How To Delete Yourself From the Internet [A Beginner’s Journey]

How do you get rid of unwanted presence?

The neighbor that smells funny, or the stalker of an ex-boyfriend, or the ghost of Aunt Petunia that still inhabits the laundry room and controls the quantity of detergent you use? 

And then, there is the internet. That vast insatiable land of stalking. 

You may decide your own presence there has become a liability for you. But it’s not as easy as packing your things and leaving.

Let’s get to the point: 

How to delete yourself from the internet? 

And is that possible? 

Short answer: not quite.

But you can protect yourself. 

Would you like to just be invisible online, or take it further?

You can, you know! You can take off the internet every ounce of proof you ever existed.

No idea how to delete your personal info from the internet?

At the end of our journey, you will have the answer! 

Now, follow me: 

No Need To Destroy the Planet Now!

Imagine the following scenario: 

You wake up on a rainy day, listening to the squeaky noises coming from your roommate’s laptop, as you start to rethink your process of making life decisions.

While making your first coffee, you skim through useless posts on various social media. You just learned the names of all the kitties that your friend’s cat gave birth to 3 minutes ago (Fluffy, Snowball, Batman, and Jon Snow), and got an email that lets you know that your time of the month is coming (yes, guys, that happens!).

Brain freeze! Eye-bleed! Heart palpitations!

Stolen identities, data collection, cyberbullying...

Next thing you know you are in front of your laptop (sipping cold coffee) and searching for a friend of a friend, who can get you inside the dark web. And then - you get to destroy the world so people can’t get hold of your secrets!

Happens to everyone at some point!

No need to destroy the planet, though! 

You just need your privacy back!

If you want to erase your online tracks, we are here to help!

Now, managing your online identity probably sounds unnecessary. After all, you haven’t shared that much information about yourself online.

Not entirely true!

You share tons of information every day that renders your life less private. We create so many profiles on countless websites, and many of them we even forget about as time passes. 

It’s not only Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, Twitter, Instagram… oh no! 

The all-seeing Google collects tons of data with every web search, every YouTube video, every Amazon purchase (even the casual window shopping). It knows details about your upcoming vacation, the new gaming gadget you bought for your nephew, and even about your attitude toward the new Netflix adaptation that will screw up a favorite book of yours. 

So, be on the lookout.

Here’s another brain teaser:

Is online personality different from someone’s real-life personality? 

Have you seen those influencers? 

That’s the truth, guys. The internet allowed us to create a different persona, breathe life into it, and start acting on its behalf. Awareness is paramount!

The thing is, it works both ways. If you are a different person online, why wouldn’t other people do the same? Behind a screen, you can be whoever you choose to be. 

It’s a blessing and a curse. 

There comes a point in life when you just say: 

Stop!

I want out!

To top it off, then there are the data brokers.

What are data brokers? 

Personal information can be anything that can be linked directly back to you. It can be sold, making you the product. 

Imagine someone sold information like your full credit card number, your medical and criminal record to some data collecting companies.

They can be used for political reasons, advertising… or just good old-fashioned fraud. 

Data collection is a modern-age stalker that’s lurking behind the screens of our devices. 

Is there a way to get rid of an internet persona? I.e. to delete its online presence and be sure that’s it? 

Let’s start our way down the path which will ultimately lead everybody out and on the safe side of the road. 

Where Does the Journey Start? 

Our first stop is: 

Deseat.me 

Here you can enter your email address (it works for Google and Microsoft emails) and see all websites you are registered on. 

It’s an eye-opener! 

The service is free and it gives you a quick look at all the websites you are registered on with that email. It goes without saying that you need to go through all your emails to discover the full extent of your online footprint. 

Once you identify the websites, you can choose whether to keep your account there or simply delete them. When you send the data removal request, brace yourself for a flurry of emails heading your way. Some services will automatically deactivate your account (and let you know), while others will ask for confirmation first. 

At least you’ll have a complete list of all the websites that you are registered on. 

After that, you can just delete yourself manually from the web. 

