If you want to remove the signs of your online life you have to go all in and get rid of every account you’ve ever signed up for – no mean feat if you’ve been browsing since the dark days of dial-up.<\/p>\n So go through old emails (while you’ve still got them) and hunt down any references to shopping accounts, social networks, message boards – anything you may have signed up for at some point.<\/p>\n And if you need some more clues, type your name into an online image search and see what this throws up – remember those old pictures you uploaded to MySpace? No? The internet\u00a0probably will.<\/p>\n Then make a note of accounts you may have deactivated but not deleted, and look them up too.<\/p>\n Once you’ve got everything covered, the hard work can really begin – deleting it all.<\/p>\n The accounts you can remember the usernames and passwords to shouldn’t be too much trouble – aside from actually taking the plunge and deleting the things – but if there are accounts you don’t remember you may have to slog through some security questions.<\/p>\n And if there are things online you’re struggling to get rid of, the good news is European Union (EU) legislation is on your side as a Court of Justice ruling on ‘the right to be forgotten’ gives EU residents the right to\u00a0request irrelevant, defamatory information be removed from search engine databases.<\/p>\n Data is big business, and there are companies out there that do nothing but collect all your online information to sell on to interested third parties. It to find out where your information is being held, do an online name search and see what results come up first. You can then systematically remove yourself from these sites.<\/p>\n You can then expand the search to include more details about yourself, to see if that information is stored anywhere online. This can be an arduous task and it does involve a lot of time and effort, but this sort of systematic approach is the only way to make sure all your details are removed.<\/p>\n Setting your browser to private is\u00a0the first step to covering up your online tracks – what started off as a way for teenage boys to hide their appreciation of some of the web’s more ‘specialist’ offerings has now taken on more than an air of legitimacy as it means your computer won’t keep a track of what you’re browsing online and sites you visit won’t be stored in its\u00a0history.<\/p>\n To browse in private, just go to your browser’s settings and select ‘private browsing’, or\u00a0go ‘incognito’ if you use\u00a0Google <\/a>Chrome.<\/p>\n That’s not to say the sites you visit won’t have a record of your IP address, or that the search engines themselves won’t keep a record, but that’s another story.<\/p>\n If you want to go completely dark, you could use an anonymous browser – such as Tor – as this means you can visit sites but your IP won’t be logged by them and there’ll be no record you were ever there.<\/p>\n Are you thinking of removing your online presence? You probably won’t want to leave a comment if you are, but it’d be great to hear your (anonymous) story.<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/8-ways-to-protect-your-digital-footprint-infographic-1-638.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nRemove signs of your online life<\/h3>\n
Take yourself off data collection mailing lists<\/h3>\n
Browse in private<\/h3>\n