How to delete your personal info from the internet – and why you should

The internet is a dangerous place. If it seems like scammers, hackers, and spammers are lurking around every corner, that’s because they are. Malicious individuals … The post How to delete your personal info from the internet – and why you should appeared first on BGR.

Feb 10, 2025 - 17:08

How to delete your personal info from the internet – and why you should

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The internet is a dangerous place. If it seems like scammers, hackers, and spammers are lurking around every corner, that's because they are. Malicious individuals are always looking to take advantage of as many people as they can target. Of course, in order for them to target you, first they need to find you.

In many cases, it all starts with a data broker or people search site. These companies exist solely to gather and sell your personal information to anyone willing to pay, and they are truly a blight on society. The info they sell can include your name, email addresses, phone numbers, physical mailing addresses for your home and office, and even your social security number. It's a massive problem, but there's a way for you to take charge and stop these awful data brokers in their tracks.

Why should you care if these companies have your info?

In most cases, data brokers find your info by searching public records. So, if this info is already available to the public, why should you care that they have it?

The answer to that question is simple. While it's true that your personal information can be found in any number of public records, it's also true that scammers, hackers, spammers, and other people with malicious intent don't typically search for individual public records. That would take way too much time and effort. Instead, they go to a data broker and purchase contact info for hundreds or thousands of people at once. That lets them cast a much larger net when sending out spam or searching for targets to scam and hack.

If there are data brokers out there that have your personal info, that means it's available for scammers and spammers to purchase. Of course, if you have your info deleted from data brokers' databases, your exposure is dramatically limited.

How to delete your personal info from the web with Incogni

If you have nothing but time on your hands, you can absolutely have your info removed from data brokers and people search sites on your own. When you send removal requests, data brokers are required to comply with them.

Unfortunately, there's a huge problem with trying to handle things on your own: It takes forever.

There are hundreds of data brokers and people search sites out there, and the odds are fairly good that many of them have your personal information for sale. Sadly, they also all have different requirements and procedures you must adhere to when making removal requests.