Applying
for a new job? Maybe you're about to tie the knot! You may have several
reasons for removing certain parts or all of your online presence from
websites and search engines. ET shows you how:
Facebook
Removing Individual Posts
You
can remove individual status updates/comments by clicking the drop down
arrow on the top right corner of your update and selecting delete. For
photographs posted by you, open the image, click on Options and select
"Delete This Photo''.
It becomes tougher when
you want to delete a photo uploaded by someone else. In most cases, a
friendly removal request to the uploader should work. If not, open the
image, click options and select Remove/Report Tag. A pop-up box will
guide you.
Delete The Account
By
default, Facebook does not give you the option to delete your account
completely. Instead, you can deactivate your account by going to
Settings > Security. Deactivating the account hides you profile and
prevents people from find you. However, if you choose to join back, your
account will get reactivated when you login with the same username and
password as before. To completely delete your Facebook account, you need
to fill out an online form. Facebook gives you the option to download a
copy of your info to your computer before you do this. Login to your
Facebook account and open www. facebook.com/help/delete_account.
LinkedIn
Sign
in to Linkedin and from Account & Settings select Privacy &
Settings. Scroll down and click on the Account section — here, on the
right side, you will see the option to "Close your Account". Linkedin
will ask for a reason for the account closure request and once you
submit a reason your account will be removed. Keep in mind that once you
delete your Linkedin account, your entire profile, all your connections
and all recommendations will be removed. Linkedin advises that your
public profile which is visible via a search engine, might take a few
days to disappear.
Google
A
Google account not only offers access to Gmail but various other
services including maps, calendar, Google+, YouTube, Picasa and so on.
Your Google account is also intricately linked with your Android phone
(and it includes details of any apps you have purchased from the Play
Store — deleting an account means that any paid apps will be forfeited.
If you want to dowmload any of those paid apps again, you will have to
pay again).
If you want to remove your account
completely, head to your Google Account (http://accounts. google. com)
and click on Data Tools. On this page, in the Account management
section, you get option to delete just your Google+ profile, your entire
Google account and other associated services/products. You could also
choose to remove specific products. If you or someone else accidentally
deletes your account, Google allows you to restore everything for a
limited time (unspecified) after deletion.
Twitter
Your Tweets
If
you go to www. twitter.com and sign in (as opposed to third-party apps
or phones), you'll see a delete button near each tweet you send. If
you're using third-party apps, browser extensions or add-ons to tweet,
you may have to look for delete option. However, no matter where you
tweet from, the delete button on twitter.com will remain.
Delete The Account
Removing
a Twitter account is simple — head to www. twitter.com/settings/account
and sign-in to your account. Scroll to the bottom and click on
'Deactivate my Account'. On the page that opens, click on the Deactivate
button. Keep in mind that Twitter first disables your account for 30
days. If you login to your account within 30 days, the account will be
reactivated.
Search Engine Results
Tougher Than You Think
Removing
search results are tricky. Search engines only point to content from
various websites. This means that even if you manage to remove a search
result, the content on the website will still remain — searchable by
other search engines like GigaBlast or Volunia. Luckily, Google offers
several help pages and tips on how to remove unwanted search results,
photos and other personal information.
A
Google section called 'Manage your online reputation' will guide you. In
case of Bing, search for 'Bing Content Removal Tool' while Yahoo
provides an online form for the same. According to comScore, Google,
Yahoo and Microsoft remain the largest English search engines — so if
you successfully manage to remove content from these three, most of your
work is done.
Don't hesitate to directly
contact the search engines when you want to take down your copyright
content, if you find your financial information (like credit card
numbers) or content that personally defames you.
Justdelete.me
Apart
from the popular ones, you may have also registered with several other
websites over the years (for newsletters, online shopping or even to
post a comment). Head to www. justdelete.me to instantly find out how
hard it is to delete your account with them — green labels are the
easiest, red are hard and the black labelled websites have accounts that
cannot be deleted. One of the tools available on the site is a fake
identity generator — especially useful for random websites that require
all sorts of info like birthdate, address and user description.
Accountkiller.com
At
www. accountkiller.com, you can get to-the-point instructions on how to
remove your account and/or public profile from many popular websites,
blogs and networks. It's all listed alphabetically but you can also
search for the ones you want. In most cases, they also provide a direct
link that provides more info on account deletion or a simple 'Delete
Account' button. Everything is free and you don't need to sign up with
account killer either.
But You Cannot Delete
News Articles/Interviews
If
your name has been mentioned in a news article or in an interview on a
website/blog, it cannot be removed unless you have been quoted
incorrectly.
Comments
Reviews/comments
on a website's comment section cannot be deleted by you. You can
request the admin to remove them, but they are unlikely to comply
without a good reason.
Photographs
Photos
posted online by someone else (friends, family or colleagues) in which
you are visible, cannot be removed by you. You can 'un-tag' yourself in
certain cases though.
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