Online privacy is important for everyone in today’s world. Whether you’re a lawyer, a celebrity, an employee or even an employer, it’s crucial for you. It’s because we are being monitored every single moment of our lives through social media.
For instance, even if you’re an ordinary individual, people stock you on your social media, right? They could be your relatives, you friends, you loved ones or anyone. But you’re being stalked.
That’s the reason why it’s important to maintain your online reputation in today’s world. Especially after the giant data breaches that exposed millions of individuals’ information, it’s necessary for people to scrub internet presence. But does that mean you can delete everything on the internet?
Well, no! But you can delete the private information for sure if you scrub yourself. Apart from that, there are some security measures that you may take in order to strengthen your online reputation.
In todays’ blog, we will be discussing both the process of deleting yourself from the internet and the further safety measures that you may take to save yourself in the coming times.
How To Scrub Yourself From The Internet?
Well, the reason could be anything behind your desire to scrub yourself from the internet. Generally people consider this option when an embarrassing moment gets viral, unnecessary trolling occurs on your social media about your activity, etc.
However, these are not the only reasons why you should consider internet scrub. You could also reestablish your reputation in this way. And that’s what the online reputation management company does. We consider deleting a person completely from the internet and then reimagine his online presence.
Let’s take a look how we do that,
Delete All Social Media Handles
If you’re too active on the social media accounts, the chances of you being victimized of online trolling is much higher. So, when people approach us for reputation repair solutions, we start it by cleaning the online accounts first.
There is no “delete” button on the internet that can erase all your information within a single click. So, you have to do it manually. Let’s take a look at the tips on how to do it effectively,
1: Backup Your Data
It’s important to back up your data prior to starting the internet scrub. You may have your favorite pictures on your social media profiles. That’s why some social accounts also offer the option of downloading information so that users can use it later. You can download your images, export the contacts, take screenshots of all the important things.
2: Read The Instructions Carefully
It’s important to read all the instructions while you delete the account of your social profiles. For instance, Facebook offers both deactivation and deletion of the user’s account. Deactivating the account doesn’t remove your information from Facebook. So, you should be a little careful while scrubbing yourself from the internet.
3: Keep An Eye Even After Deletion
Initially a social media takes 30 days to completely remove the information and process your request. But you should keep an eye on the account even after the 30 day period. If any unusual activity takes place, you should immediately call the service provider.
The primary reason behind deleting the social media accounts during your internet scrub process is that it appears first on Google.
If you search anyone’s name on the internet, you will notice that the social media accounts come up on the first page. This is why it’s the first step to disappear from the web world.
Delete Accounts From Online Tools & Shopping Sites
If you have ever shopped from online shopping sites, then you should clean those information too during your internet scrub process. This also includes online magazines, online tools, or any online platform where you have your information stored. You can make a list of those sites and services you have used before and start deleting one by one.
It will be easier for everyone to delete those accounts as they don’t have much of your personal information stored. Sometimes the service provider may ask you to verify your identity.
It’s because there are online scammers in the virtual world. After you erase these information, make sure you avoid being online through these channels as this information can be used to make profiles for yours in online sites like Radaris, MyLife, etc.
Run A Search Now
Once you scrub yourself from the internet, it’s time to run a search with your name. Generally google always prefers to show your social media information on the internet when someone searches your name. Now that you have removed those information, the result is supposed to be different. Right?
So, let’s take a look at the results now Google is showing. You can also consider other search engines like Bing, Dogpile , DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, or anything to try it in a different way.
These will show you whether those information have successfully been removed or not. Once your social media profiles stop appearing when someone searches your name on any of these search engines, you’ll be sure that internet scrub is done.
Contact Site Owners To Take Down Information
In case your reputation is already on the verge of damage, you may find a few negative articles posted on other sites on the internet. It will still appear when someone searches your name on the internet. Now this is worse.
It’s because you still had some control over your own social media profiles but you have no control on someone else’s site, right? In this case, the task becomes complicated. Generally it needs professional attention.
A reputed online reputation management agency first contacts the site owners in such cases to take down those information. There are also certain codes of conduct that you must follow while reaching out to the site owners as it could be worse if not approached professionally.
