Your digital footprint is a record of your online activity. It can reveal the websites you’ve visited, images you’ve shared, products you’ve purchased, comments you’ve posted, and even the physical locations you’ve been when online. While digital footprints might seem useful for reputation building and personalization, they’re also major privacy risks, as marketers use them to track your demographics and behavior to serve targeted ads. Worse, criminals can use your digital footprint to steal your identity, blackmail you, or even stalk you in real life.
Eliminating your digital footprint is crucial to reclaiming your privacy and protecting your identity. You can use the guide by Onerep to navigate the process. In the meantime, here are four effective techniques to get you started.
1. Delete information from sites and apps you control
Start by removing information about you from the websites and apps you have control over. Delete forum and social media posts, comments, and photos – especially any that expose personal information or that could lend an unfavorable impression. You should also ask friends to remove any posts they’ve made about you.
Next, delete all unused online accounts and mobile apps. Many platforms track your behavior and share your information with third parties, so closing your accounts prevents them from gathering new data about you.
2. Delete information from sites you don’t control
Unfortunately, much of your digital footprint is shared on sites you have no control over. This is particularly true in the case of data brokers – aka people-search sites – whose entire business models are predicated on collecting, organizing, and selling information about you.
Data brokers are required to delete your information on request, and this is a critical step to eliminating your digital footprint and protecting your privacy.
You should also try to remove yourself from other third-party sites such as blogs, online magazines, and search engines. Search for your name, usernames, and contact information to discover where your personal data is published online. Then, reach out directly to website owners to request removal. You can also use Google’s Results About You tool to monitor for mentions of you and request removal from search results.
3. Tighten privacy settings
Adjust privacy settings to control who can see your information and prevent social media platforms, websites, and apps from sharing your data with third parties. For example:
- Limit social post visibility to friends only
- Disable search engine indexing of your social media profiles
- Turn off location data on all devices
- Disable features such as autofill and reporting to “help improve” web services
Remember that anything you post online could become part of your digital footprint, even with tight privacy settings. A simple screenshot taken by a social “friend” can expose your posts and photos to the world, so it’s best practice to carefully monitor who you’re friends with on social media.
4. Stop being tracked
One of the most effective methods for eliminating your digital footprint is to prevent your activity from being tracked in the first place:
- Use a privacy browser such as Duck Duck Go, Brave, or Tor, which block third-party cookies and do not track your activity
- If you don’t use a privacy browser, at minimum install an ad blocker, disable third-party cookies, and browse in incognito mode
- Use a VPN to hide your IP address, which helps shield your identity, location, and activity
- Remove browser extensions, as many include code designed to spy on you
- Install anti-malware to prevent viruses and spyware from infiltrating your devices
- Use dummy data, such as a nonidentifying screenname and a throwaway email address, to prevent sites and apps from recognizing you
Online privacy is critical in the age of identity theft, blackmail, and other online scams. Follow the steps outlined here to eliminate your digital footprint and reclaim your privacy before your data falls into the wrong hands.