If on the Internet, by a “lucky” chance, your not the most successful photo or some compromising information turned out to be, it is almost impossible to remove it. But what someone has written about you is not always true. And what you personally wrote may lose relevance. To combat such information, Russian legislators. According to the draft law, any citizen will be able to send a request to the search engine operator to remove links with inaccurate (irrelevant) information. So far, the initiative has not yet acquired the status of a law that has entered into force. However, at the unofficial level, the struggle for the "cleansing" of unwanted information about a particular person has been going on for a long time and fiercely. Often the removal of photos, news or articles that do not suit a person is one of the main areas of work of numerous PR agencies with celebrities. AiF.ru decided to find out how popular people get rid of objectionable content now, and talked with a representative of a metropolitan PR agency. She is still working in this area, so at her request, we publish this interview on condition of anonymity of the source.
Stormy youth
Natalia Kozhina, AiF.ru: How often do you get contacted famous people and aspiring artists with a request to change their biography, delete information or photos “from the past”?
— From total number customers is about 15%. By the way, most often they turn to girls who, during their turbulent youth, starred in candid photo shoots or “hung out” somewhere, and now they have grown up, gained a new status, married serious people and realized that then they got a little excited.
— What is easier to delete - a photo or information about a person?
— It is easier to delete the text, sometimes it is enough to contact the support service of a particular portal, and the issue will be resolved. But from experience I can say that it is better not to contact the publications with a request to remove any pictures. Especially when it comes to the "yellow" press, which loves to delve into the "dirty linen". Yes, they can remove the photo, but by asking, you will give them a reason to find even more unflattering information about your client and make it public.
We worked with one young man who changed his name (he had several pseudonyms, now the third in a row). Naturally, our agency began posting creative and near-creative information about him. Some time later, an article about the artist was published in one “yellow” publication, in the comments one of the users wrote that this was not Ivan Ivanov at all (let's call our client that), but Pyotr Petrov, and attached his old photo. The publication immediately became interested in this “stuffing” and found out that now he is under a different surname, and in the past he was a gigolo (lived with a business woman older than him). We had to clean up this information, we turned to the publication that distributed it. They initially refused. But we promised them an exclusive (not related to this person, just from one of our star clients), only on these conditions they removed their article.
— When certain publications refuse you, do they somehow justify their refusal?
— Most of the time they just say "no". For example, there was a case when a relationship with a mistress was attributed to one of our clients. Of course, his wife did not like it. This information (which, by the way, had no confirmation) quickly spread not only on Moscow, but also on regional sites. We asked to be removed. Someone simply refused with the words: “If this is not true, then why should you worry?”. Others argued the refusal by the fact that indexing has already passed and everything will remain in the search engine. At the same time, a number of sites offered to replace this news with others, which we eventually did: during the week we bombarded the media with various news about the client so that all the details about the non-existent mistress went down in the search engines (to the last pages). It really helped. By the way, this is the fast way deleting text. At the same time, we specifically prescribed all the hash tags so that when searching for #mistressIvanIvanov, news about his concert or some other harmless information would appear. Now, in order to really find that news about the mistress, the average user will have to shovel a huge amount of material.
- How much news do you need to write, so that, for example, the news about your mistress goes to the last pages of a search engine?
— At least four. They should be different, and it's good if there is something to write about the artist. For example, when it comes to a singer who is touring, it's easy, but with actors it's more difficult. Usually they are all people with a fine mental organization and do not like any kind of news, most often they believe that they should not be written about much. You rarely find an actor who is ready to do PR in public, everyone wants the process to go naturally and people don’t think that there are PR people behind their idol. Although, in fact, everyone has assistants, agents, administrators who do all this.
"From dirt to Kings"
- What kind of cases do you not take on? For example, a porn actress comes to you who suddenly decided to become a modest singer, will you take one?
— Hardly. You have to really look at things. This will be very difficult to do. Especially if the name of this girl is on everyone's lips, as, for example, Lena Berkova and she has been in the industry for many years. Yes, you can promise a client an ideal reputation, but it will be a hoax. The only option when you can take on such a case is if a person really decided to change his life, radically change his habits, clothing style and behavior, then you can try, but it will take at least 5 years.
