‘s how they work:

Automated Broker Detection

An algorithm automatically searches for and identifies data brokers trafficking your personal information. The exact list of brokers is unique to each person based on their data footprint.

Popular brokers flagged include:

• Acxiom
• Experian
• TransUnion
• Intelius
• Spokeo
• BeenVerified
• Peoplefinder
• Truthfinder
• Radaris
• MyLife

Streamlined Opt-Out Requests

Once flagged, customized opt-out requests are automatically sent to each broker using their required procedures.

The process is streamlined by auto-filling forms, clicking opt-out links and submitting removal requests 24/7.

Periodic Removal Updates

Unlike manual opting out, automated services continuously monitor for data reappearing and send periodic removal requests. This keeps your data deleted for as long as you use the service.

Rejection Appeal Automation

Some data brokers reject valid removal requests. Services handle contesting these rejections and repeatedly appealing them until your data is removed.

The table below compares the top three automated data removal services:

Features	Incogni	DeleteMe	OneRep
Removes Data From # Brokers	1000+	300+	100+
Avg removal time per broker	3 days	7 days	14 days
Re-removal Frequency	Monthly	Quarterly	Annually
Customer Support	Email, chat, phone	Email only	Email only
Free trial	7 days	–	–
Money-back guarantee	30 days	–	–
Pricing	$129/year	$129/year	$99/year

Continued Automation

Once you enroll in a service, the entire process runs automatically in the background. You receive email reports on removal progress but don‘t have to do any work.

Think of it like activating auto-renewing antivirus software. It handles protecting your devices so you don‘t have to think about it.

What To Expect After Data Removal

Wondering how much of a difference automated removal can make?

While you can‘t erase yourself entirely, you should see improvements in the following areas:

Reduction in Targeted Ads

When opting out of brokers, ad networks lose access to your name, interests and web browsing history. This blinds them from being able to target you specifically.

You‘ll still see ads but they will be more generic vs creepily precise.

Lower Risk Profiles

Lenders, insurers and employers won‘t find as much personal data to potentially use against you. This results in lower assessed risk.

For example, Allstate wouldn‘t be able to raise your rates based on driving habits. Credit bureaus lose negative payment history that lowers your score.

Less Unwanted Contact

Scammers, telemarketers and shady sales reps lose access to your contact information. This significantly reduces unwanted spam calls and emails.

Reclaim Privacy

Ultimately, the biggest win is simply gaining more control over your personal data. Automated removal services let you dramatically limit what corporations know about you with minimal effort.

Concluding Thoughts

While removing yourself completely from the internet isn‘t possible, you can still dramatically reduce your exposure.

Start with tightening social media privacy settings, auditing app permissions, using more secure services and manually opting out of any data brokers you can find.

The biggest impact comes from leveraging automated removal tools to continuously scrub your data from hundreds of brokers. This requires almost no ongoing effort while producing outsized privacy gains.

Hopefully this guide gave you a helpful overview of where your data comes from, actionable ways to limit future exposure and how automatic removal services work to undo existing data leakage.

The time you invest now to clean up your digital footprint will pay dividends for years through increased security, lower costs and avoiding reputation damage down the line.