How to Delete Yourself From the Internet

Every day, it seems there’s a new hack or data breach that makes modern computer users wonder if being online is really worth it.

Let’s face it: Completely removing yourself from the internet is not an option for most of us. Your friends may use Evite for party invitations, your book club might choose its next selection on Facebook, or your sister in Schenectady sends photos of her new baby via email. And — oh, yeah — there’s that pesky matter of a job, which might require you to use email, Slack, Facebook, Twitter, Google Docs, Dropbox or any number of other programs.

But in case you’re dreaming of retiring to a deserted island and you can convince Sis to print out and snail-mail all those baby photos, here are some tips for reducing your internet presence — at least the annoying parts.



Sure, at one point you really needed to register with that wedding-photo site to upload your blurry pics of Cousin Charlotte’s Chicago nuptials. But Charlotte’s now long-divorced and she even broke the juicer you gave her, so forget that site. Deseat.me is a web app that scans for all the accounts and services for which you’ve ever created an account, and presents you with a list of them. You can mosey through the list and delete the ones you no longer want in your life — and keep the ones you do.

Note: If you’re deleting accounts at places where you’ve shared information you still want — like a photo-sharing site — make sure you’ve downloaded those images and saved or printed them first.



Try an experiment: Go to Google and search for your next-door neighbor’s name, and attach the words “address” “phone number” and the city you (and they) live in. So something like: “Charlie Brown address phone number Peanutsville.” Try it for yourself. Your high-school flame. Try your grandma’s name. Try it for the least internet-savvy person you know. We’re betting that for at least a few of those names, if you scroll down a bit in the search results, you’ll get some fairly accurate info. (Don’t give in to the temptation to call the old flame — that never ends well.)

You’re likely seeing the name/phone/address info in sites like Spokeo and ZabaSearch. While these sites might seem innocently useful if you’re prepping a holiday-card mailing list, you may not want that info out there, especially if you’re on a delete-me-from-the-net quest. If you have a lot of time, you can painstakingly search through each site where you find your info and follow their get-me-offa-here instructions. Or you can pay for someone else to perform that service. The New York Times has written about DeleteMe, a service from a company called Albine, that will fill out removal forms for you.



You may only really be interested in removing yourself from some of the biggest internet time-sucks. You know who the big four are: Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and LinkedIn. Make sure you are absolutely certain before you say bye-bye, because rebuilding your presence on any one of them could take time if you change your mind.

If Facebook is chewing up too much of your life, you might try removing the mobile app, if you use it, or allowing yourself only an hour every other day or so to check in. But if you do decide to deactivate Facebook, log in and click on the down arrow in the upper right corner of the site. Select Settings, then General, then Manage Account and follow the instructions to deactivate your account. There’s a step beyond deactivating — and that’s full deletion. Facebook has a special page for that, and it’s here.

If you’ve decided you’re spending too much money at Amazon, first wait until any orders you have outstanding are delivered (or cancel those orders, if they’re not already in progress). Download and save any Kindle content you want protected, if you’re a Kindle reader. Now, if you just don’t want Amazon to have access to your money any more, you can simply remove