In the first half of 2025 alone, Secureframe reports that data compromises in the U.S. affected an estimated 166 million individuals. That’s nearly half the country.
It’s a shocking number, but is it really that surprising? According to Statista, we’re part of a massive global network. As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, and the average person spends over 6 hours and 38 minutes online every single day. In fact, the amount of data we’re all creating is projected to reach a staggering 181 zettabytes by 2025, according to Exploding Topics.
The Pew Research Center polls indicate that 92% of Americans are concerned about their online privacy, and 86% have attempted to reduce their digital footprint. Yet, 78% of us also admit to sharing personal information online in the last year.
However, the stakes are incredibly high, especially in the United States. For the 15th consecutive year, the U.S. has the highest average cost of a data breach globally, reaching a staggering $10.22 million in 2025, according to IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report.
Start with a digital audit: Find out what the internet knows about you
Before you can erase your footprint, you need to understand its size. Think of this as a reconnaissance mission. You need to see what a potential boss, a data scraper, or worse, a scammer, sees when they look you up.
Google yourself (the right way)
You can’t just type your name into your everyday browser and call it a day. Search engines provide you with biased results based on your search history, a phenomenon known as “personalised search bias.” To see what others see, you need to search as if you were a stranger.
First, open a “private” or “incognito” browser window. This simple step helps minimize the influence of your past searches.
Next, search for your full name in quotes, like “Jane Doe.” Then, try all the variations: nicknames, maiden names, and even common misspellings of your name.
Refine your search by adding additional details. Try your name, city, old jobs, schools you attended, or even your phone number. Don’t forget to check other search engines, such as Bing and DuckDuckGo, as they may provide different results.
Finally, click over to the “Images” and “Videos” tabs to see what visual media is floating around out there with your name on it. For an ongoing defense, set up a Google Alert for your name to get automatic notifications whenever you’re mentioned online.
Hunt down your forgotten accounts
That free trial you signed up for in 2015? It’s still out there, a security risk waiting to happen. Research shows the average person in the U.S. has around 100 online accounts linked to an email address. These “zombie” accounts are a massive part of your digital footprint.
Here’s how to hunt them down:
- Check your password manager. This is your official list of accounts you know about. It’s the perfect place to start.
- Scan your browser’s saved logins. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all have their built-in password managers. You might find dozens of old credentials you completely forgot about.
- Search your email inboxes. This is your secret weapon. Go through all your email accounts (especially the old ones!) and search for phrases like “welcome to,” “confirm your account,” “new account,” “finish registration,” and “password reset.” This will unearth a graveyard of forgotten services.
- Review your social media connections. Dig into the “Apps and Websites” or “Connected Apps” sections of your Google, Facebook, Apple, and X (Twitter) accounts. You’ll be shocked to see how many third-party services you’ve given access to over the years. This reveals that your digital life isn’t a series of separate accounts but a deeply interconnected web. To truly erase your footprint, you have to sever all these hidden connections.
- Use data breach databases. Go to a reputable site like Have I Been Pwned and search for your email addresses. It will tell you which of your accounts have been exposed in significant data breaches, which is a great, if scary, way to remind you of old accounts you need to delete.
The great purge: Delete your social media profiles
Social media is the most visible, data-heavy part of your online life. With the average person juggling 6.7 social media accounts, this is where you get the most bang for your buck. But don’t fall for the “deactivate” button. That’s just a pause, designed to lure you back. We’re going for permanent deletion.
How to permanently delete Facebook
On a browser, go to Settings & Privacy> Settings > Privacy Center > Manage Your Accounts. From there, navigate to Personal details > Account ownership and control > Deactivation or deletion. Select your account, then choose “Delete account” and follow the prompts to confirm.
Heads up: Facebook gives you a 30-day “grace period.” If you log back in within that month, the deletion is canceled. After 30 days, it’s gone for good.
How to permanently delete Instagram
In the app, tap your Profile icon, then select the Menu (represented by three lines). Go to Settings and privacy > Accounts Center > Personal details > Account ownership and control. Tap Deactivation or deletion, pick your account, choose “Delete account,” and enter your password to seal the deal.
Just like its parent company, Instagram holds your account for 30 days before permanently deleting it. Make sure to download a backup of your photos first if you want to keep them!
How to permanently delete X (formerly Twitter)
Whether you’re using a phone or a computer, go to Settings and Privacy> Your Account> Deactivate Your Account. You’ll need to click the large red “Deactivate” button and confirm with your password.
X calls it “deactivation,” but this is the first step to permanent deletion. Stay logged out for 30 days, and your account will be permanently erased. Be aware that your old posts might linger in Google search results for a while after.
