Remove your information from the web

Your digital footprint is larger than you think. From public records to data broker databases, personal information about you is collected, indexed, and traded every day. If you care about privacy, knowing how to remove your information from the web isn’t just helpful — it’s essential to protect your privacy.

Nym's guide will walk you through how to reduce your online exposure and proactively safeguard your data. Whether you want to clean up search engine results, delete old accounts, or strengthen your online defenses, this is where to start.

Why is your personal info on the Internet?

Most people never knowingly consent to the scale at which their data is shared. Yet your name, location, contact info, and even behavioral patterns are often accessible online due to:

• Public records indexed by search engines

• Data broker networks scraping social platforms and forums

• Marketing lists and cookie-based trackers

• Data breaches of services you once signed up for

Privacy online is not the default: data exposure is. But it’s possible to reduce how much of your life is searchable. Let’s start with what shows up in Google.

How to remove personal info from Google Search

If you've found personal information in search results, Google provides a formal process for requesting removal.

Use Google’s Removal Tool

1. Visit: Google Remove Outdated Content Tool

2. Paste the URL where your personal info appears

3. Select the appropriate reason (outdated or removed content)

4. Submit the request and monitor for status updates

Contact the source website

If the content still exists on a website:

1. Check the site’s contact page or use a WHOIS lookup

2. Submit a direct request to remove or redact your data

3. Once removed, ask Google to re-index the page via Search Console

You can also set up Google Alerts for your name or email to monitor new data exposures in real time.

Opt out of data broker sites

Data brokers aggregate and resell personal data, often without our consent. While removing yourself from every list isn’t easy, opting out from major players can significantly reduce your exposure.

Here are five major data broker sites and their opt-out links:

• Opt out of Whitepages

• Opt out of Spokeo

• Opt out of MyLife

• Opt out of Intelius

• Opt out of PeopleFinders

Each opt-out process typically includes:

1. Searching for your listing

2. Copying the relevant URL

3. Filling out the platform’s opt-out form

4. Completing a verification process (email or captcha)

5. Waiting for confirmation of removal

Privacy tip: Use a VPN like NymVPN when submitting opt-out requests to prevent additional IP-based tracking.

Delete old accounts and posts

Old or forgotten accounts often remain indexed or cached, even after years of inactivity. These digital artifacts can expose usernames, email addresses, and personal opinions you'd rather keep offline.

How to find and remove old accounts

1. Visit https://justdelete.me to find deletion links for hundreds of platforms

2. Search for platforms you’ve used (Tumblr, Reddit, etc.)

Cleaning up social media

Social media platforms retain more than just posts: they store metadata, tags, and interaction history. Cleaning up old content helps reduce your digital footprint and limits how your past activity can be aggregated, profiled, or resurfaced.

How to delete personal info from Facebook

Facebook stores a vast amount of data, including your posts, photos, likes, and metadata like location tags. Here's how to clean it up:

Deleting specific Facebook posts

1. Go to your profile and click Activity Log

2. In the left menu, select Your Posts or Photos and Videos

3. Use the filters to narrow your results

4. Select the posts you want to remove and click Move to Trash

5. Posts in Trash will be permanently deleted after 30 days

Deactivating or deleting your Facebook account

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Settings

2. Click Accounts Center > Personal details > Account ownership and control

3. Choose Deactivation or deletion

4. Select Delete account and follow the prompts

Note: Facebook may retain some metadata unless full deletion is requested. For maximum privacy, download your data before deletion.

How to delete personal info from Instagram

Instagram, owned by Meta, links visual content to personal identity and location. Here’s how to remove that data:

Deleting individual Instagram posts

1. Go to your profile and open the post you want to delete

2. Tap the three dots in the top-right corner

3. Select Delete, then confirm

Removing likes, comments, or story activity

1. Tap Menu > Your Activity

2. Choose Interactions to manage likes, comments, and story replies

3. Select items and tap Delete

Deactivating or deleting your Instagram account

1. Visit Instagram’s account deletion page from a browser

2. Log in, choose a reason for deletion, and confirm

3. Your data will be permanently removed after 30 days

Note: nstagram keeps backups for a limited time. Use this window to request full deletion of remaining metadata.

How to delete personal info from X (Twitter)

X holds real-time posts, replies, DMs, and profile data that can be archived or scraped — even years after posting.

Deleting X tweets manually

1. Go to your profile and find the tweet you want to remove

2. Click the three dots, then select Delete Tweet

3. Confirm to remove it permanently

Deleting X tweets in bulk

Use tools like TweetDelete or TweetDeleter (note: read privacy policies before use). These tools can mass-delete tweets older than a certain date or matching keywords.

Deactivating or deleting your X account

1. Go to Settings and privacy > Your account

2. Select Deactivate your account

3. After 30 days of inactivity, your account and data will be deleted permanently

Keep in mind: deletion may not immediately remove all content from search engines or public archives. Use Google’s removal tool to request outdated content deletion (see above).

Even if content seems harmless, it contributes to your digital fingerprint. Deleting it reduces your long-term exposure.

Clear stored personal info from your browser

Your browser collects a significant amount of personal data, from autofill credentials to browsing history. Clearing this data is a key step toward stronger privacy.

Chrome

1. Navigate to Settings > Privacy and Security > Clear Browsing Data

2. Choose “All Time”

3. Check all boxes (history, cookies, cached files, etc.)

4. Click "Clear Data"

5. Turn off Autofill under Settings > Autofill

Firefox

1. Go to Preferences > Privacy & Security > Clear Data

2. Select data types to delete (e.g. cached web content, cookies)

3. Disable form autofill under the "Forms & Autofill" section

Safari (Mac)

1. In the Safari menu, select Clear History > All History

2. Then go to Safari > Preferences > Autofill

3. Uncheck all autofill options (e.g., contact info, credit cards)

Regular maintenance prevents passive data leakage and improves privacy hygiene across devices.

Privacy ools to prevent future exposure

Once you’ve cleaned up existing data, the next step is prevention. These tools limit future data collection and strengthen your ongoing privacy posture.

Recommended tools include:

Virtual Private Network (VPN) – Masks your IP and encrypts your internet traffic. Decentralized options like NymVPN use mixnet-based routing for maximum metadata protection

Password manager: Securely stores unique passwords for each site to prevent reuse and breaches

Ad & Tracker Blockers: Stops third-party cookies and tracking pixels from monitoring your activity (e.g., uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger)

Private Search Engines: Search engines like DuckDuckGo & Brave don’t log your queries or create user profiles

NymVPN goes beyond traditional VPNs by hiding not just your traffic, but also the patterns that metadata can expose. It's an essential tool for serious privacy.

Removing info from the web helps your online privacy

You may not be able to erase your presence from the web entirely, but you can significantly limit what’s visible, shared, or exploited.

Start by cleaning up what already exists. Then shift toward prevention by using privacy-preserving tools like NymVPN, which masks your metadata and traffic with advanced, decentralized routing.

Online privacy isn’t a setting: it’s a system. And taking control of that system starts here.