As the great proverb of the digital era goes: “Once it’s on the internet, it’s there forever”. But is it?
In an age where every click can be scraped, sold and stored, and your passwords are as good as gold to data brokers, disappearing from the internet might sound impossible—but it’s not.
This week on The Briefing, the team explore privacy concerns users can encounter on digital platforms and how easily data brokers buy and sell your information.
After falling down the rabbit hole that was her Google Password manager, Melbourne-based podcast producer Lindsey Green began the daunting feat of erasing her digital footprint.
“There are still so many places that my data still exists online that you could spend the rest of your life trying to delete yourself from them,” Lindsay said.
“I don’t even have the full confidence that the places that I did attempt to delete myself from were fully deleted.”
CEO of US-based privacy company Delete Me, Robert Shavell said that users’ desires to go “off the grid” go well beyond a frustration with robocalls and spam emails.
A lack of regulations safeguarding individuals’ online security has left users’ personal information vulnerable to data brokers, traders who make their profit by collecting and selling users’ personal information to businesses.
“These profiles can be purchased for as little as a dollar,” Shavell said.
“They can find not just addresses and phone numbers, but spouse’s names, dates of birth, ages, children’s names, vehicle data.”
Delete Me uses privacy experts and web queries to essentially wipe someone off the face of the internet.
Delete Me also publishes DIY opt-out guides for users, providing the tools needed to protect your online privacy and reclaim control over your digital footprint.
Have you ever tried to delete yourself from the internet?
By Ashleigh Wyss, a Master of Journalism student at the University of Melbourne.
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