Deleting your digital footprint is not the easiest thing in the world. But it can be done. Maybe it’s because you don’t want potential employers coming across something you said when younger. Or it could be that you have had enough of the internet and want away from it all. Whatever your reason, I can help.
So let’s start at the beginning. First and foremost we need to delete all of your social media accounts. And to do that, it’s best to use a site such as Just Delete Me.
Deleting Your Digital Footprint: Social Media
Just delete me will help to semi-automate the task of removing yourself from social media.
As you can see from the screenshot above, Just Delete Me lists a plethora of sites. It explains how to delete your accounts and how difficult it will be. So this is where we start. Make a list of all your accounts, then go through them one by one, deleting them as we go. It might be painful, but so is ripping off a band-aid. And this is the only way to remove yourself from the internet.
A good tip to make sure you don’t miss any accounts. Go through the entire list on Just Delete Me. It might throw up one or two that you have forgotten.
At this point there will be some accounts that you realise cannot be deleted. Don’t worry. Take a deep breath and chill as I have the solution. What we need to do here is to falsify those accounts. What do I mean? Simple really. You log into the old account and create a fake profile. Scrub away your old self by changing the name, city, country, DOB. Whatever you can change, do so.
Deleting Your Digital Footprint: Unsubscribe From Mailing Lists
Now, you have two choices with this one. Personally I would go the nuclear option and just start again with another email account. But I understand that some people get attached to their email accounts. So what is option number two?
Simple, use a site such as Unroll.me to unsubscribe from mailing lists, promotions etc. Start fresh with your email.
Unroll me is a free, easy to use service. I have used it myself to clean up my inbox before. It’s great for a spring clean. Go try it out, even if you are not wanting to scrub yourself from the web.
Deleting Your Digital Footprint: Removing Search Engine Results
Again, for this we have a number of different ways to do it. First there is the google URL remove tool. Once you have deleted all your social accounts, it’s a good idea to then go through them all with the google remove URL tool. This way you can make sure that all the cached google search results for those profiles disappear too.
Next we have to deal with your details that are on third-party websites. To delete anything from those, you will have to contact the website owner. Usually this is easy as you can just look up the contact details on the site itself. However, some sites don’t have a way to contact them like this. For those sites, use a Who Is search. All you do is paste the website url into the search box and wait while it searches for the contact details for that person. Once you have them, it should be easy enough to get in touch and have them remove your details.
Last of all. You can also use the google manage online reputation tool to check on your profiles and make sure that everything is cleaned and squared away once you have deleted accounts etc. For this one though, I would leave it at least a few weeks for all your changes to take effect.
Deleting Your Digital Footprint: Once Done
Ok. So you have removed everything. What now? Well that depends. You could just leave it there, walk away from your online life and live a fulfilling happy life. But we know you won’t do that. So before you begin re-building your online identity, consider a few things. Starting with a new email address will give you a completely fresh start. Especially as a search for your old email address could still throw up some “rogue” results.
And my final piece of advice?
Dance like nobody is watching – use social media as though it’s going to be seen by absolutely everybody.
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