How to Remove Your Personal Information From the Internet

Can You Really Become “Unsearchable” Online?

No, you can't completely delete yourself from the internet. Everyone who has used the internet has developed a substantial digital footprint — a trail of information captured through browsing, online shopping, social media posts, and every account they've ever signed up for.

Even if you rarely go online, your data will still be available. Data breaches can expose sensitive information that you trusted with a company, while data brokers (often called people search sites) use public records and other available information to create and sell detailed profiles of nearly everyone. 

In 2026, the goal isn’t to disappear — but to remove enough personal information about yourself from the internet so that you become a more elusive and less rewarding target for scammers. 

The Real Risks of Exposed Personal Information

Nearly three-quarters of Americans have been hit by at least one online scam or attack in the past year, according to a 2025 Pew Research survey. Even worse, 21% of victims have lost money to an online scam. 

Much of that risk traces back to how much personally identifiable information (PII) about a victim has already been made public. 

Every piece of your personal information sitting online serves someone else's purpose, rarely your own. 

Too much publicly available personal information can put you at serious risk of:

• Financial fraud. Americans lost $15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with fraudulent new credit cards topping the list of most commonly reported crimes. Scammers can use your leaked Social Security number (SSN), along with publicly available information, to open credit lines or pass identity checks in your name. 
• Personal safety concerns. An exposed home address or phone number can turn online harassment into real-world stalking and doxxing. In January 2025, the FTC banned data broker Mobilewalla from selling location data that tracked people's visits to health clinics, religious sites, and domestic violence shelters without their consent.
• Excessive spam. Brokers resell your contact details to marketers, which is why receiving spam calls, texts, and junk mail increases the longer your information remains exposed.
• Reputational risk. Old posts can also resurface in front of employers or new acquaintances at the worst times.

No matter your personal situation, improving your online privacy is a critical part of staying safe online. 

How To Remove Your Personal Information From the Internet, Step by Step

1. Remove your data from Google search results
2. Opt out of data broker and people search sites
3. Reduce your social media exposure
4. Close unused online accounts and apps
5. Blur your home and vehicle on Google Maps
6. Stop AI chatbots from training on your personal data
7. Monitor your data on the dark web (but don’t expect to remove it)
8. Consider signing up for a data removal service

The following steps for removing personal information from the internet include the most high-impact places to start.  Work through them in sequence, or jump straight to whichever step matches your concerns about where your information is most exposed.

Where are you most at risk? Run Aura’s free digital footprint checker to find out.

Enter your email into Aura’s free tool to scan millions of data points and uncover what personal data can be easily found about you online. 

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1. Remove your data from Google search results

You can stop Google from displaying your personal information by filing a removal request directly with the company. Google’s removal requests won't delete the source page, but it will stop that listing from showing up in search results.

Start by Googling your own name — and any past names or nicknames — to see what's actually out there. Note every URL that surfaces sensitive or personally identifiable information (PII): your SSN, date of birth, home address, financial account numbers, and login credentials.

Then submit a removal request through Google for each URL. You'll need to describe what you want removed and note whether you've already contacted the website owner. Google reviews each request individually and may follow up for more detail.

One caveat worth repeating: This only affects what shows up in Google's search results. The website hosting your information is still live — you'll need to contact the site directly if you want your data gone for good.

Related: How To Get Your Personal Information Off of Google Search →

2. Opt out of data broker and people search sites

Data brokers get your information by aggregating it from public records, social media, marketing surveys, and other data brokers — then reselling it to anyone willing to pay, including scammers.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has identified more than 750 distinct, state-registered data brokers operating in the United States — and that's only counting brokers that comply with state registration requirements in the first place. Each one generally requires its own individual opt-out request.

The best place to start is by opting out of some of the most commonly searched people-search sites:

• Spokeo: Submit your profile URL through Spokeo's opt-out form.
• PeopleFinders: Find your listing, and opt out at peoplefinders.com/opt-out. (This is a different company from the similarly named PeopleFinder.com, which is owned by Intelius and has its own separate opt-out process.)
• Radaris: Use Radaris's Control Your Privacy tool. Removing your own listing is free and performed on a self-serve basis. Removing someone else's (the approach some removal services rely on) typically requires notarized authorization.
• Whitepages and BeenVerified also offer opt-out forms through their own suppression-request pages, though both require an identity verification step before they'll process your request. See our Whitepages opt-out guide and Radaris opt-out guide for detailed, screenshot-by-screenshot walkthroughs.

