digital cleanup

We live in a digital age and many people simply don’t consider the ramifications of that. The truth is once you put something out there, it remains there forever unless you go through the actions and steps to rectify it. 

Whether you’re posting on social media or making purchases online, you’ve created a footprint out there. The challenge to this footprint is protecting your privacy as well as your security. 

That’s why we’ve put together 7 essential tools to help you clean up your digital footprint. 

1. Social Media Cleanup

There are some awesome tools out there that will actually look for and delete your data for you specifically related to social media. Whether you want to erase all your old tweets and likes or you want cleanup likes, reactions, and followings on other social media profiles, it’s a great choice. 

These cleanup tools review your social media with you to determine what you want to retain or remove. They scour your profiles, make recommendations, and let you delete even old things that might make your personal data at risk. From deleting posts to simply limited third party exposure, this helps you reduce and eliminate exposure you don’t want. 

2. Private Search Engines

If you want to be proactive about retaining your privacy, it may be time to consider search engines that are focused on privacy. Solutions such as DuckDuckGo give you a secure browser that masks who you are in an attempt to protect your privacy for everyday searches. 

These companies also often have other services available to you all about privacy, but the big benefit is that when you use the search engine, you won’t suddenly be bombarded by endless targeted ads that relate to the search you just made a few minutes ago. You browse the web and you don’t leave behind those bread crumbs that are connected to your identity or profile. 

3. Password Managers

It seems like every day we hear of yet another big company that has experienced a data breach. It’s pretty common anymore that if you have ever purchased or used a company than likely your data and passwords were breached and can be at risk. 

The best way to combat this is to use a secure password manager. You should routinely change your passwords, but you can also protect them on your digital footprint to help ensure your unique and complex passwords are stored and protected securely. 

4. Use VPN Encryption 

A VPN is a great way to mask your IP address and create anonymity when you are online. Let’s be clear here. With cookies and tracking data on pretty much every website and application, your every move is made available to them. However, when you use a VPN, it instead blocks this external tracking. The protection keeps all of the websites you visit from tracking your activity. However, it also goes one step further to ensure you are more secure from hackers and other issues too. 

5. Data Removal Services

Data removal services are very similar to social media, but on a larger scale. These removal services look at more than just social media, but it’s the same concept. Where data brokers gather things like public records and any exposed personal information you might have, this helps to clean up that footprint. 

Data removal services will seek out this data, show you vulnerabilities, and then remove what you want to have removed. 

6. Ad and Tracker Blocking

Try using systems that are designed to block trackers and online ads as well. You know when you click on a website and it forces you to accept cookies. These are ultimately trackers. You also may be tracked by websites and applications and you don’t realize it. These trackers typically look at your browsing habits so they can send you targeted ads. 

When you use the blocker systems, they block invasive trackers, ads, and scripts to protect your privacy and reduce exposure. 

7. Email Privacy Protection

Finally, you should consider email privacy tools. These tools can protect your privacy going forward so they’re great to pair with a data cleanup service. We use email for everything in our lives and that information being seen by third parties inhibits our privacy. 

Managing and minimizing your digital footprint forces you to be aware of the risks while also taking steps to safeguard your data. You can use many of these tools together to clean up data already out there as well as to protect you going forward.