How to Remove Your Personal Information From the Internet

May 13, 2025

With a bit of work, you can remove your personal info from Google search results, websites, and data broker sites — and you don’t have to do it all yourself.

Illustration showing an eraser erasing an icon that depicts a person

Can You Wipe Your Personal Information Off of the Internet?

Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible for most people to completely delete their online presence. While data collection regulations are slowly getting better, every app, website, and social media account collects and shares your personally identifiable information (PII).

Even worse, major data breaches at companies like AT&T, Ticketmaster, and National Public Data (NPD) have leaked billions of personal data records online.

But if everyone’s personal data is online, why care about online privacy in the first place?

Here are a few reasons why you should care about removing your personal information from the internet:

Reduce the risk of identity theft and scams. The more information that’s available about you online, the higher the chance that scammers can impersonate you or hack your accounts.
Secure your digital reputation. Old accounts, comments, and other outdated personal data online can be found by friends and even people at your workplace.
Prevent online stalking and harassment. Your online personal info can fuel harassment or even give stalkers your accurate location.
Minimize spam calls, texts, emails, and mail. Marketers often use publicly available information to fill their target lists for spam.

There’s no fully automated way to remove your personal information from online sources — yet.

Therefore, securing your sensitive data requires a combination of manual processes and specialized tools.

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How To Remove Your Personal Information From the Internet

The best thing you can do to improve your online privacy is to limit the information you share in the first place — this includes publicly on social media as well as with companies and websites that you sign up for.

Once your information is available online, it can be difficult to permanently delete it. Start by taking time to research what people can easily discover about you by using a free digital footprint checker. Then, prioritize removing the most sensitive information first.

1. Remove personal information from Google search results

A simple Google search can show you just how much personal information is easily available to scammers and anyone else.

You can use Google’s information removal request to limit sensitive information from showing up in search engine results — such as your phone number or other contact details.

Find out where your information appears online. Google your name, and note any website that is hosting your details. This includes your government-issued ID, bank account numbers, login credentials, and contact information.
Submit a Google request to remove your personal information. You can provide details about what to remove and whether you’ve already contacted the website owner. Google will review your request and may reach out to you for more information.

Note: This won’t remove your details from the websites that are hosting them. However, it will make it much harder for people to find this information by using Google search.

2. Reach out to websites, and request the removal of your information

Getting your personal information removed from third-party apps and websites — including online shopping sites, forums, and other tools — can be more difficult. Often, you need to research the site owners and contact them directly. Be aware that many sites won’t respond or comply.

Find the website owner’s contact details. For example, you could look under the “Contact Us” page for the webmaster’s email address, or check a public database like Whois search and look for the site’s “Admin email” or “Registrant email.”
Submit your request to remove your personal information. Document the process (including screenshots of the information, along with your email).
Go deeper by removing your data from web archiving sites. Websites including The Wayback Machine, Ghost Archive, and Stanford Web Archive periodically record snapshots of website pages and may contain archived copies of your personal information or online activity.

Did you know you can opt out of having your personal data used to train AI models? Large language model tools (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini scrape public data to train AI models. Wired has put together a comprehensive guide on how to prevent your data from being used (or sold) for training purposes.

3. Request that public data broker sites remove your information

Data brokers and people search sites aggregate available online information — including public records, social media accounts, and more — and sell it to other organizations. There are hundreds of data brokers in the United States alone, such as Whitepages, Spokeo, Radaris, and People Finder.

You have two options when it comes to removing data from data broker lists:

Manually opt out from all data brokers selling your information. Privacy Right maintains a database of most data brokers in the United States and provides information on how to opt out of them. Unfortunately, many data brokers may ignore your requests or re-add your information, making the removal process frustrating and time-consuming.
Use an automatic data broker opt-out service. Aura's data removal service continuously scans over 95 data broker databases and sends data deletion and removal requests on your behalf. Aura rescans data brokers daily to ensure that your data isn’t re-added.

Does your state have a data privacy law in place? In 2025, many states have privacy laws in effect that grant consumers rights to delete their personal information. This includes California (CCPA/CPRA), Virginia (VCDPA), Texas (TDPSA), and 15 others. Check your state Attorney General's resources to see if data brokers are infringing on your right to privacy.

4. Update your social media privacy settings

Deleting your social media accounts is the only way to ensure that your personal data isn’t available online. However, if you don’t want to delete your social media accounts, you should limit who can see your personal information and content.

Here’s how to access your privacy settings on popular social media platforms:

Note: Social media sites regularly update their user interfaces and privacy policies, meaning these steps may not be the same for all users.

Facebook

Open your account menu in the top right corner.
Select Settings & Privacy, and then Settings.
Under Audience and visibility, select the option you want to adjust. For example, you can change privacy settings for profile details, how people find and contact you, posts, stories, followers, and public content.

Instagram

Select More in the bottom left, and then Settings.
Click on Account privacy below Who can see your content.
Slide the toggle next to Private Account to make your account private.
Select Switch to private to confirm.

TikTok

Open the TikTok app and tap on Profile.
Tap on the Menu and select Settings and privacy and then Privacy.
Set Private account to on.

LinkedIn

Select Me in the top right corner, and then Settings & Privacy in the dropdown menu.
Select Visibility to view your privacy settings.
Adjust the settings to your preferences, deciding who can see your profile details, content, connections, etc.

