Removing Your Personal Information From the Internet

Recently, I did a test on myself to remove personal and inaccurate data / information off the internet. There are numerous paid services that can do this for you, however, I wanted to learn the process inside and out to do this myself.

First, simply search your name on a google.com (I did the tests on Google and Bing). Copy and paste all of the links you want removed into a document so you can refer back to it.

Now, for the more tedious part.

Visit each of the links and contact the appropriate webmaster for that particular website. If there is no webmaster clearly available, try to find a contact form, email, or phone number somewhere on the website and fill out the form. If you call, have the representative who answers direct you to the best way to have your information removed.

Once the party verifies that they can remove the information, try to get them to send you a confirmation email stating they have completed your request. Double check the link to make sure your information was removed and/or the entire page was deleted.

Once this is completed, sign into the Google Webmaster Removal Tool. Copy and paste the link into the “ENTER URL OF OUTDATED CONTENT” Section. Click REQUEST REMOVAL. You will see a box that begins to analyze the URL.

If you’ve only had your name and contact information edited out of the page, and the page is still live, follow these steps below to get your content information de-indexed from Google and off any search results that may appear on Google with the links you find:

Click Next.

Then this page will appear:

Click Next.

Then enter a word or two that no longer appears on the updated page. Typically, this can be your first or last name.

Then click REQUEST REMOVAL.

I have had OUTDATED PAGE removal requests be removed in as little as a day and as much as a week, or maybe longer. I’ve noticed old/deleted posts from Facebook takes longer than others to be removed from Google.



If you’ve had the entire page removed off of Google, you repeat the process but the dialogue in the box will differ.

Copy and paste the URL in the same spot. Hit REQUEST REMOVAL.

The removal tool will then verify the URL. If the page is truly deleted, this box will appear:



Hit REQUEST REMOVAL.





You can check the progress of all of your request by periodically signing into the Google Removal Tool and seeing the statue towards the right portion of your screen.

Don’t ever hit REINCLUDE, or the information you de-indexed will now reappear in the search engine’s results.

If you result gets denied for any reason, click the LEARN MORE button next to the denial to see the possible reasons why.

As a test on myself, I have spent approximately 3 weeks removing content. I have been successful in removing over 150 links/pages with my personal information on them (or they were inaccurate).

TIP: NEVER PAY TO HAVE YOUR INFORMATION REMOVED! With a bit of time and effort, you can get all of this removed on your own. I’ve found the webmasters are usually understanding about having information removed and are usually quite quick and proactive with having these types of requests removed.

I was able to remove myself off authority sites like:

Facebook

Twitter

Whitepages

Yellow Pages

Intelius

People Search

Flickr

And countless other larger websites.

Removing Your Personal Information From the Internet