How to Delete Your Personal Information From the Internet

Search your own name and you may be surprised how much is out there — your address, phone number, age, relatives. Much of it is collected by data brokers and sold. You can’t erase everything, but you can remove a lot. Here’s how.

Note: Informational guide. Processes vary by site and country.

Step 1: See what’s out there

Search your name, email, phone number and address on Google. Note which sites show your details — especially people-search / data-broker sites. This is your removal to-do list.

Step 2: Opt out of data-broker sites

Most data brokers are legally required to offer an opt-out:

• Find the site’s “opt out,” “do not sell my info,” or privacy page (often in the footer).
• Submit the removal request for your listing.
• Repeat for each broker. It’s tedious but effective.

There are also paid removal services that do this for you continuously — some identity protection services include it.

Step 3: Clean up your own accounts

• Delete old accounts you no longer use (old forums, shopping sites, apps). Each one is data that can leak.
• Tighten privacy settings on social media and limit what’s public.
• Remove personal details (phone, address) from public profiles.

Step 4: Ask Google to remove sensitive results

Google offers tools to request removal of results that expose sensitive personal information (like your address, phone number, or ID details) in certain cases. Removing the search result doesn’t delete the source, but it makes the info much harder to find.

Step 5: Reduce future exposure

• Use a secondary email and even a secondary phone number for sign-ups.
• Share less personal detail publicly — see how to protect your privacy online.
• Use unique passwords and 2FA so breaches don’t expose more.

Manage your expectations

You won’t achieve total erasure — data spreads and some sources re-list you over time. Treat this as ongoing maintenance: do a big cleanup now, then recheck every few months.

Conclusion

To shrink your online footprint: find where your data appears, opt out of data-broker sites one by one, delete old accounts, tighten privacy settings, and use Google’s removal tools for sensitive results. You can’t delete everything, but a focused cleanup plus a few months’ upkeep removes most of what strangers can easily find — and that’s a real privacy win.