How To Erase Your Digital Footprint And Lose Data Miners
Privacy on the web is a joke, thanks to the thousands of software government agencies and tech companies use to mine your data — like your location, app interactions, pages you visit, when you visit them, and even what you say and type.
The only true way to avoid these sleuths is to stay completely off the internet. However, in an age of instant messaging, virtual meetings, and remote work, doing so is difficult and would inevitably mean ostracizing yourself from society. What you can do, however, is become a digital ninja. Without mincing words, you cannot stop companies and governments from casting their nets and harvesting data generally. After all, even the most basic phone apps collect data. But, becoming a digital ninja will minimize the amount of your data that is available for mining and even dissociate your identity from the data they mine.
The first step to covering your digital footprint is using a burner phone, account, or phone number. But this will not do if your work, hobby, or social life largely involves going online — that is, using a smartphone. While it is very hard to maintain anonymity on smartphones, it is possible. For one, the accounts you create on the smartphone should use a pseudonym, and you can use temporary, anonymous numbers for activities that require you to send or receive an SMS.
In the end, the point of using a burner is so that trackers find it very hard to associate your real name with the device. One caution: don’t use your burner phone and accounts for illegal activities, especially catfishing, as this will expose you to legal liabilities. Without a doubt, you don’t want to have a criminal record because you’re trying to prevent companies from mining your data.
While using a burner phone and accounts cover your digital footprint, you will need to clean the existing slate. This involves deleting the existing data that have been collected about you or contacting data brokers to remove your information from their databases. Software companies don’t make finding and deleting your data easy, but you can delete it at any time. On the other hand, the best way to remove your existing data from the custody of these companies and their data brokers is to use a data removal service, e.g., DeleteRecords.
Why? Because there are several hundreds of companies and data brokers, and each has its own opt-out instructions (for example, Full Name Directory or Social Catfish). Considering how many data brokers there are, it’ll take you so much time, going back and forth with their data compliance departments, to remove your data. Also, data brokers are known for collecting your data again, no sooner than they claim to have removed it. After all, their business model is dependent on how much data they have to sell.
Another way to lose data miners while on the web is using the incognito browsing mode on your device and only connecting to the internet with a VPN. Yes, browsing incognito is inconvenient because you’ll have to input your login details on several websites you visit. However, you can avoid this inconvenience by using a password manager that stores and automatically fill in your details on websites you visit. A password manager lets you use a master password; so, you don’t have to remember all the passwords for the sites you visit. One password to rule them all.
Now that you have cleaned your slate — or at least covered your digital footprint — and discovered the ease of using a password manager, it is time to make yourself a ghost to email trackers. Emails were not designed to be secure, which makes them easy to spam and intercept. So, use secure email services, such as Lavabit and PreVeil.
Ultimately, the only true way to become a digital ninja is to stay offline and avoid devices that connect to the internet. However, most people cannot afford to do this because their businesses, jobs, and social lives depend on using various software and apps online. What you can do, however, is throw aggressive data miners off your trail.