How to delete personal information about myself on the Internet

If you find personal information about yourself on the Internet, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to get that information removed.

In most cases, once information is on the Internet, it stays there. Whether other people can find it, depends on how easy it is to find through a web search engine.

Removing personal website

If you own the website where your information is found, you can remove the information from the web pages, or delete the web page or website entirely. To keep the information online, but prevent search engines from finding it, password protect the information. Or, set up a robots.txt file to indicate to search engines that all or part of your site should not be indexed. However, realize that search engines crawling your site are not required to honor the robots.txt file.

Remove social networking site data

For social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, and others, choose what personal information to display to other users. These settings are found through the Privacy settings in each of the services. However, even after adjusting the privacy settings some information may still be visible or could be displayed in the future. It's best to believe that anything posted online has the potential to get out to the public. If there is something you don't want the public to know, don't post it, even if it's believed to be private.

Removing information from someone else's website

If your information is on a website you don't control, you can attempt to ask the webmaster or web host of the site to remove your information. Sometimes, after time, they may comply with your request.

Removing links to a site from search engines

Many search engines have policies where they remove the links to sites based on the content. When we say "remove," we mean that the links are no longer indexed, but the information remains on the Internet. For example, Google may remove links to pages that contain any of the below personal information.

• National identification numbers, such as U.S. Social Security Number, Argentina Single Tax Identification Number, Korea Resident Registration Number, China Resident Identity Card, etc.
• Bank account numbers.
• Credit card numbers.
• Images of signatures.

Removal information from Google

Best practices to follow when posting information

As a best practice, always be mindful of what you divulge to anyone or any company on the Internet. On chat sites and social networking sites, if you don't want someone to spread information about you around the Internet, don't say it or type it. The best way to keep personal information to yourself is keep it personal, that is to say, keep it to yourself.

The Internet is vast, and word spreads fast!