How to remove yourself from the internet and stay private#

Yes… although it may not seem like it, many large companies are collecting data from you, every minute, every day.

In this post, I will tell you how to completely remove as much of your data as you can from the internet and some tools you can use to make sure your identity stays private going foward.

Removing your data#

Your data is everywhere on the web. Don’t believe me? Try searching up your name. Now you may or may not find much information about yourself but there is this little thing called Google search query parameters. These parameters allow you to only search specific websites and file types. For example if your name is John Doe, you can search "John Doe" filetype:pdf. This will search for you exact name, in this case John Doe with the file type of PDF. And now wow, every PDF document on the web with your name in it will appear right in front you. These documents can be detailed with names, phone numbers, occupations, education, addresses, and all sorts of personal information. So how do we remove it?

First: You have a right to your privacy so you can request that your data is taken down. Usually these documents have a contact email address. You can send a simple email requesting your data is taken down.
Second: Another way other parties may get your personal data is through social media. Most people use at least one social media platform. Usually, most people like to post updates or what they are doing online. Such as where you are, what your doing, etc. Another things is Snap Maps. This feature allows anyone who you have friended on Snapchat to see where you currently are. You can see why this can be an issue. I reccomend setting your social media platforms to friends only or completely private that way no third parties get your data. Better yet not use any social media at all but in todays generation this might not a possibility.
Third: Data brokers are constantly collecting data on you based on public records and even other data brokers. These data brokers sell your data for a price tag and other people can buy it. This is the number one way people usually get your data. To remove all your from these data brokers, you can either contact each of the thousands individually or you can use a service that will automatically remove your data on your behalf. A good service that many people go to is DeleteMe (please sponcer me i need money)

Keeping your data private#

Finally, after your data is removed, we reccomend you start using different privacy focused alternatives for common software that more often then not track you… such as Chrome.

If you use Chrome, I reccomend switching to FireFox or Brave as it does not sell you track your data. If you really want to be private then you can use the Tor browser although it may be slow
Ditch Google and use DuckDuckGo instead. Google loves to track every piece of information about you and DuckDuckGo just lets you browse the web free of this tracking
Use a VPN. A VPN will allow you to spoof your IP and reigon because every website with Google Analytics on it will track you and send information to Google. Not what you want. I reccomend Mullvad because it is one of the cheapest VPNs and they also collect no data on you what so ever… not even a username, email, or password. (again please sponcer me)
Ditch your antivirus software! Most antivirus software is in fact spy ware and bloat ware. Yes I am talking to you McAffee. I reccomend using Virus Total as it is free and and detects most malware (aka McAffee)
Yes… even Discord is tracking you. Every channel you open, every message you send, every server you open with timestamps, IP addresses, etc are being tracking. Below I provided an example of the request Discord makes every time you open a channel. Instead of using Discord, I highly reccomend using Signal, an open source, free, encrypted messaging app that never records your data. The proof is in the source code.

Buuttt of course the best way to stay hidden is to throw away your computer, wifi, turn of your electricy… better yet move to a shack in the middle of nowhere and make a living there. There is no way to completely delete your data off the internet. Companies will always collect your data to either sell it or use it to train their algorithms or something else no matter what weather you like it or not. The steps above are just to prevent people, comapnies, governments, etc from accessing all of it. My recommendation to stay completely hidden is to install Qubes OS as your new main OS, only use TOR, always connect to a vpn you setup yourself, and don’t create an account for anything anywhere, but thats no fun.

This is just a few items that I reccomend. I will be making a blog post with everything that I use and reccomend to stay hidden online. I will be updating this post and linking the new blog post here once I have completed it.