Disappear From The Web
Sometimes the best solution is the easiest one. Google is the standard when it comes to finding practically everything on the Internet. However, there’s a website offering similar search capabilities but you don’t have to sacrifice your online privacy when using it. That website is:
When you first go to the site, you notice that it looks similar to its Google counterpart. The search results will be similar to Google and other popular websites. However, there’s one big difference, which is that DuckDuckGo never records any of your personal information or activity.
Google and the other web browsers track browsing history and use it to compile profiles on their users (as well as provide a way for the government to record metadata of users). DuckDuckGo doesn’t store anything. It’s a lot like other privacy and encryption programs that place privacy at the top of their priority list.
Besides providing users with a platform to perform searches, DuckDuckGo doesn’t go any deeper than that. In fact, because of their refusal to gather the personal information of their users, their search results are the same for everyone. With Google, search results are modified based on a number of factors such as previous search results and location. DuckDuckGo’s responses depend solely on the terms being searched. If the government should show up at DuckDuckGo’s corporate offices demanding to see the search results of you or another American, you can rest easy knowing they’ve hit a dead end.
The real beauty of this Internet search solution is that you can use it anywhere. You don’t have to bring anything with you, and you don’t have to install any software onto any computer you’re using. If you want to stop in at the local library to check look something up, you can use DuckDuckGo and know that your quick search isn’t stored in some government database in Utah. You also know that marketers in Google or Yahoo aren’t figuring out the next product to put in your ad sidebar based on your last search query.
Check it out:
Are you tired of embarrassing things showing up or private information being revealed whenever someone Googles your given name? Maybe you don’t want everyone knowing where you live. Perhaps you just don't like the fact that the internet makes you easy to find and discover information about you. You might want to consider removing your history from the web.
If you have used the processes in this book to create a new name and business identity, you might still want to make your given name disappear from the web. You would do this to avoid any possible linkage to your new name and identity.
For famous (or infamous) individuals, disappearing from the web is probably impossible, but for the average person it's not difficult to delete yourself entirely. It just depends on much info is already out there.
Step 1: Delete Your Social Network Accounts
Chances are the first results that pop up on a Google search of your name are your social network profiles. This includes things like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and anywhere you use your given name. If you just want to remove search results, set your profiles to private, skip this step, and move on to the next step. This isn't a perfect solution, but if you want to keep your social networks, it will at least pull the results off the search engines. Here's how to delete your accounts on the big social networks:
Facebook: To delete your Facebook profile, go to this link while you're logged in:
Click the "Delete My Account" button, and you're done. The process might take up to 14 days before your profile is completely gone. Doing it this way deletes all of your data, and it cannot be reactivated. Some messages might still show up, but anything you've been tagged in will have your name removed (although the pictures themselves will remain). If you want those pictures removed, report that you didn't give permission for that photo under the intellectual property tag on Facebook, or contact your friend directly and ask them to remove it.
Twitter: To delete your Twitter account, head to your account settings page, and click "Deactivate my account" at the bottom. Your account is deleted completely, but it will take a few weeks before results stop showing up in searches.
LinkedIn: To delete your LinkedIn account, head to your settings page, click the "Account" icon, then the "close your account" link.
Google+: Google+ is a bit tricky because it's tied to your entire Google account. If you want to go ahead and close everything including email, calendars, and whatever else, sign into your primary Google Account homepage, and chose "Close account and delete all services and info associated with it." This will get rid of everything from Gmail to Google Checkout. If you only need to ditch the Google+ account, follow this link and select "Delete Google+ content." This will remove your profile from Google+, but keep any other Google services you have.
You'll want to follow the above steps for any other social networks you use, forum accounts you have, or other sites you registered under your real name (this might include Yelp, Amazon, Quora, etc.). If you have trouble remembering all your accounts, Account Killer has a huge list that includes direct links for deleting your profile from over 500 different sites. Your Google search for your name in the first step should also provide a guide to places you used your real name to create an account.
