By now, everyone knows that many, many actors and entities online are hungry to vacuum up your user data. There are sites like TheWayBackMachine.com that attempt to duplicate everything on the Internet so that no one can pretend they didn’t post this or write that. We also know that some people can be found with a rudimentary Google search, while others seem to vaporize from the net completely.
The question is can you completely vanish from the net? The answer is, “maybe.” A more complete answer will depend on how much you rely on your online presence for work, social connections, and the like.
Deleting Social Media & Shopper’s Accounts
There have only been 10 or so major social media sites that have cropped up over the last 20 years. In reality, there are hundreds, but chances are you’ve only belonged to five or fewer.
Deleting Social Media
Your first step is to delete your social media accounts. This can be tricky and slow. These platforms tend to make account deletion options hard to find. They also frequently make it so that you have to follow up with your attempt to delete later. If you don’t follow up, the account won’t be deleted, you’ll just lose access to it.
Incomplete S.M. account deletion is a sure way to make yourself permanently trackable online. So, make sure you follow through with the deletion process.
Deleting Shopper’s Accounts
Shopper’s accounts tend to be easier to delete. This is because they usually have to adhere to regulations that are designed to protect consumer interests. Even so, there may be steps that are intentionally hidden.
Chances are, you’ve signed up for many shopping accounts over the years and forgotten most of them. Your best bet is to make a day of it, sit down for an afternoon, and delete all of the shopping accounts you can remember. To be even more thorough, print out your bank records for the last 10 years or so and look for all the weird merchant names you don’t remember.
Remove Personal Information Completely
Deleting accounts is simple, but it can be tough if you don’t recollect everything you’ve done online – which you probably don’t. All you can do is your best, but your efforts won’t be complete until you remove personal information. Here are a few ways to do that.
Close Your Websites
If you’re an online entrepreneur, you probably have websites that failed to take off which you don’t use anymore. You’ll need to close all your existing websites to completely wipe all your personal data from the web.
Scrub Your Forum Activity
Deleting accounts at forum sites and social media sites will usually delete your activity from their chat logs and forums. If not, you may need to ask them to do this personally.
Google Yourself
To check your work, your best bet is to Google your name, your screen names, and your account names. If you get any results, go in and delete the source of those results.
What is ORM?
ORM is short for Online Reputation Management. It’s a service provided by Remove Personal Information. They do the hard work of tracking down all your information, deleting what you want deleted, and providing public relations help where you need it.
Get in touch today to learn more about the power of cleaning your online reputation..