For brokers not listed above, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse maintains a database of opt-out instructions covering most registered brokers. It’s free to use, although working through hundreds of them individually requires a significant amount of time. There’s also no guarantee that data brokers won’t re-add your information at a later date. 

It's also worth checking whether your state gives you additional leverage. Twenty states, including California, Virginia, and Texas, now have comprehensive consumer privacy laws in effect that grant you a legal right to request that brokers delete your data — not just offer an opt-out.

3. Reduce your social media exposure

Your social media profiles and posts can provide a wealth of personal information to scammers (and anyone else). If you’re not ready to completely delete your accounts, tightening your privacy settings is the next best option. 

• Facebook: Open your account menu, then go to Settings & Privacy → Settings → Audience and Visibility, and adjust who can see your profile details, posts, and contact information.
• Instagram: Tap More → Settings → Account Privacy, then switch on Private Account.
• TikTok: Go to Profile → Menu → Settings and Privacy → Privacy, then turn on Private Account.
• LinkedIn: Select Me → Settings & Privacy → Visibility, then adjust who can see your profile and connections.
• X (Twitter): Go to Settings and Privacy → Privacy and Safety → Audience and Tagging, then turn on Protect Your Posts.

Tightening these settings is crucial for reasons beyond just preventing casual snooping. Old posts, photos, and location tags get scraped by data brokers and used by scammers to make their phishing attempts seem personal and convincing — such as knowing your pet's name or your last vacation spot when asking you to "verify" an account. 

4. Close unused online accounts and apps

Every online store, streaming service, and app you sign up for holds your name, address, and possibly your credit card number in their databases. Follow best practices for securing your online accounts — strong passwords, two-factor authentication (2FA), and up-to-date backup contact details. 

For old accounts that you no longer use, delete these one at a time to prevent unauthorized access:

• Audit your accounts. Search your email inbox for old sign-up and receipt confirmations to find accounts you've forgotten about. Aura’s data removal tool can do this automatically for you.
• Delete the account, not just the app. Uninstalling an app doesn't remove your account or the data tied to it — you need to log in and formally close it.
• Use guest checkout for one-off purchases instead of creating a new account every time. This prevents services from storing your sensitive payment information. 

This also includes social media accounts that you no longer actively use. Don't just leave them dormant with old privacy settings — close them outright.

5. Blur your home and vehicle on Google Maps

Google Street View makes it possible for anyone to look up your home, car, and license plate just by searching for your address.

To request a blur, search for your address in Google Maps, open the Street View image, click on "Report a Problem," and then select the part of the image you want blurred and explain that the request is for privacy or safety reasons.

If Google doesn't own the photo (some Street View images are user-submitted), the process can take longer. Google will ask the original photographer to comply (and may remove the photo itself if they don't).

6. Stop AI chatbots from training on your personal data

You can opt out of having your conversations with AI models like ChatGPT and Gemini used to train them going forward — though this won't erase anything they've already learned from scraping the public web.

• ChatGPT: Go to Settings → Data Controls, then turn off "Improve the model for everyone." You can also use Temporary Chat mode, which isn't saved to your history or used for training at all.
• Gemini: Open your Gemini Apps Activity settings and turn off "Keep Activity." Google notes it may still retain data for up to 72 hours afterward for safety reviews.

Keep your expectations realistic here. These settings may stop your future conversations from training the model, but they don't remove personal information that the model may have already picked up from publicly available web pages — that's a separate, much harder problem to solve.

7. Monitor your data on the dark web (but don't expect to remove it) 

You can't remove your personal information from the dark web. Once it's posted on a marketplace or breach forum, there's no mechanism to delete it. Instead, your best course of action is to monitor for leaks so you can proactively protect your accounts, identity, and privacy.

Dark web monitoring tools scan breach dumps and dark web marketplaces for your SSN, credit card numbers, and login credentials, and then alert you the moment they appear — so you can freeze your credit, change your passwords, or contact your bank before that data gets used against you.

