Don't sit around saying "it'll never happen to me" while your personal data is traded around the internet and becomes an increasing threat to your privacy, security, and finances. Delete it today.

Data collection has become the norm in today's internet-connected culture. People have become so desensitized to it that they haphazardly click yes on every permission prompt just to get to the part where they start using an app.

There are hoards of data being traded around the web, intentionally given or not, and it is up to each user to manage their data footprint. The longer you're online, the harder that gets, as data is created, collected, and distributed with each click.

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One recent phenomenon has created a treasure trove of user data — artificial intelligence. Users unaware of the potential data leak vectors and risks sharing private details have uploaded everything from bank statements to medical records, only to have them leak online through shoddy sharing systems.

As long as you're an internet user, there's no escaping the threat of having too much data, too big a footprint, without some active triage. First, slowing or stopping the flood of personal data can help reduce the attack surface for bad actors, but second, and just as important, users need to delete what's already out there.

Reduce your digital footprint

It doesn't do much good to clean up a spill if you haven't plugged the hole that created the mess in the first place. While users can't stop companies and bad actors from collecting and trading user data, they can minimize how much they share.

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Much of what you do online contributes to data collection. Image source: Incogni

As an Apple user, you're better off than most since the devices work to protect user privacy by default. For example, Safari provides users with a privacy report to showcase how many websites the user visits that contain trackers and how many trackers were stopped from profiling them.

When creating a new account for a website or service, Apple devices like an iPhone, iPad, or Mac will automatically suggest using an obfuscated email via Hide My Email. That way, the website can still contact the user, and if the user's email is exposed in a breach or sold to an ad firm, no one can connect it back to the original user.

Apple's Passwords app then suggests a randomly generated password. Or, for some sites, users can log in via a Passkey that's locked to a device's biometric authentication.

Using these systems when creating a new account can help prevent cross-site tracking. Plus, in the event of a data breach, the user name and password would be unique to that website and can't be used to log into other accounts, like a bank.

There are many other privacy-preserving tools in the Apple ecosystem as well. Your devices will ask before sharing your location, contacts, photos, and more with any app.

Of course, none of these tools work if the user clicks "Always Allow" every time. It is up to the user to understand their device and what these systems do to protect their privacy and security, and to use them.

By simply taking advantage of what Apple's products do out of the box, it's easy to reduce how much personal data is spread across the internet. All it takes is a little thought and proactive action.

Remove personal data from the internet

After you've stemmed the flood of personal info and built up some practices to increase data security, it's time to attack the problem at its source. Data brokers, people search sites, search engines, and bad actors all thrive thanks to the massive amounts of personal data available on the web.

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Don't try to do everything alone. Incogni can help. Image source: Incogni

Normally, it would be up to the user to go to each of the hundreds of websites and put in data removal requests. This is a time-consuming process that can lead to a lot of dead ends, ignored requests, and endless frustration.

Thankfully, there's a business that exists solely for the purpose of helping users remove personal data from the internet. Incogni has an automated system that helps users get their data taken down from hundreds of sources, and the user doesn't have to lift a finger.

Once a user signs up for Incogni, they get to work right away on searching for the user's data across the web. Their database of over 270 data brokers gives them a wide reach and makes getting data removed much easier.

When the automated system detects that the data broker, website, or other entity has the user's data, a data takedown request is generated. If a data broker responds, Incogni handles the requests and keeps submitting takedown forms until the data is removed.

The Standard Plan gets users access to the automated data removal functionality. A Custom Removal feature is available via the Unlimited Plan, which also includes 100 additional people search sites and 170 private databases.

Everything is managed and tracked via the Incogni dashboard. It shows where requests have been sent and which have been fulfilled.

How Incogni removes personal information from the internet

Now that you've strengthened your internet defenses with some proper data hygiene and you've called on Incogni to delete what's already out there, you're much safer than before. With these systems in place, you have a much smaller chance of identity theft, fraud, or harassment.

Here's how the process works:

  1. Sign up for an Incogni account and provide permission for the company to act on your behalf.
  2. Incogni scans people search and data broker sites for your data.
  3. Removal requests are sent, then re-sent until something is done.
  4. Repeated scans prevent websites from re-adding data about you.
  5. Lists of data brokers, people search sites, and more are updated regularly so Incogni can stay on top of things.
  6. If a data broker appeals a removal request, Incogni handles the appeal for you.

The Unlimited Plan gives users the ability to request data removal from websites they discover. However, there are some places that data removal requests won't work.

Since Incogni is having data removed using a legal data takedown request, it won't work in some instances. For example, free speech-covered entities, government websites, social media, blogs, and public records can't be touched.

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Get your data removed from websites and keep it gone. Image source: Incogni

Incogni can get your data off of a data broker website that will sell your information to a call center that specializes in spam. It cannot remove a criminal record or public news report.

That said, there are hundreds of websites that Incogni can get information taken down from. Users can find out just how much of their data is out there by performing a simple Google search, where listings for records, addresses, and more might appear.

Don't wait until something goes wrong due to how much of your information is out there. Start practicing proper internet hygiene and hire Incogni to reduce or eliminate your overall threat model.

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