How To Get My Address Off The Internet

Download Article

Want to cover your tracks? Seeking to escape from the internet? While online notoriety thrills some, it can be a great burden for others. Erasing yourself completely is not always possible, but you can use this wikiHow to remove the majority of your personal information from the web and social media apps.

Steps

1
Consider alternatives to deleting your accounts. Since most of these steps cannot be undone, you will lose information, forfeit any marketable presence that you've developed online, and in some cases, lose the opportunity to recreate your account with the same name.
- Are there other ways around the problem, such as changing your online name or using a different email account from your normal one? For example, if your current email address has some unsavory online associations, you can create a separate to use purely for professional transactions, like sending resumes and applying for scholarships.
- If you're worried about old tweets, consider deleting all of your tweets instead of deleting your entire account.
- If you're trying to avoid a cyberstalker, see How to Deal with Stalkers for tips on staying safe.
- If there is a problem with false or defamatory information about you online, contact a legal practitioner for advice in your jurisdiction.
2
Google yourself. The best way to find out which information you'll need to delete is to find out what information is available to others. When searching Google for your name, place it in quotation marks to see only results that apply to your name. Keep a list of all websites on which your name appears.
- If you have a popular name, try including your city or occupation in the search.
- For tips on getting the best results from your Google search, see How to Use Advanced Google Search Tricks.
Advertisement
3
Contact Google to have your information removed. Great news for European citizens: As of 2014, you can request that Google remove your personal information from their search results.^[1]Click this link to access the removal form.
- No matter your location, you can ask Google to remove outdated content from their search results. The only requirement is that you must have either deleted or changed the content in such a way that Google's version is now incorrect.^[2] The removal tool is located at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?pli=1.
- Once you finish the steps in this article, search results that mention should disappear over time unless archived elsewhere.
4
5
Delete your website and/or blog. If you've created a personal blog or website through a free service like Blogger, Wordpress, or Medium, you can all of your content and then close your account. If you have a paid web hosting account through a hosting service, contact that service to close your account and delete your website.
- If your website or blog was available to the public, it's likely been archived by the Archive.org Wayback Machine. See this wikiHow to learn how to find out if your site has been archived. Although there's no official way to have your site unarchived, some webmasters have had success sending DMCA copyright infringement takedown notices to info@archive.org^[3].
- Be sure to delete any accounts you have with advertising tools, statistics monitors, and third-party plugins.
- If you've submitted articles to online publications or content mill sites, you may be able to delete them by contacting the site editor.
- If your content has been reposted by other blogs, contact the blog owners and ask them to remove your name and content.
6
7
Remove your name from data broker websites. If you're over 18, you likely found some Google search results for your name on various people search websites (e.g., Spokeo, InstantCheckmate, Intelius). These sites purchase your personal information and make it available to the public, sometimes for a fee. The good news is that you can usually delete yourself from such websites without much of a hassle.^[4] Here are some quick links:
- InstantCheckmate: https://www.instantcheckmate.com/opt-out
- Intelius: https://www.intelius.com/optout
- FamilyTreeNow:: https://www.familytreenow.com/optout
- Spokeo: https://www.spokeo.com/optout
- Check with your phone company to make sure you're not listed online. If you are, ask them to remove your details completely.
8
9
Weasel your way out of undeletable accounts. Some sites don't allow full deletion, forcing you to merely "deactivate" (while your information stays in the system) or abandon your account. If there is a serious legal or safety reason you need to delete your account, contact the site's owner or engineers; at the very least, you should be able to get a name change to cover your real identity. If you can't get anyone to intervene on your behalf, try using these steps:
- Log in and delete all of your personal information. If leaving certain fields blank isn't an option, overwrite it with a clearly fake name, such as Dingus Oppenheimer IV or John Smith. Do this on all of your undeletable accounts, and remember to vary the info on each account so they can't be traced to one another. If you try to provide a different email address, the site will email it to confirm, meaning nonexistent addresses are out of the question. This brings us to the next step.
- If you don't have an unidentifiable email address to associate with the account, create one with a free email host, and make sure the address you select does not include any information that can identify you.
- Once you have a new anonymous email account, add it to your undeletable profile and confirm. Once it goes through, make sure your real email address no longer appears anywhere in this account.
10
Consider paying a professional. f you're running into trouble or just feel like the task is too daunting, there are companies that specialize in data removal. These services are not free, but the cost might be worth it if your reasons for removal are urgent. Look for a service that:
- Can remove you from the "deep web" rather than just the obvious services.
- Has agreements in place with data source providers.
- Has good reviews.
11
Cancel your email account (optional). Once you are satisfied with deleting your internet presence, you may want to delete your email account(s). Hold off on deleting your email account until you're satisfied that your presence on the internet has been removed—you may need your email address to contact sites for removal.
- If your email address isn't traceable to your name, just make sure your name and personal information don't appear anywhere in your profile. For example, if you use a free web-based email service like Gmail or Outlook.com, log into the site, open your settings, and replace any instance of your real name with something different.
- If you pay for your email service, contact the company to find out your options. Even web-based paid mail should have live people to contact.
- Always check that you're not throwing away any vital information that you want to keep before you delete your account. Transfer all materials you need to a memory stick or other storage facility.
Advertisement