X (Twitter)

Tap or click on your profile picture on the top left, and then scroll down the menu to select Settings and Support.
Select Settings and Privacy, and then Privacy and Safety.
Go to Audience and tagging; then switch the toggle next to Protect your posts so that the platform only shows your posts to people who follow you.

5. Deactivate accounts and apps that you rarely use

Most online stores, streaming providers, and payment apps request that you set up an account that includes personal information such as your name, address, and credit card number. While this can make it more convenient when you log in or check out, it also puts your private information at risk of being leaked or shared with third parties without your consent.

Close down old accounts. Unfortunately, there’s no automated way to log in to every online account you have and delete your data. You have to do this manually, choosing the accounts you wish to keep open.
Audit the apps on your phone. For those that you don’t use, log in and delete your account (don’t just delete the app, as this doesn’t remove your account information).‍
Use the “guest checkout” option. While checking out as a guest can make the checkout process slightly longer, it offers better data protection.

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6. Archive or delete old content and comments

There’s a good chance that your digital footprint includes old posts, images, and content you’ve completely forgotten about. Not only can this content expose your personal information — it also provides prime targets for hackers who can take over your accounts and use them to scam your friends and family members.

Search for sites, apps, and tools that you used in the past. These may come up in a Google search of your name or old online handles. Consider deleting, archiving, or limiting access to these sites and content.

Pro tip: To completely remove your information from the internet, delete old social media profiles, email accounts, and other similar accounts. This is the only way to ensure that hackers can't find or access them.

7. Blur sensitive photos in Google Maps

You — and other people — can access street-view data for almost every location in the United States, including personally identifiable data about your home as well as your vehicle’s license plates.

Search for your home address on Google Maps. Any image of your home, vehicle, or other property could pose a risk to your identity and security.
Click on “Report a Problem.” Select which part of the image you’d like to be blurred along with a description (such as your vehicle’s make and color). Explain that your request is for personal safety and privacy concerns.

This process may take longer if Google does not own the Google Maps photo in question. You can still report user-submitted photos, but you’ll have to wait for Google to ask the photo’s owner to blur it. If the owner doesn’t comply, Google may take down the photo on its own.

8. Disable web and app activity tracking in your Google Account

Google uses your search history to provide a more personalized experience. However, this information — including voice and audio recordings — can potentially be shared with other services.

Here’s how to disable web tracking on Google:

Log in to your Google account, and go to the MyActivity page.
Select “Saving Activity” and turn it off to stop Google from tracking you.
Use the More Activity page to turn off your “Location History” and “YouTube History.”

📚 Related: How To Protect Your Identity Online →

9. Proactively protect your personal information

The two biggest online privacy concerns for most people are data brokers and data breaches. While you can try and remove your data from data broker sites, there’s no real way to remove personal details leaked after a data breach.

The best way to limit your digital footprint is to be proactive about protecting your sensitive information online:

Find out if your passwords have been leaked. You can check if your passwords have been stolen or leaked online in a data breach by using tools like Aura's free leaked password scanner or HaveIBeenPwned.
Secure your online accounts. Protect all of your online accounts with complex and unique credentials as well as two-factor authentication (2FA). Aura’s secure password manager makes it easy to create and store unique, complex login credentials for every account.
Create a secondary email address for new services. Rather than exposing your primary email address to security risks, set up a secondary email address to use exclusively for signing up for new services, newsletters, and e-commerce accounts.
Use anti-tracking tools. Prevent websites and online services from tracking you by using anti-track tools or privacy-focused browsers, such as Brave. Aura’s privacy plans include anti-tracking tools as well as a virtual private network (VPN), scam and phishing site protection, and more.
Sign up for identity theft protection and monitoring. An identity theft protection platform can protect you with 24/7 monitoring across the internet and Dark Web. These services look for critical pieces of your identity — including your credit files, bank accounts, passwords, and Social Security number (SSN). You’ll be notified about any suspicious activity in near real-time, such as if someone opens a new account in your name or if your passwords are leaked in a data breach.

How To Keep Your Information Off of the Internet

Data privacy laws are starting to be enacted across the country — but they can’t fully protect you against data leaks and online privacy concerns.

While you can work tirelessly to remove your personal information from the internet, it’s better to simply share less and make yourself a smaller target.

Here are some easy-to-implement online cybersecurity habits that will help you protect your privacy:

Limit what you share on social media. Reduce the amount of photos and location data that you share publicly on your social media profiles. This precaution will make it harder for hackers to trick you (or others) with social engineering attacks and phishing scams.
Think twice about installing new apps. 56% of Americans admit that they often click on "agree" immediately without reading privacy policies. Make sure to check out reviews for any new app or service, and always download directly from the App Store or Google Play store rather than from third-party websites.‍
Avoid accessing public Wi-Fi unless you use a virtual private network (VPN). Hackers can intercept information any time you use unsecured public Wi-Fi. If you’re at a hotel or airport, a VPN will encrypt your browsing activity when you enter sensitive data on banking or shopping websites.‍‍
Don’t share sensitive data via unsecured channels. Even privacy-oriented apps like WhatsApp and Telegram have security weaknesses. Avoid sharing sensitive information in case your account (or a contact's device) is compromised.‍
Don’t be fooled by Incognito mode. Google Chrome's private browsing option doesn't protect your online accounts or privacy any more than a regular browser. It only prevents other people — like family members — from seeing your internet history on your device. A better option is to use a VPN to encrypt your online activity.

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