How to permanently delete TikTok
Open the app and navigate to your Profile, then tap the Menu (represented by three lines). Go to Settings and Privacy > Account > Deactivate or delete account. Choose “Delete account permanently” and follow the on-screen instructions.
You guessed it—TikTok also has a 30-day deactivation window before your data is gone forever.
How to permanently delete LinkedIn
On a desktop, click the “Me” icon, then go to Settings & Privacy > Account preferences > Account management. Click “Close account” and follow the steps, including entering your password.
Go after the hidden players: Remove yourself from data broker sites
You’ve deleted what you can see. Now it’s time to go after what you can’t: the shadowy world of data brokers.
Who are these guys, anyway?
Data brokers are companies whose entire business is collecting your personal information and selling it. They scrape it from public records, your browsing history, your shopping habits—everything. You may not have heard of giants like Acxiom, Experian, or Epsilon, but they maintain detailed files on hundreds of millions of Americans.
The tedious task of opting out
Manually removing your info from these sites is a full-time job. One study estimated that it would take the average person over 304 hours to opt out from all data brokers just once. And the worst part? Your data can reappear a few months later when they refresh their databases.
This difficulty is intentional. Many of these companies bury their opt-out links or use confusing language to discourage you from exercising your right to opt out. It’s a business strategy designed to make you give up.
For a busy professional, doing this manually is next to impossible. Your best bet is to use a data removal service. Companies like Incogni, DeleteMe, or McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup automate the process for a monthly fee, sending out removal requests on your behalf and saving you hundreds of hours of frustration.
If you want to tackle a few of the biggest offenders yourself, here’s where to start. You’ll typically need to search for their “opt-out” or “privacy” page.
Scrub the search engines: Erase your name from Google, Bing, and Yahoo
Here’s a vital fact: search engines don’t host information, they just index it. Your primary goal should always be to have your data removed from the original website. However, you can also request that search engines remove the link to that data.
Asking Google to forget you
Google has a relatively straightforward process for removing sensitive personal information. This includes information such as your home address, phone number, email address, confidential ID numbers, or bank account details.
Go to Google’s “Results about you” tool or their official content removal request form. You’ll need to provide the specific URLs where your information is appearing and submit them for review. Google will email you with their decision. Please note that they may decline if they believe the information is not newsworthy or part of a public record.
Dealing with Bing and Yahoo
These platforms are a bit tougher. Their official stance is that you have to contact the owner of the original website first.
For Bing, if you can’t get the website owner to remove the data, you can use the “Report a Concern to Bing” form. You’ll need to explain the situation and provide the link to the search result. Since Bing powers Yahoo Search, the process is the same.
Build your ghost protocol: How to stay invisible moving forward
Erasing your past is only half the battle; you also have to protect your future. This is about changing your habits and using the right tools to minimize the new data you create. As privacy expert Bruce Schneier puts it, “Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.”
Use a privacy-first toolkit
- Get a VPN. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) encrypts your internet connection and hides your IP address. This makes it much harder for anyone to track your online activities. Top-rated VPNs for 2025 include NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and Proton VPN.
- Switch to a private browser. Mainstream browsers are data-hoovering machines. Use one that blocks trackers by default. Excellent choices are Brave, Mozilla Firefox, and the DuckDuckGo browser.
- Use email aliases. Stop giving your real email to every website. Services like SimpleLogin (from the makers of Proton), Addy.io, or StartMail create unique, disposable email addresses that forward to your primary inbox. If an alias starts getting spammed, you just delete it.
Change your online habits
- Share less. Before you post anything, ask yourself a simple question: “Could this be used against me?” If the answer is maybe, don’t post it.
- Use guest checkouts. When shopping online, always select the “guest checkout” option if available. This prevents the site from storing your personal information in the long term.
- Check app permissions. Review your phone’s settings to determine which apps have access to your location, contacts, and microphone. Revoke any permissions that aren’t necessary.
- Lock down remaining accounts. If you absolutely must keep a social media profile, set it to private. This severely limits who can access your information and makes it much harder for data scrapers to obtain it.
Key Takeaway
Becoming a digital ghost isn’t a one-and-done task; it’s a deliberate process. For busy people, the path to reclaiming your privacy boils down to five essential strategies:
- Audit: Find out what’s out there. You can’t delete what you don’t know exists.
- Purge: Permanently delete old social media and other unused accounts. This is your most powerful move.
- Opt-Out: Use a data removal service to scrub your information from hundreds of data broker sites and save yourself a massive amount of time.
- Scrub: Request the removal of sensitive personal links from search engines like Google and Bing.
- Protect: Adopt a “ghost protocol” for the future using tools like VPNs, private browsers, and email aliases to stay off the grid.
Disclaimer – This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information. It is not intended to be professional advice.
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