Let’s take a look at the tips that you can follow while you’re reaching out to the third party site owners,
- Always keep your message clear and concise. Don’t try to win their heart by presenting your situation in an overly sympathetic way. The best thing is to present the real stories, the struggle, and the amount of destruction the article is causing to your personal and professional life.
- There are legal procedures to remove information from the internet. But, you should be aware of your rights when you’re seeking legal help. You can also conduct with a lawyer and a professional reputation management agency to help you provide the right information.
- Avoid sending too much information about yourself. People may try to take down the information from other sites by attaching too many links to other sites. But, it only worsens the situation so it’s always better to avoid such situations.
- Never try to threaten the site owner. It’s their choice whether they want to remove the information or not. So, never try to scare the site owner during the process of scrubbing internet data.
Remove Any Unwanted Search Results
Sometimes the information still appears on the internet even after you delete all the data from the internet. In this case, the search engine pulls the data from the “cache” of previous pages. Even after the site is edited, search engines may still use the previous cached information and show up your details.
In this case, an online reputation agency uses online reputation management tools to remove the outdated content. There are various tools to remove those unwanted search results from the internet.
You have to be a little focus while removing the information from the search results. Also, there is an internet archive where your information could be stored. In that case, you should also use the tools to permanently delete such information.
Remove The Information From Public Websites
Well, once you fully remove the information from the internet, the following step that is going to bother you is the step of removing information from public websites like Radaris, MyLife, etc. because these sites use the information from various other sources and create a unique profile of yourself.
You can follow the step by step procedures to remove information from Radaris, and learn the hacks to remove information from MyLife. This will help you to finally remove yourself from the internet.
Change Your Browser Settings
Even after you scrub yourself from the internet, there are chances that the browser will still cache all the information again. So, once you delete all the information, the next thing you should do is delete the email address that you have used to create those online accounts be it your social media, shopping sites, or anything.
This will help you to finally erase the information permanently. You can take help from professionals if you permanently delete this information because sometimes it becomes a tricky process.
Once you’re done, you have to set the browser setting in incognito mode so that you can remain invisible on the internet.
Post To Internet Scrub: Tips To Follow While Conducting Online Activities
Well, you may remove yourself from the internet and be happy about it. But, it doesn’t mean that your reputation is fixed for lifetime. You still need to follow some essential steps to carefully build your online reputation.
In case any slipup occurs from your end, you may ruin your reputation again. Let’s take a look at the important steps that you should take after you scrub yourself from the internet.
1: Make Sure You Don’t Post Anything Controversial
Well, any moment an online post can go viral and tarnish your reputation. In that case, all your efforts of removing the information from online sources goes in vain.
That’s the reason why you should never post anything controversial after you scrub yourself from the internet. You can minimize the disclosure option, review your privacy setting so that the post stays at a minimum audience.
Also, you should use an anonymous name or email address in case you want to create a profile for yourself in future.
2: Turn Off The Geo Location
Geo location should also turn off the geo locations so that it doesn’t track your location. That’s the reason you should update your phone setting and turn off the location.
3: Monitor Your Online Reputation
If you’ve scrubbed yourself from the internet, it doesn’t make you appear clean for life. You need to monitor your reputation every time to keep it in check. Professionals mainly use the reputation | review monitoring tools to monitor the internet activity around the internet.
Any time any one posts something or does any activity on the internet, this tool will give you an alert or notifications. So, you can keep your reputation in check this way.
4: Opt Out From Any Site
If a site demands your personal information access to the content, you should never post the authenticate information. Because the people-search site always searches the internet and looks for the information on these websites to make unique profiles.
Once these are made you have to again conduct the internet scrub. So, you should always stay anonymous while accessing the content of any site.
Conclusion
It’s important to scrub yourself from the internet if your reputation is terribly damaged or on the verge of damage. This will help you to reestablish your reputation and maintain its positive impact with little help from professionals.
It’s better to consult with an online reputation management agency to help you conduct the internet scrub properly and to help you maintain a good impression for a long time.
It’s because internet scrub is a tireless process and it requires professional expertise and experience to do it effectively. So, don’t trap yourself in the negative reputation as you can always reestablish and come back clean like water.