And of course, the delete option will work for about a third of all registrations you wish to get out of. For the persistent ones, you need to visit every website and delete your account manually. 

That does sound like a lot of work, but it’s also the only way to total anonymity online. 

Alright.

Another website that will shed some light on the question: how to erase yourself from the internet is: 

Just Delete Me

Brace yourselves!

This is a directory that will show you the level of difficulty of deleting your accounts on different websites. Even if you are not interested in how to delete personal info from the internet, it might still surprise you. 

The fun thing is the list is color-coded.

Some of the information does seem hilarious: 

• Green websites are easy to delete yourself from (Airbnb, Slack, Twitter).
• Yellow is medium difficulty (Facebook, LinkedIn).
• Red is hard (Amazon, iTunes, Skype).
• Black is nearly impossible (Netflix, Starbucks - LOL, YouTube, WordPress, Wikipedia)

Anyway: 

If you really don’t have time to manually delete every profile you ever created, (but you’re willing to pay for it) there are other options. 

Here it comes: 

Can I Pay for Removing Information from the Internet? 

How much is internet privacy worth? 

The internet is an amazing place, but it can also be quite overwhelming. If you want to clean up your internet presence, you can use paid services.

Here we go:  

There are services, which offer protection for a period of time. This can ensure your privacy and let you sleep peacefully knowing you’re protected.

Seriously though, if you need to walk away from the internet, there is software that can do that for you.

Password managers are one way to go. One can never be too careful. Remembering many passwords is tedious, and people often use the same password for every account. Which is not the wisest thing to do. 

To put it simply - a password manager makes a list of your passwords, and encrypts them. Having complex, unbreakable passwords and an easy way to access them is enough in terms of security for most people. 

But we shall go on and visit new lands: 

Abine

The product in question is called Delete Me. By signing up and paying for an account, they will remove you from data collecting websites. 

The services they offer include removing personal information like names, addresses and phone numbers, from the internet - essentially any entity that might be collecting them. (Check out the removal list - it’s quite impressive.) 

There are 4 pricing plans according to the length of the period you wish to subscribe for. 

• Standard - $129 - for 1 year, 1 person 
• Most popular - $229 - for 1 year, 2 people 
• Best value - $349 - for 2 years, 2 people 
• For business - personalized plans 

The cool thing is you can share the online protection with a friend or a family member. 

Abine offers amazing support. Starting from the vast knowledge base, through their email support, all the way to the quick and easy live chat and phone support. They respond in the chat immediately for quick questions. 

That is a great solution if you wish not to be alone on your journey toward internet security.  

Moving on to another brain teaser:

How To Delete Yourself From Social Media?

Delete me from the internet, please!

Social media is a pain in the butt, I know. 

Removing your accounts from your favorite places takes courage!

Not an easy task, though!

But if living off the grid is what your heart desires, we’ll tell you how to get away from the Top 4 social networks:   

Facebook

A bold move, kudos!

If you are fed up with Facebook, you don’t need to put up with it! 

If you wish to deactivate your account, you have to give them a reason why. (Yes, now is the time to get creative!) If you log in within 14 days, your profile will be reactivated again. 

If you are looking for something more permanent, though: 

In the Help section, search for “How do I permanently delete my account?”. If you choose that option, you will not be able to reactivate your account and all your content will be lost. 

They give you an option to download a copy of all the information you stored there. That is a good idea if you have been using your account for a long time. 

After you select the delete permanently option, you need to wait for 14 days for the deletion process to start. And up to 90 more days for the process to be complete. 

Bye-bye, Facebook!

YouTube (and Gmail) 

Now, YouTube and Gmail are linked together. They use the same account, which means you can delete “both accounts” in one fell swoop. 

Now, log in and go to: 

myaccount.google.com 

The 3rd option on the left is “Data and Personalization”. Go there, scroll down and go to “Delete a service or your account”.  That means YouTube or Gmail. From there you select “Delete a Google service”. Here you make your choice - YouTube or Gmail. There is a trash bin icon on the right side. 

You can also download your data - I strongly recommend you do that. 

And you are ready! 

