Is it possible to completely disappear from the Internet?

Living in today's society without leaving your mark on the Internet seems almost impossible. Even if we don't use the Internet at all, it's hard to avoid getting there in one form or another, such as through websites that record the geographic distribution of surnames (1).

1. Service like “map of names”

People somehow get used to the fact that their data is available on the network, believing that it belongs only to those companies and individuals under whose care they have entrusted it. However, this trust is unfounded.

Not only because of hackers who steal the personal data of site users Internet or services like the Sony Playstation (2), but also because their data travels around the world and is processed in dozens of ways, such as behavioral targeting algorithms to improve network marketing.

For companies, our data is money, real money. They are willing to pay for it. So why do we usually give them away for free? Agree, not necessarily for nothing, because in exchange for the exchange and permission to use the information about ourselves that we share, we receive certain profits, such as discounts.

It is already used by Polish telecom operators, which can deduct certain amounts from the cost of the service for marketing "consent". However, we often "pay" yes for services, even if only access to the Internetwhich allow you to extract additional data from us.

2. SONY bosses apologize for stealing Playstation user data

The very use of these services, carefully recorded "cookies", is largely a process of exchanging data about ourselves, our preferences, interests and the ways in which we surf the Internet. However, it's never so bad that it couldn't get worse.

A few months ago, Apple filed a solution with the US Patent Office that not only recognizes people's faces in photos, but also allows you to share them with certain groups based on associations created by artificial intelligence.

The disputes concern the automatic association of personal and contact data with persons recognized in the photo. In the version advertised by the company, this basically makes it easier to share photos with groups of friends. However, fears immediately arise whether the system will be able to “monitor” privacy and anonymity of individuals posted online for others (3).

The question arises, for example, whether personal and contact data once associated with a person will not be disclosed to outsiders in subsequent waves of disclosure. Apple praises the new solution as a great convenience and ease of online activity. However, the very fact of associating confidential information with automatic face recognition sounds extremely alarming.

Google removes it because it should

No wonder many are not nervous and strive to disappear from the network. Is it just possible? You can definitely delete a significant part of your Internet footprints. In May 2014, the Google search engine was launched. special sitethrough which the user can request that links leading to information about him be removed from the network.

The company didn't do it of its own accord — it's complying with a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled that Google should grant Internet users a "right to be forgotten." Therefore, Google is obliged to remove from search results links relating to personal data of individuals if the person concerned so desires and the information about him or her is "outdated or out of date".

If Google does not agree with the removal of the link, this decision can be appealed first to the national data protection authority and then to the courts. In the form, enter your full name, email address, and the specific search link we think should be removed.

You must also explain why the information it contains is, for example, "outdated, out of date or inadequate". To apply, you must enclose a digital copy of your driver's license, an ID or other form of photo identification with your request, and select the country you are from.

So how to disappear

Here are some practical tips on how to be effective destroy the internet, or at least make it much harder for anyone to find anything about us online:

Eliminate your social media presence

Each of the popular social networks has an account deactivation function. Of course, this is not a particularly vulnerable service, because websites do not want users to delete their profiles - quite the contrary.

In Facebook, for example, the account deactivation service is available in the settings - in the "Security" tab (4). A popular social network does not immediately close the profile. The account disappears after a while.

Look for yourself in the search engine

Keep in mind that Google is not the only search engine and may not cover all of our online activity. That's why it's worth looking into Microsoft's Bing, as well as Yahoo! and possibly others Internet browsing engines. Such a search will allow us to check what artifacts we have left on the network.

This will allow you to find, for example, old accounts that we created a long time ago and forgot about them. Of course, we are talking about accounts created under our real name. Tip: Use Duckduckgo's anonymous search engine. com, which does not store or share your search history.

4. Deactivate your Facebook account

Fake accounts you can't delete

There are also websites that do not allow profile deletion or it is very burdensome. This is the case, for example, on the websites of some companies. Then, after logging in, you can change your details to false. This may seem unethical to some, but to a large extent we are justified by the behavior of the site, forcing us to protect real information.

Unsubscribe from all mailing lists by email

If we subscribe to certain so-called mailing lists, newsletters, each of them should have the option to unsubscribe from the mailing list. This can be quite a time-consuming and time-consuming task, but if done consistently will save you the presence of companies sending out similar messages in many databases.

Remove all search results that apply to you from the search engine.

This may take some time, but both Google and other search engines have reporting tools. Internet addresses delete.

Contact the admins of the pages you're listed on

If your data is on a page where you cannot edit it, you have no choice but to apply for it to be deleted. In general, there are full legal grounds for doing what you are asking.

If you have no other choice, hire professionals

There is a whole market of companies (so-called clearing data centers) that specialize in on-demand scraping of information from the Internet, such as Abine with its DeleteMe service.

Check if you are in the directories of telecom operators

Some operators provide details and numbers of their customers as part of, for example, online telephone directories. This does not happen in Poland, but it does not hurt to check.

Cancel your account(s) email address

Of course, if you want to do this, this should be the last step because many of the previous steps require an email account.