Aura, for example, monitors for over 260 unique pieces of personal information on the dark web (more categories than other leading identity theft protection providers), and alerts you as soon as your data turns up so that you can act before it's misused.

Dark web monitoring is an early-warning system for information that you can no longer take back, but it’s not a cleanup tool. Learn more about what to do after a data breach so that you’ll know the specific steps to take once your data turns up.

8. Consider signing up for a data removal service

Data removal services automate the process of removing your information from data brokers, people search sites, and sometimes search engine results by sending opt-out requests on your behalf. 

The main benefits of using these services are that they’re automated and can re-scan data broker sites on a regular basis. The downside is that most tools are solely focused on data removal and not on protecting you from how your data can be used against you. 

For all-in-one online privacy and digital security services, try Aura free for 14 days.

		Incogni	DeleteMe	Optery	Kanary
Price	Starts at $9.99/month	Starts at $7.99/month	~$129/year, single-person plan	Paid plans cost from $3.99 to $24.99/month	Professional plan costs $9.99/month
Best for	All-in-one online privacy and security protection	Low-cost, fully automated broker opt-outs	Hands-off removal with a dedicated human agent	Budget shoppers who want a free tier option	Removal that extends beyond brokers
Data brokers covered	200+ broker and people search sites, plus Google search-result removal	420+ sites, plus custom removals	~87 on Standard plans (up to 976 on other plan options)	375+ sites (Core) up to 625+ (Ultimate), plus custom removal requests	~12 data brokers, plus Google search results, and social media
Scan frequency	Daily rescans	Continuous, with monthly progress emails	Quarterly reports, continuous re-monitoring	Opt-outs resubmitted every 30 days; quarterly reports	Highest-risk sites (e.g., Google) re-scanned every 30 days
Additional online safety features	Three-bureau credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, virtual private network (VPN), antivirus software, and more	None — broker removal only	None — broker removal only	None — broker removal only	None — data removal only
Free trial / money-back guarantee	14-day free trial	30-day money-back guarantee	"100% satisfaction guarantee" claimed	Free tier available	Free Community tier available

Choosing the "best" plan depends on what type of online protection you’re looking for. If you only want broker opt-outs, a dedicated service like Incogni or Optery may cover more sites. 

If you want data removal bundled with identity monitoring and insurance to safeguard you from the threats that data removal can't prevent, a broader platform like Aura fills this role.

Protect Your Personal Information From Future Exposure

Removing the bulk of the personal information that’s available about you online is an ongoing process. While you can clean up your digital footprint, it’s just as important to practice good cyber hygiene in order to prevent new data from piling back up.

• Share less on social media. Location tags and personal details make it easier for scammers to run convincing social engineering attacks against you or people who know you.
• Vet apps before installing them. Check reviews and data collection policies to ensure that you’re not accidentally giving away data to unscrupulous developers.
• Use a VPN on public Wi-Fi. Hackers can intercept unencrypted traffic on hotel or airport networks; a VPN encrypts your connection. Learn more about the dangers of public Wi-Fi.
• Avoid sending sensitive information over unencrypted channels, even in apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. If your device is compromised, that data is also exposed.
• Use a secondary email address for new sign-ups, newsletters, and one-off purchases so that your primary inbox isn't tied to every data broker's source list.
• Don't rely on Incognito mode for privacy. It only hides your history from other people using your device — it does nothing to stop websites or your internet provider from tracking you.
• Secure your accounts with unique passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA). A password manager makes this realistic to maintain across dozens of accounts.
• Keep your devices secure. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) found that unauthorized device access has now overtaken scams as the leading cause of identity compromise for working-age adults — meaning exposure often has nothing to do with what you personally post online. 

Final Thoughts: Online Safety Requires More Than Data Removal

You can't erase your digital footprint entirely, and chasing that goal will burn you out before it gets you anywhere. 

What you can do is systematically shrink your exposure: Pull your information out of Google and the highest-traffic data brokers first, lock down the accounts that you still use, and build habits that stop new data from accumulating. But following these critical steps won’t keep you safe from how the data that’s already out there can be used against you. 

Aura bundles powerful Google search and data broker removal tools with award-winning identity, credit, and device protection to keep you and your family safe and secure.