Tips for Protecting Your Reputation Online

How much is someone’s privacy worth? In some cases, it is literally worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The New York Times reported in February 2018 that a woman in New Hampshire had won a $560 million Powerball jackpot. However, lottery officials would not give her the money because she wished to keep her identity anonymous.

That might seem excessively cautious at first, but consider this: Even without giving her name away, the woman—known only as “Jane Doe”—got flooded with offers from people saying they would claim the winnings on her behalf (for a price, of course). Imagine how many vultures and nuts would come out if her name were made public!

From unwanted marketing messages to identity thieves, average citizens face their own struggles regarding personal information on the internet. Here are some ways that people can protect their privacy and good names online, including listing removal from Whitepages and other sites.

Remove Personal Info from Websites

Go online and search your name. You might be surprised where you find your information.

How does your info end up on these different websites? One big reason is data brokers. These are companies that collect information on people and sell it to others. They can get this information in a variety of ways, including the following:

• Public records
• Forms that you fill out online
• Websites that you visit

Big data sites include Intelius, MyLife and PeopleFinder. These sites have their own set of steps for removing someone’s personal information, each of which can vary in difficulty. On top of that, you could have info removed only to have it pop back up a few months down the road.

Granted, preserving someone’s privacy can be worth all that work. There are also companies and services that can help you remove personal information from Google and data sites.

Be Cagey With Your Info

In a perfect world, you would not need to think twice about filling out a form online or fleshing out your Facebook profile. Sadly, this is not a perfect world. Therefore, you should be wary of information that you post or submit online. For example, you could set up a separate email account exclusively for signing up for services or shopping. Also, do not list details like your personal email and phone number on your Facebook profile.

DeleteMe helps people take control of their online presence and privacy. With this service, clients can have their information removed from data sites on an ongoing basis.

About DeleteMe

DeleteMe by Abine is a hands-free subscription service that helps clients with information removal from Whitepages and other websites. It gives average people the ability to protect their digital privacy.

For more information, visit www.joindeleteme.com.