{"id":616379,"date":"2025-11-01T10:11:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T08:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=616379"},"modified":"2025-11-01T10:17:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T08:17:40","slug":"make-yourself-vanish-from-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/616379-make-yourself-vanish-from-the-internet.html","title":{"rendered":"Make yourself vanish from the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cybersecurity and anti-virus company Kaspersky has provided a detailed guide that people can follow to reduce and remove their digital footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUsers\u2019 digital footprints have been building up for years. Social media accounts, old comments, carelessly posted photos, message boards, and old marketplace listings,\u201d said Kaspersky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything that each individual user has ever shared online remains there, potentially causing serious retroactive issues for the poster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky said this information may be of interest to potential employers, government agencies, advertisers, scammers, and even exes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHR departments often conduct thorough online background checks on candidates before hiring,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdditionally, data obtained through the use of shady services that search for leaked information from data breaches can be used for doxing and harassment purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky offered guidelines on how to manage your personal digital footprint and minimise the amount of private information available to everyone online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t manage it, your digital footprint can unexpectedly come back to bite you,\u201d the security company cautioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to erase it completely, but you can certainly minimise the amount of information available to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky advised that you start by Googling yourself. It is also useful to search for your name using other engines, which may uncover things that Google misses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools for this include Namechk<\/a>, a service that checks the availability of usernames across more than 90 social networks, and Web Cleaner<\/a>, which allows you to search for yourself across dozens of search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy egosurf? By searching for yourself, you\u2019ll first see exactly where you once registered, and perhaps forgot about,\u201d Kaspersky said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSecond, you\u2019ll be able to check for any fake or impersonating accounts using your name. If you do find an imposter account, contact the website\u2019s support team and demand they remove the fake profiles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve dealt with the fake accounts and compiled a list of your genuine ones, Kaspersky said the next step is to delete the superfluous and outdated ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDon\u2019t rely entirely on the initial search or your own memory. Dig deep into your email archives to see which sites and services message you as their user,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can also review the list of saved passwords in your browsers or password managers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shadow profiles and breach notifications<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the accounts you\u2019ve registered are only half the battle. Sometimes social media sites generate shadow profiles containing data on you that may persist even after you delete your account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky said these profiles can include information you never directly shared with the service, such as if you granted a social media app access to your phone contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the data from your address book could end up in that shadow profile, even if you did not import your contacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven more unsettling, sometimes these accounts get created for users who\u2019ve never even registered with the service, by gathering data from other platforms and open sources,\u201d said Kaspersky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile it\u2019s nearly impossible to completely prevent shadow profiles from being created, you can minimise the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go through your old apps and revoke their access to your sensitive data. Once purged, ensure you meticulously monitor which permissions you grant to each new app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another source of personal data appearing online is data leaks and breaches. \u201cData leaks happen online virtually every day, exposing massive amounts of personal data,\u201d said Kaspersky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWebsites like Have I Been Pwned<\/a> allow you to enter your email and get alerts if it shows up in a new leaked database.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, preventing leaks is an impossible task for the average user. Therefore, the best defence is to limit the amount of personal data you share when registering new accounts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erase local traces and review privacy settings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next, Kaspersky advised that you delete old emails and other messages that contain private information, as they also form part of your digital footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo through your mail using keywords like \u2018password\u2019, \u2018SSN\u2019, or \u2018account\u2019, and delete any emails containing this sensitive data,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnsubscribe from old mailing lists. This lowers the chance that your email address will leak from a marketer\u2019s database.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky suggested that people regularly, at least once a month, clear their browser history, cookies, and cache on all their devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlternatively, set up your browser to clear this data automatically when you close it. This lessens the chance of an outsider collecting information from your device if they gain access to it,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn smartphones, it\u2019s advised to disable or periodically reset your advertising identifier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaspersky said it also offers a free service allowing you to check and adjust privacy and security settings called Privacy Checker<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will guide you on how to configure popular social platforms, services, and even operating systems to your desired level of privacy,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaving no trace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To leave no trace on the Internet whatsoever, Kaspersky said significant lifestyle adjustments are necessary, including no social media under your real name, and an absolute minimum of online services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use only messaging apps that feature end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages, like Signal. WhatsApp also offers this, but there are cases where messages to business accounts may be stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For search, Kaspersky advised using DuckDuckGo or Tor. That way, your queries aren\u2019t tied back to your profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, abandon Gmail for encrypted email services that don\u2019t require a phone number, like Temp Mail or Proton Mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve total control of your digital footprint, it is necessary to avoid using smartphone operating systems tied to Google and Apple and adopt a completely open system, such as GrapheneOS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an additional step, Kaspersky recommends creating multiple personas for the online services you do use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a radical but effective way to confuse data collectors. Use different names, birth dates and emails for different spheres of your life,\u201d it advised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInvent a separate alter ego for professional activity, with a clean r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and neutral posts, and another for personal communication. The less the Internet can tie your various activities together, the better for your privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity and anti-virus company Kaspersky has provided a detailed guide that people can follow to reduce and even remove their digital footprint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":616384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[13721,1595,18745],"class_list":["post-616379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-internet-privacy","tag-kaspersky","tag-online-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616379"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616387,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616379\/revisions\/616387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}