No YouTube Account!

Instagram 

A couple of options here - deactivate for a period of time, or delete forever. 

For the deactivation, go to “Managing my account”, then “Delete my account”, and finally - “Temporarily disable my account”.

If you wish to delete your account forever, go to “Delete my account” and then hit “Permanently delete my account”. 

Be brave, guys. It will pay off!

Twitter

Deleting your Twitter account is a piece of cake. 

Go to “Settings” and then to “Account”. At the bottom of the page, you'll find a “Deactivate my account” button.  After you confirm that you wish to deactivate a couple more times and enter your password, they’ll show you a message that after 30 days your account will be permanently deleted. 

Told you - easy peasy!

Now that you know how to get rid of your social media accounts for good, do you feel the fresh breeze of freedom all around you? 

How To Remove Personal Information From the Internet?

As Gandalf sings: 

The road goes ever on and on...?

You already know how to get yourself off of social networks - this is quite a feat.

Now:

A great way to continue our journey is to contact your phone company. Ask them to remove you from any online list you might be on. 

Next: 

Try to remember the names of all the forums you have posted on in over the years. If you want your posts to be deleted permanently, you have 2 choices. First, do it manually - visit the forum, go through every post you have ever made, and delete it. This can be extremely time-consuming!

The second option is to contact the webmaster of every forum and ask them (nicely) to remove your posts. They can do it with way less effort than you can. 

Also make sure you remove your information from background check and people search sites like TruthFinder, Intelius, Instant Checkmate, and so on.

In case you are wondering: 

How to Ungoogle Myself? 

Removing your personal information from Google might be a challenge. Since humanity is spending so much time online now, there is a huge chance that there is a lot of personal info stored out there about all of us. 

In order to remove content from Google, visit: 

https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905

If you wish to remove content from Google’s search results, contact Google’s legal team.

OK, but how about other websites that are more stubborn and don’t want to let go of you as clients? 

A couple come to mind: 

According to the list of Just Delete Me, Amazon and Netflix are among the most difficult, if not impossible, to remove yourself from. 

Let’s have a look: 

How to delete my Amazon account?

If you want to see your Amazon account deleted, arm yourself with patience - the process will take some time. Ready? Follow me: 

• Log on and scroll down the main page. 
• On the right, there is a Let Us Help You column. 
• Click on Help.
• Go down the new page and open Need More Help? on the left of the page.
• On the right, you’ll see several hyperlinks. Click on Contact Us.
• You’ll get a list. Number 1 on the list: select the button Prime or Something Else.
• Number 2: select Account settings from the drop-down menu.
• From the second drop-down menu select Close My Account.
• Select Phone, Email, or Chat.

That’s it. 

How to delete my Netflix account? 

When it comes to quitting the on-demand services of Netflix, users have 2 options: cancel the membership or delete the account. 

Canceling your Netflix membership is also not an easy task. Let’s see: 

• Log on and go to Account.
• The Cancel Membership button will appear on the top left corner of the new page. 
• Click on Finish Cancellation. 

You have now canceled your membership. You’ll receive an email with a cancellation confirmation and you’ll be asked for feedback. That’s it! However, your profile will still exist and you can renew the membership any time you want. 

If you want to permanently delete your Netflix account, here’s what you do: 

• Log on and go to Account.
• Scroll down to the page. Click on Manage Profiles on the right. 
• You’ll see all the profiles you have set up.
• Select the account you wish to delete and click on it.
• Select the option Delete Account. 

Your history, ratings, and all collected data is deleted. 

That’s it, you’re done. 

Enjoy!

To Sum Up

We are sure you had a reason to need that change in your life. Living off the grid is a life-changing decision. 

And it can be quite liberating!

Obliterating yourself from the online world involves a lot of hard work and determination. 

It is also possible to use a paid service and let other people do all the work for you. But even in that case, you can’t be absolutely certain you’ve removed everything. 

But if you really wish to disappear, you know where to start.

We have reached our destination, guys! Great job!

Now you know how to delete yourself from the internet!

Take care and enjoy your day!