Between publicly available information and what we share on social networks, there’s a lot of information about you available online. A quick search of your name can turn up some pretty surprising things, including your home address or old social media posts you’d rather not see the light of day. Websites that specialize in people searches, designed to help marketers advertise to you or to help old friends track you down, are the worst offenders. These sites often provide detailed personal information with the click of a button.
So how can you reclaim your private data? It’s tricky, because there are lots of sites that collect personal data. However, you can lock down your social profiles and request to be removed from major search sites — you’ll have to make a request with each site individually — to make your personal data harder to find.