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How to Remove Your Name from Search Engines – 2024 Detailed Guide

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Having your personal information exposed to the public can be pretty jarring. If any sort of information falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to compromises in privacy, a stolen identity, and fraud. In this situation, you’ll have an urgent need to delete your information on search engines. In this comprehensive guide, we’ve got you covered!

Before going any further, one thing you should know is that it is not the search engine that publishes your name and other details, but specific websites that include social media sites, third-party websites and blogs, data-broker websites, and old newspaper archives. So you need to go straight to the source. Below are the steps you can take.

1. Check which sites have your name

First, you need to know which websites have your name. What you have to do is enter your name into the search box. And be sure to put quotation marks around it to narrow down your searches. Then hit Enter and scroll through the pages of results.

And it’s worth noting that each search engine uses different algorithms and produces slightly different results. Therefore, it’s better you perform searches on yourself using a variety of different search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and Yandex.

When searching for your name, bookmark the pages that list your information. Once you’ve found out where you’re visible, determine whether your personally identifiable information (PII) or any doxxing content shows up. If that’s your case, don’t fret! Google allows you to request to remove it from Google Search results. Below is how you can do this.

Start removal request

If your name is posted online in a malicious, threatening, or exploitative way, you can request to remove it from appearing in Google Search Engine Results. Simply go to Google’s Content Removal Request page. Then follow the on-screen instructions to send your request.

However, even though Google delists it from showing up in search results, the content holding your information hasn’t been removed permanently. And it might end up appearing on other search engines. So you’ll need to contact the website owner to remove your information.

Tip 2: How to contact the website owner to delete your name

To find the contact info of a website, look for the Contact section, which is usually found in the navigation bar that’s located on the top or in the footer of the homepage. And the screenshot shown below is the Contact section of the domain supereasy.com.

However, there are always some exceptions. It’s that you cannot find it on the website. In such a case, you should perform a Whois domain lookup, which allows you to trace the ownership and tenure of a domain name.

Take the domain supereasy.com as an example, after you perform a lookup, you’ll be able to get access to details such as the registration date of the domain name, when it expires, ownership and contact information, nameserver information of the domain, the registrar via which the domain was purchased, etc. See the screenshots attached below.

If you’re unable to reach the website owner, try to contact the site’s hosting company.

Tip 3: How to remove yourself from data broker sites

When searching for your name on the Internet, you may come across some sites that are unfamiliar to you. These are usually people search sites and background check websites like whitepages.com, and mylife.com.

These sites aggregate your personal information from a variety of sources. Once your information is stored in their database, people can access it either for free or by subscribing to their services. That’s creepy, right? You definitely should take it seriously.

To remove yourself from these sites, you can do it manually by going to each of their opt-out pages and following the on-screen instructions to submit your requests.

Note that this can be a tedious and time-consuming task. And removing your name and other details from these sites is a non-stop and you won’t be able to scrub it from every last nook and cranny. There’s a high chance that your name, phone number, address and other details would appear on these sites on an irregular basis.

If you’re not comfortable doing this opt-out work all on your own and you want to stay informed, you can sign up for a privacy protection service like DeleteMe that specializes in removing your information from the Internet. They handle all opt-out requests for you.

How does DeleteMe work

  • Step 1
    Visit the free scan page, enter your name and location.
  • Step 2
    The scan tool is now searching for your personal information found on different data broker sites.
  • Step 3
    Here you’ll see what info each data broker has on you.
  • Step 4
    To opt out of all data brokers at once, join DeleteMe and the rest is a breeze. Besides, your info is removed all year long.

2. Make your profiles private

Another scenario is that your social media profiles are set to public, which will be indexed by search engines and thus making it more likely to show up on the search pages. To prevent your social media accounts from leaking your name to search engines again, you should set them to private. Below we’ll walk you through the steps to make your Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter profiles private (Web version).

Instagram

1) In the bottom left, click onMore. Then click Settings.

2) Click Privacy and Security.

3) Below Account Privacy, click to check the box next to Private Account.

Keep in mind that business profiles can’t be set to private.

Facebook

1) Click on your profile. Select Settings & privacy. Then click Settings.

2) From the left navigation bar, click Privacy. Find the Your Activity section. Next to Who can see your future posts, make sure it isn’t set to Public. If yours is, click on Edit.

Then you can click on the down arrow icon and select an option of your preference except Public.

Now scroll down to the How people find and contact you section, and make sure you set No for Do you want to search engines outside of Facebook to link to your profile?.

Twitter

1) From the left navigation bar, select More

2) Click Settings and Support. Then select Settings and privacy from the drop-down.

3) Select Privacy and safety. Then click Audience and tagging.

4) Check the box next to Protect your Tweets.

5) Select Protect when prompted.

3. Delete all your old, unused accounts

Setting your existing social media accounts to private is one effective way to prevent your data from being exposed to the public. However, there’s a possibility that you have some profiles that you no longer use.

Although you won’t upload any files or post on these platforms, the existence of your accounts poses a risk of leaking your information that’s indexed by search engines. To have peace of mind, you need to delete them, whether they’re popular forums, message boards, or online communities.

Final thoughts

Although the tips in this guide can help you remove your name from search engines and probably delete the content from the websites that list your information, someone can still go to Internet Archive (the Wayback Machine) and view a past version of the page.

You read me right: Once public, forever public. So you should stay vigilant when you’re asked to give out personal information. However, there’s no shortcut to steering clear of data breaches.

What you can do to protect yourself as possible is to stay informed without getting overwhelmed. And running a free scan on Aura to check if your information has been exposed especially the dark web, can enable you to be well-prepared. Besides, it’s an all-in-one digital safety for the whole family, protecting your identity, finances, and sensitive data.

Has your personal data been exposed?

Data breaches pose a risk of identity theft. Use Aura‘s scan tool to check if your information has been exposed in data breaches or on the Dark Web.

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By Sammi Liu

Greetings! I'm Sammi, and my journey as a content writer began right after graduation. While my initial academic focus was in Public Finance, I later pursued a major in English Literature. This diverse educational background has equipped me with a unique skill set that combines analytical thinking with a passion for creative expression.

My career path has led me to become a proficient content writer with a keen eye for research. Intensive training in Microsoft Office, coupled with a natural curiosity, has allowed me to incorporate design principles and advanced internet search techniques into my work seamlessly.

What truly sets me apart is my knack for research. I've dedicated time to mastering advanced internet search techniques, inspired by countless articles and video tutorials on the subject. This has transformed me into a seasoned researcher, skilled at uncovering reliable and valuable information.

In addition to my professional pursuits, I'm a tech enthusiast who stays current with the latest trends through YouTube. Listening to podcasts of various genres has been a hobby of mine, especially in every morning. I balance my professional life with an active one, enjoying badminton, table tennis, tennis, and yoga. On weekends, you'll find me lost in the pages of books in the local library or soaking in the beauty of nature on bike rides. I'm also passionate about culinary arts, frequently experimenting with recipes and crafting delightful beverages like smoothies.

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