How to Delete Yourself From the Internet?

The internet was launched in the 20th century, the year 1969. With over 50 years of existence and how it has improved our daily lives, it still posses so many risks. 

Every day, we hear news about major data breaches on the internet, hacking, bank fraud, and identity theft amongst others. These are a few of the reasons why people consider erasing themselves from the internet – to be safe. No one wants to be a prey to these hackers and cybercriminals. 

Having decided to delete yourself from the internet, here is what to do:

1. Delete your social media accounts

First things first, social media platforms are places where most of your details are stored. While signing up on social media platforms, you are usually required to enter personal details like name, date of birth, location, origin, and more. 

If you want to delete yourself from the internet, you will have to get rid of such private details on these accounts. 

Not only popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn should be checked. Other ones like Reddit, Pinterest, Flickr, etc. should be checked as well. 

You can follow the steps of permanently deleting accounts on these platforms; almost all of them allow account deletion. If account deletion is not featured, you can try disabling or replace your data with fake information.   

2. Delete other online accounts

Aside from social media accounts, there are other online platforms you may have signed up on and supplied private data. This includes online shopping platforms like Amazon, eBay, Walmart and video streaming platforms like Twitch and Netflix. 

Knowing what online accounts you have forehand will help a great deal as it will be difficult to find out all online accounts you have. 

Some of these online accounts do not allow deletion or disabling. The best you can do is to make your account private such that it cannot be accessed by others. 

Also, you can hide all your account activities such as reviews you have posted in the past. Ideally, you can edit your profile, erase your information and enter fake ones. 

3. Delete your website/blog

For those who own websites or blogs, you would want to make sure that your blog is non-existent if you want to delete yourself from the internet. Most bloggers and website owners make use of paid web hosting accounts. 

While registering, personal details are entered and this information is submitted to the WHOIS database.

After closing down your blog or website, you need to ensure that your information is not with your hosting provider. You can simply contact them requesting an account takedown. 

Also, you might want to check other websites where your blog posts have been featured or shared. Contact them and request that they remove it. If you still want the post on the site, you can simply request that they remove your name and gravatar.

4. Delete yourself from Google

Google is the most used search engine which is why it is being referenced. A person can easily find you on the internet by simply searching for your name on Google. For this reason, you have to remove yourself from Google.

Google makes it possible for you to contact them directly to request the removal of your personal information. You can do so by completing an online form and if approved, you won’t appear on search results.

There are data broker websites that gather information about you without your consent. Whilst it may be difficult to know all of them and contact them to get your data removed, deleting yourself from Google will prevent them from appearing on search results.  

5. Make use of a professional service

The whole task of deleting yourself from the internet might seem demanding. This is especially you have your information supplied on hundreds of websites. It won’t be easy erasing all of them one by one all by yourself.

You can make use of professional services offered by companies. These companies specialize in cleaning up your online presence for a fee. They are capable of deleting your information from data broker websites and other websites you are not aware of. 

There are a number of such companies online so you should be careful to choose a reliable one so you don’t waste money. Look out for ones with positive reviews; recommended ones include Deseat.me and DeleteMe.  

6. Make use of a VPN

It is very difficult to stay off the internet. Even after deleting yourself from it, you may need to visit the internet for various reasons. To ensure that you do not give yourself up again, you need to make use of RitaVPN.

With RitaVPN you can stay safe and anonymous on the internet. While on the internet, your online activities are tracked using your IP address. The VPN service hides your IP address and lets you browse with a masked one. 

With this done, no one can track your online activities including your ISP, website you visit, and RitaVPN itself. The VPN also uses strong encryption technology to encrypt your web traffic so that it is impossible to be hacked. 

Conclusion

When it comes to deleting yourself from the internet, you can only do the most. Practically, it is impossible to delete yourself entirely from the internet such that not one detail of you is online. 

However, you can delete the information that matters and significantly reduce your online presence by following the steps discussed above. Before you begin, be sure that deleting yourself from the internet is something you want to do, it is mostly impossible to undo these actions.