How to Remove Your Personal Information from Google and Internet

[snagglepuss]

If you or anyone you know needs to remove personal information from google or online sites, check out the link below. In fact I never thought it was even possible to remove a name that came up in a google search but I found out that it can be done and its straightforward.

I needed this done ASAP because someone sent an email with my full name to a website, which I never heard of nor want to be associated with, and the site posted the email, my name and all. The issue is that my surname is unusal so when friends and associates have googled my name they conclude I wrote the email. Not a good thing.
Of course, someone else by some strange stroke of fate has the same first and last name but because the post doesn't mention an address or city people assume it's my email.

When I contacted the site's webmaster he was only willing to remove part of my surname. I thought that be ok but to my dismay when my name is googled, my full name still appears under the link to the site.

Anyway thanks to the article at Squidoo, I found out that Google has what's called an URL removal tool, once submitted Google will expedite a crawl of the site to capture the edited name. It's not a complete solution because I believe the web site in question will still come up when my name is searched, but only my first name, which fairly common, and last initial will appear. I am just hoping that without my full name the website won't be the first item that is pulled up by a search.





http://www.squidoo.com/personalInformation#module81859611

[undeterred]

1. thanks for posting this

:hi:

[snagglepuss]

2. Your welcome.. Someone put a lot of time and effort into the article.

It's a great resource.

[EFerrari]

3. There's a lady in TX who is a PETA activist

and we have the same first and last name. I always wondered if our FBI files are the same file!

lol

[NC_Nurse]

4. K&R. Thanks.

[Motown_Johnny]

5. thanks for posting this but it seems I am one who does not need it

I just goggled my own name (for the first time) and found someone with the exact same name as mine, born in the same city just 40 days earlier than I was, who has gained some small measure of celebrity.


I can't find "me" because of "him"


I doubt anyone else can either.

[snagglepuss]

6. How lucky is that? Keep tabs on him to make sure he stays on the

straight and narrow:)

[Warpy]

7. Thanks, I had a stalker so I've been unlisted and unpublished

for a very long time. I've put my number into Google and come up with a bunch of listings for tattoo parlors, which is just how I like it. I'm not there, so kudos to Qwest.

More concerning are some of those damned "people search" web places. I'm on a lot of them, only with multiple addresses and with the wrong age pretty consistently (they flatter me). I would love a way to get a cease and desist on those places.

It's either that or I'll have to go back to moving every few months.

Stalkers SUCK.

[msanthrope]

8. Bookmarked!!! Thank you!!! n/t

[phasma ex machina]

9. +1 K&R

[hyphenate]

10. Glad to see there is a way

of getting unlisted!

I've sort of had a different experience--I've been "out there" for about 20 years, some of it very publicly when I was running SF conventions and such, and I've never been bothered. My name, address and phone number are listed on several of my domains, and I was openly involved with some fandom causes through the years.

I've rarely had any problems, but I know my experiences aren't necessarily the norm. It's also hard to google my DU screenname, as it's such a common word!

[democracy1st]

11. K & R

[Go2Peace]

12. In Europe you have privacy rights. It is better we place regulation on these industries

[amborin]

13. good to know!

[BlueIris]

14. Thanks. nt

[Scurrilous]

15. Thanks.

:thumbsup:

[BlueIris]

16. Kick. Very important. nt

[Mz Pip]

17. I googled my name

just to see what would come up. Nothing I'd be worried about, actually I'm glad that my art stuff even shows up on a Google search.

Now if I Google my DU user name - that's another story. But I have made an effort to never post anything that I would be embarrassed about anyone reading.

Maybe that's how I've lasted 9 years on DU without getting tombstoned...