Here’s how to remove your personal information from the internet

Sponsored Post | Jun 17 2023 - 9:10 am PT

Safeguarding your personal information online has become a paramount concern, but there’s no need to panic because there are effective ways to remove your personal information from the internet.

Steps you can take to protect your online privacy

Whether you’re concerned about privacy breaches or simply want to maintain control over your online presence, in addition to the ways Apple works to protect users’ privacy, you can personally take steps to remove your personal information from the internet. The process can be time-consuming, but there are effective ways to minimize your digital footprint.

You can conduct a thorough search of your name across various search engines and social media platforms. Make note of any websites or profiles that display your personal details. Then reach out to these platforms and request that they remove your information. Many websites have dedicated privacy policies and procedures for such requests.

Also, consider opting out of data broker websites that aggregate and sell personal information. Data on broker websites can be used for people search, marketing, risk mitigation, and health purposes – or scams and phishing attempts. This can result in unwanted ads, influence loan eligibility or insurance rates, and increase the risk of attacks.

Data broker platforms often allow individuals to submit opt-out requests. But there are a lot of data broker companies. So that would be pretty labor-intensive and take a long time. Plus, you’d have to keep checking back, as data brokers can (and do) add you back into their databases.

An easy way to protect your personal information

There’s an easier way to tackle this challenge. You could reach out to a data removal service like Incogni, which offers an automated personal information removal service that will ferret out the data brokers most likely to be dealing in your personal data. It will then send out wave after wave of opt-out requests on your behalf.

And 9to5Mac readers exclusively get 55% off Incogni’s full annual price plans by using code “9to5mac.”

Incogni, which was created by cybersecurity company Surfshark, jumps through data companies’ hoops, adhering to each one’s particular removal procedure so that you don’t have to.

It will deal with extra data broker interactions like rejection appeals, taking it off your to-do list of annoying chores. And the best part? Incogni restarts the whole process every three months to keep your data out of circulation.