Delete Digital Footprint to Protect Confidential Data (12 Ways)

With the passage of time, the living standard of people has got evolved from traditional to digital. Every social media update, online purchase, and even casual browsing contributes to a digital footprint that discloses much about us. Further, the convenience and connectivity of the internet are not a match, they come with significant privacy concerns. Suppose you are looking to safeguard your personal information or simply clean up your online presence. In that case, this article will show you how to delete digital footprint with the manual and automated solutions.

Is it Necessary to Remove Digital Footprint?

It is important to handle it well. Your online surfing creates a digital footprint that tells everything about you. Managing one’s digital footprint could mean restricting the kind of data or to delete digital footprint shared and the sites where such information can be placed, or even getting rid of it altogether due to privacy issues or personal reasons.

To ensure your increased security, while still using the internet for your benefit, one should constantly check privacy settings on social media accounts, be cautious when providing private details through the web, and use ad blockers and VPNs among other tools to reduce their digital footprints. At last, it will depend on your own needs, hobbies, and how comfortable you are with sharing online whether you want to maintain or erase your digital path.

Reasons to Delete Digital Footprint

It is important to consider the effect digital footprint. Here are compelling reasons to remove erase digital footprint:

Privacy Protection- Anyone (marketers & hackers) can use digital footprints to collect personal data. Therefore Removing your digital traces can prevent you from unauthorized access to your data.

Reduce Online Tracking- Various organizations track your online activity to serve products or ads. By removing your digital footprint you can reduce the amount of data acquired about you to minimize unwanted tracking.

Prevent Identity Theft- Cybercriminals can use the information available about you which are available online to commit fraud and other malicious activities by reducing their online presence decrease the risk of identity.

Clean Up Your Online Image- Your personal and professional life may be impacted by previously published content and images that appear online. By deleting those images, It can help you keep a good internet reputation.

Internet Users are Seriously Concerned About Data 

85% of people are concerned about data in the World. Controlling the data available about you online is one of the best ways to expose your data and able to protect you from theft, scams, Hacking, and phishing. 

How To Delete Digital Footprint (12 Ways)

There are a total of 12 methods to remove digital footprints to protect your privacy.

1. Search Yourself Online

Start through the search for your name on Google. You know what personal information is there about you by taking these steps. Note the domains and internet directories, social media accounts, and other venues where your information is shown.

2. Delete or Deactivate Unused Accounts

Check your list of all the accounts on the internet and remove any that you don’t use or need. Email addresses, online shopping accounts, and social media accounts are included. In their settings, the majority of websites offer the to remove or cancel your account. 

3. Remove Personal Information from Websites

About Image- In various year these companies breach the data of their user but they reclaimed it very few percent so it is very important to delete digital footprint to protect your privacy.

Reach out to the website administrators or support teams to remove information about you that is publicly visible on that website. If you want to make a request then you can fill online form on that particular website or you can send an email and attach that information which you have to hide from others then administrators’ delete digital footprint from that particular website.

4. Delete Old Social Media Posts

You should remove all old social media posts or accounts that you no longer want the public to view. To make this process easy, many social networking sites, like Facebook, have a bulk delete option.

5. Opt-Out of Data Collection

To avoid data collecting and targeted advertising, check the privacy settings of the websites and platforms that you use mostly. Seek for other options to restrict the data collect about you and modify your privacy settings according to it.

6. Use Privacy Tools to Delete Digital Footprints

You can utilize browser plugins as well as privacy software to prevent websites from using your data. You can use some tools to protect your online browsing information which includes ad blockers, anti-tracking extensions, and virtual private networks (VPN). Choose the tool you want and install it on your device to minimize tracking and data collection.

7. Regularly Clear Your Browser History

Develop a daily routine to clear the cache, cookies, and history from your platform to get rid of any evidence of your online activity. Also, doing this can save you from people who may view your digital traces and stop websites from tracking and surfing activity.

8. Set Up Alerts

Set a Google Alert on your device and be aware of unauthorized access to your internet visibility. By doing this you sign up for alerts anytime. Regularly check these notifications and respond appropriately if any sensitive or undesired information is displayed you can immediately take action against it.

