An online presence is becoming essential to daily life in the modern world. It is how you keep up with friends and family. It’s how you network within your profession. It’s how you find jobs and learn new things. If you have grown up within the last two decades, you likely have a sizable online presence that stretches back to your adolescence.
That history of posts may be things that no longer accurately represent you. Because so many of your personal and professional connections could potentially see the old posts, you may need to address some of them. You can’t always take things down, especially by yourself. But it is possible to remove information about yourself from the internet.
Erase Your Google Search History
Your Google search history is used for a lot of things. It probably becomes apparent pretty quickly that your search history is used for targeted ads. Do a search for mattresses and click on a couple of links, and then every ad that pops up will try selling you a new mattress.
However, your search history is also used in other ways. Google does sell your information to other advertisers in some cases, as do other corporations. Your search history can also be used to geo-locate you. It is becoming less and less possible for you to be anonymous.
You can delete your search history by logging into your Google account and clicking on “My Activity.” For even more protection, you can also go directly to your browser to delete your search history.
Clear Your Cache
Once you have cleared the information Google has, you can start looking at the rest of the internet. The next step is to clear your cache. The cache is a memory bank of temporary files that helps websites and apps run faster by eliminating the need to download information multiple times.
The information stored in your cache keeps track of certain information about you, like what pages you visit on certain websites. This information is used in targeted advertising. However, the more files stored in your cache, the slower your computer can run.
When you delete your cache, your browser can run better because you are no longer storing temporary files from websites you don’t visit regularly. It can also help to remove your information from being accessible.
Take a Look at Your Socials
Social media has become a necessity in everyday life for most people. You use it to keep up with your friends and family and even current events. However, there is a lot of information about you on social media that is not always secure. Your photos, posts, even location are available for anyone to see if they know where to look.
With any social media platform, you want to check your settings. Specifically, your privacy settings. Ensure that your account is as private as possible and that any off-app activity is deleted regularly.
Keep Track of Your Accounts
You likely have more online accounts than you use daily. Having so many accounts makes it easy to lose track of where you have visible accounts and your login information. If you are looking to wipe the slate clean, track down all the accounts you can remember. Most platforms make it possible for you to delete posts of an entire account full of information that you no longer want to be found.
In the future, try to keep track of every site where you have an account and that login information. You can use a password management service, which stores your strong, unique passwords for each site and helps you generate new ones. Since you don’t want to have the same password across multiple accounts, a password manager is a great way to keep up with all of those unique logins.
Hire a Professional
If there is a lot of information you have to sort through, or if you have no idea where to start, you may want to consider hiring a professional service to help you. You can find the best company to remove personal information from the internet by doing a quick search and reading reviews. You should compare services to be sure you’re getting the best, most qualified professionals to help you.
These companies can help in multiple situations. They can help with catastrophic issues like false information being spread about you. However, they can also help with general information clean-up. If you are looking to take control of your online presence, there are professionals to help.
Get a Fresh Start
By taking charge of your online presence, you take control of a large part of your life. Many aspects of your everyday life can be affected by old information you have put online. So, by wiping the slate clean on your online presence, you can put forward precisely the image you want.