Step 2: Remove Unwanted Search Results
An online reputation management company like InternetReputation.com can help you remove unwanted search results. After you delete your social profiles, content is likely still floating around the web that you will want to get rid of. They might be images, articles, or even employer websites. The first thing to do is figure out where you're showing up online in search results. Do a Google search and make a note (or bookmark) where you name shows up on web sites. You essentially have one course of action to remove this content: contact the source directly. Email the web site hosting the content and politely ask them to remove it (or at least remove your name). A quick email works well for places like former employers who still haven't removed you from the employees list. Email family members who post pictures of you on their personal blogs, or even on donation pages for causes you've supported. Eventually, it will drop from search results. After that, you can appeal to the search engines directly to remove the edited pages right away. You can do so through Google, Google Images, or Bing by filling out a simple form and requesting the URL to be indexed again. This doesn't always work, but it's worth a shot. You'll have a better chance if someone is publishing libelous content about you, breaking a copyright, or if a page is displaying confidential information about you.
If you cannot remove everything from your Google search results, you might consider burying personal data as far as possible. To do this, create profiles on popular social sites like Twitter, Google+, or Facebook with just your name an no other details. Do the same with landing pages like About.Me with just your name and no other details. You can also set up your own website filled with lots of keywords about your name but no actual information (or just create a 410 error page and leave it at that). It's not as good as deleting content completely, but at least Internet sleuths will only be lead to a blank page with no information on you.
Step 3: Get Rid of Background Check, Criminal, and Public Record Results
By now, we've destroyed the bulk of your search results and social networks. However, people can still run background checks and people searches on you very easily. It's time to destroy that personal data as best we can, and dig into various people databases.
Here are a few worth checking:
Zabasearch: Zabasearch is mostly about finding addresses and phone numbers. Make a quick search of yourself and see what it knows.
Intelius: Intelius can perform background checks, hunt down criminal records, email addresses, social networks, and more. You have to pay to get your results, but you'll get a general idea of what's out there by simply searching your name.
Spokeo: Spokeo is essentially an address book and it can track you down to reveal your gender, age, phone number, address, relatives, marital status, and a whole lot more. Again, it costs a bit of money to get your full results, but you can get a general idea of what you need to snuff out.
Pipl: Pipl aggregates all of the above searches, but it's worth looking at to make sure no others have slipped through the cracks.
If you're anything like me (or a neighbor I also tested this on), then you're probably a little surprised by the amount of information these databases have. It's time to get rid of as many of those as possible.
You have a couple different options for this. You can pay a service like DeleteMe $99 to go through and delete all these results. Alternatively, you can follow DeleteMe's own guide to do it yourself. The DIY method requires you contact around 25 different sites individually to remove the listings that include your address, phone number, income, marital status, current job, and everything else. Some sites are as simple as opting out through a link (Reddit has a great collection of the easy ones), while others require that you send in proof of identification and a letter.
This step will help get rid of everything that comes in search results, but it will not completely remove your data. As long as information like your address and phone number are registered somewhere, people will be able to find you. Going through the process of opting out of background checks, public records, and people search engines makes that personal data harder to find.
Step 4: Remove Any Usernames Attached to an Email Address with Your Name
Any good Internet sleuth will be able to link together your usernames on forums, web sites, and elsewhere with your email address and may eventually trace that back to your name. The process to remove this data is dependent on the forums and sites you use. If you can, unlink your primary email address with your username whenever possible. If you're dealing with forums, ask the moderators to delete any posts that identify you personally. Essentially, cut any ties between your email address and name with your username. If you use the same username for every site, consider coming up with new names for every site.
Step 5: Stay Off Search Engines Without Going Offline by Remaining Anonymous
In the future, you'll have to remain vigilant to avoid publicly releasing your information. That means no social networks with your given name, and a yearly audit of the background check websites to ensure there is not any new information on you.
Chances are you still want to use the Internet. To ensure your info stays private, you will want to create a fake identity complete with a birthdate, and everything else.
To do so, you create an email address on a service like Gmail or Outlook with a fake name and identity. You can also use a temporary email address for all your communications, and then use your new fake identity and fake email address to sign up for any services you need. To keep your cell phone records private, you might also consider using Google Voice instead of going through a carrier since you can make up your Google Account name.
FINAL NOTE: In creating your fake name and identity, it is wise to use a common name like John Smith. You get lost in the mass amount of info found under such common names as Smith, Anderson, and Hernandez.