9. Review and Adjust Privacy Settings

Make sure you are revealing the minimum amount of personal information on the online platform and adjust the privacy settings on your online accounts on a daily basis. Use the tools privacy to limit who may view or access your information.

10. Don’t Overshare on Social Media

You are always tempted to post too much information on social media, which increases the risk that it will be used against you. It may damage your reputation. Therefore, you can even remove or archive any posts that might have a bad effect on you to delete digital footprint. Being careful about what you post is essential to maintaining a clean digital footprint. 

11. Create Unique Passwords for Every Online Service

Although most people use the same password for various accounts or even have a list of passwords saved on their devices, we have long understood the need to create strong passwords. Similarly, take a simpler approach and use our Google or Facebook accounts to log into many websites and apps.

12. Ask Google to Remove Search Results to Delete Digital Footprint

You may be shocked to learn how much information Google has on you when you ask yourself “What does Google know about me?” This is true when you search for yourself online. Requesting personnel information to be removed from Google is known as the “Right to be Forgotten”.

You can ask Google to delete any unnecessary or obsolete information about yourself by putting up a request. Futher. ask Google to exclude specific search results connected with your name by filling out the Personal Data Removal Request Form. You ought to mention the following in your request: 

• URL(s) of the Content: List of exact URL(s) of the content that you wish to remove from Google’s search results.
• Content Description and Relation to You: Provide a detailed explanation of the content. Explain why that content should be removed from Google’s search list.

By following these processes and taking proactive measures to manage Delete digital footprint you can protect your privacy and control the information available about you online.

Limitation of the Manual Solution to Erase Digital Footprint

There are multiple drawbacks to the above mention method to remove digital footprint:

• Manually searching for and removing personal information from multiple websites can be a time-consuming process.
• Some information or data may be missed or difficult to remove on various platforms where data may be copied.
• Manual methods are not effective in removing all the information from the online website.
• Effective manual removal needs excellent knowledge and understanding of privacy settings and data management,
• Different websites and services have different policies for data removal. Therefore it is hard to remove a digital footprint.

Professional Solution to Instantly Delete Digital Footprints

SysTools Data Wipe Software remove digital footprint permanently. This tool erases your digital footprint from the device completely without any difficulty. Also, this tool has multiple options to wipe all digital footprints.

Key Features of the Expert Solution to Erase Digital Footprints

• Removes all data residue data that is no longer in use or accidental exposure of confidential information.
• To remove any evidence of data recovery, use the Quick Selection (File & Folder) Data Wipe tool. clears off program traces such as caches, logs, temporary files, and recent file lists. It also creates reports on data deletion after the audit trail has been finished.
• Data cleansing for computer decommissioning, or destruction or reuse.
• Adherence to more than 20 international standards, such as NIST, ISO, DoD, and others.
• Delete all data from all of your storage devices, including SSD, HDD,USB, PATA, SATA, NVMe, and others.
• Overwrite all data using several wipe techniques, such as military-grade standards from the US Air Force, US Department of Defense, and Russia (GOST-R-50739-95; 2 passes); British HMG IS5 (3 passes); Peter Gutmann (35 passes), etc. (2 passes). 

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed how to delete digital footprint and following steps taken to take proactive measures to manage your digital footprint, you can better protect your privacy and control the information available about you online. So, make sure to regularly review and update your privacy settings to stay vigilant in monitoring your online presence, and consider using professional tools for thorough and effective data erasure. Therefore it will help you maintain a minimal digital footprint and safeguard your confidential data.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. What do you mean by digital footprint?

Ans. Digital footprints refer to the information or data that you leave behind as you navigate use the web. Also, it comprises internet posts, social media feeds, online purchases, and browsing history among other things shared online.

Q2. Why should I delete digital footprint?

Ans. You can protect your privacy from being exploited online, reduce online tracking, and prevent identity theft by deleting your digital footprint. It helps you to prevent from hackers or cybercriminals.

Q3. How can I find out my information is available on the Internet as I have to delete digital footprint?

Ans. Begin by searching your name on Google. This gives you information that is available about you on that platform. 

Q4. How do I erase or deactivate unused online accounts to remove digital footprint?

Ans. Most of the websites and platforms have the choice to delete or deactivate your account in the settings. View the list of online accounts that are not in use so that you can easily delete unused accounts.