How do I scrub most of my information from the internet? I just searched an email I started at 10 ish, 24 years ago and it’s got all my information attached. I remember Druff talked about doing this on a podcast a year or so ago
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How do I scrub most of my information from the internet? I just searched an email I started at 10 ish, 24 years ago and it’s got all my information attached. I remember Druff talked about doing this on a podcast a year or so ago
There are services which do this for you, but if you don't want to pay one (they can be expensive), do the following:
1) Google your name, see what comes up. Make sure to include search terms such as "address", "phone number", "age", etc, and that will uncover more sites.
2) Find if these sites have an "opt out" type procedure. Most do. Scroll down to the bottom and look for "opt out", "privacy policy", or "control my information" type links, and follow instructions to delete your info.
3) If you can't find this stuff, on the page where you're listed, look for a "This is me" or "Control my info" type of link. You may need to create an account to remove the accessibility of your info.
4) If you can't figure out how to do this online, search for "Contact Us". It may be there. It also may list a phone number, and you can call them for assistance to opt out.
5) Some of these will want e-mail addresses to verify opting out. Don't give them your real e-mail. Make burner accounts on gmail or whatever for this.
6) Some may want ID scanned and e-mailed/faxed in order to opt out. If you choose to do this, redact personal info such as date of birth and ID #. Otherwise this can be used later by unscrupulous employees to impersonate you.
Once you've gotten the info removed, go to the Google Webmaster URL Removal Tool, so it vanishes faster. You don't need to be a webmaster to use it. Any google account (gmail, etc) will do. Here's the URL: https://search.google.com/search-con...tdated-content
Using that tool, click "New Request", and enter the URL of the now-dead search page. You can get that URL by right-clicking on the Google Search result. Paste it there, and press Submit. If the page is totally gone, it will automatically be scheduled for removal. Otherwise, it says "Enter search term which no longer appears", and just enter a word from your info which is gone from the page now, such as your street name or last name or whatever. In a few days, it will fall off google. It will fall off without doing all this, but this is the faster way to make it happen.
Note that this Google tool will NOT work unless the info has been removed. If you can't opt out, Google won't remove it.
Check back every 6 months or so, because new services will get your info every so often.
Good luck.
Thanks man
It’s funny, Druff types all of the above out a makes it easy. Took me about a week to figure out all of that myself. Thanks to Druff for helping people out.
I’m slowly working on it because my information is way to available. If only there was a service I could pay 50$ to do this!Quote:
Originally Posted by desertrunner
There are services. Not sure how expensive they are, and how good of a job they do.