Add New Question

Question

How do I delete my email and all my photos from the internet?

Before you delete your email account, ask people to delete all your photos. Then when they are all gone, delete your email.
Question

How do I delete all photos and criminal information about myself?

Unfortunately, there is no way to completely erase yourself from the Internet if other people have posted things about you.
Question

How can I delete my age from all online sites?

You will have to go into the settings for each individual account that you have, and delete your age that way.
Question

What about old electoral lists? I did a search of my name and it came up with my previous address and also the names of everybody else listed at that address so my family members become known to the searcher. What can I do?

One of the best ways is to unregister to vote, since this info is always open to the public.
Question

How do I remove nonexistent business information from twenty years ago? The business was closed the same year it was opened.

You can go to the businesses page on the map information, go to "Suggest a correction," and then select "The business is permanently closed."
Question

Do you know the names of companies that can remove a person's details from the internet?

Their are multiple companies that can delete your details from the internet, some examples are, DeleteMe and Internet Reputation.
Question

How do I delete myself so that no one can find my social media accounts?

Remove or deactivate all of your social media accounts. This includes Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and whatever else you use. That's all you have to do.
Question

My daughter is being stalked. He is not allowed to get in touch with her (police have told him not to), but he creates fake accounts and contacts her friends, what can we do?

This article might be able to help you, and you might also want to read this article to stop him from being able to contact your daughter. (Send the second link to your daughters' friends to help prevent the stalker from contacting them.)
Question

I have multiple social media accounts, but forgot which email address I used; can I still delete them?

You could try to reset the password with each of your emails using trial and error. Also, some social media accounts allow you to send a password reset email with just a username, then the email will be sent to which ever account you used.
Question

How can I delete an old Gmail Plus account that I can no longer access?

Show more answers

Ask a Question

200 characters left

Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

Submit

Video

There may be some things that you can't do anything about, such as mentions of you in the news and interviews you've given.
Ask your friends to delete any photos of you (or photos you've taken) from their social media accounts.
You can use a "whois" or domain lookup service online to help you look up ownership of a website so that you know who to contact if needed. This is especially helpful if no email is provided on a site. Look for "admin email" and "server data" in the retrieved information.
If you're really in a mess about having your name and details spread across the internet and don't know what to do next, seek help from privacy watchdogs such as Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for personal advice.
If there is a problem with false or defamatory information about you online, contact a legal practitioner for advice in your jurisdiction.

Keep in mind the adage, "once online, there for all time." Always take care with what you share in the online environment: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Expect a tongue lashing from some webmasters who will insist on their "right" to keep public information public. Some of them just don't get the personal and privacy angle and see this as a personal affront against what they stand for. Be persistent and, if needed, get help from a privacy organization or a lawyer if your need for privacy is pressing or serious.
Some sites use emotional blackmail techniques to encourage you to stay. Such comments as "all your friends will miss you" are targeted at making you think twice; after all, the site doesn't want to lose your patronage. If you're wavering, get photos of your real-life friends, put them in front of you on the desk, press "delete" on the site, and phone up your real friends to go have a drink and chat together. You'll be over it just like that.

About This Article

Article SummaryX

1. Google yourself to find out what's out there.
2. Delete social media and gaming accounts.
3. Delete websites and blogs.
4. Ask Google to remove you (EU only).
5. Remove yourself from data broker sites.
6. Delete dating app accounts.
7. Cancel shopping and payment accounts.

Did this summary help you?

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 1,428,534 times.

Is this article up to date?