— Is such a period enough for people to “dull their memory”?
— Yes, but in this case, a person will need to do as many good deeds as possible. You can, for example, do charity work, organize a children's party or an event for people with disabilities, plant a forest, etc. It is important to form in people the idea that a person is changing, has left, as we say, from the “vicious path”, embarked on the right path.
We had a case when a client starred in candid photo shoots and hosted relevant programs in the early 90s. Initially, even changing her name did not help her much. But in the end, she wanted to change from the inside, changed the style of clothes, became completely different. Now, looking at her, we can safely say that she has grown up and moved from one status to another.
— Simple as that!
— Not really. A huge minus is that journalists remember everything and always. A former porn actress can marry a king and really change, but there will always be a journalist who will write an article about her life a few years ago. The past can be removed from the Internet, but it is impossible to remove it from the memory of people, especially from the memory of those who work in the media.
Issue price
How much do people pay for your services?
— Monthly maintenance, not only cleaning up information from the past, but in general - from 60 to 90 thousand rubles. If we are dealing with a very difficult case, then the amount starts from 90 thousand rubles per month. But we must understand that nothing happens immediately. It takes a year for the shift to start. After three months, some small results are visible, in the next six months there is a small “exhaust”, and after a year the result is visible and you can understand whether it is worth continuing to work together.
— Can a common person to remove objectionable information from the Internet on his own?
— No, a person from the street is unlikely to have such skills. You need to clearly know where to remove information from, different search engines give out certain data in different ways. What Yandex will give out will not always be given out by Google, and vice versa. It is important to know why this or that information comes up about you, and this does not always lie on the surface. There are even specialized agencies that remove everything on the Internet that defames your biography, but they are shady, they are treated like a detective or a psychologist - on confidentiality terms.
— What do you think of the "right to be forgotten"?
— I agree that the law should be adopted, but with amendments. For example, if a person wants to remove some photos from their past life, then why not, but there is no need to hide information that should be conveyed to the public (for example, a person was convicted of murder or theft, and now wants to become a deputy). And you also need to be aware that if this bill appears, then it will be much easier to make an angel out of a porn actress.
Today, the Internet has become so firmly established in the life of every inhabitant that information about any person on the World Wide Web can be found even without the use of special hacker tools. Even modern mobile systems require user registration linked to email to work (without this, they simply do not function).
Many of us quite recklessly leave our personal data or contact phone numbers in services that require access solely using such a registration. And now the moment is coming when people begin to think about how to remove personal information from the Internet, and preferably completely. Alas, by and large, it is almost impossible to perform such operations in full.
Can information be removed from the Internet?
The complete elimination of personal data is a very difficult task. First of all, this is due to the fact that any attempt to delete some pages on social networks, registrations of email boxes and the like, this does not lead to anything.
The resource owners themselves seem to delete the links to such pages, but this can rather be called hiding them from viewing by other users. In most cases, information does not disappear from the site owner's server, despite all the statements that it will be completely erased.
This is understandable, because government agencies or various kinds of security services can request it at any time. Moreover, dossiers on any citizen in all countries are now entered into special electronic registers and databases that ordinary users are unlikely to be able to hack.
So it turns out that, no matter how hard you try, deleting information about yourself on the Internet looks simply unrealistic. But there are some methods that can be used for the simplest cases. This will help when it is not about interference in the work of state structures. This liquidation is for the most part, with cases where the user himself places his own data.
How to delete information about yourself on the Internet: the simplest technique
To begin with, let's look at the simplest examples and solutions that will not allow you to completely delete personal data, but they will still help get rid of something. For example, it is quite elementary to log into the created account of some Internet service and delete or change, say, the date of birth, last name and first name, phone number (if it is not required to confirm transactions), etc. Of course, if we are talking about we are talking about banking operations, nothing will work here, because you have to prove to the bank that your number has really changed. And without such a link, a payment or credit card will be blocked.
Deleting registered accounts manually
But let's get back to the most popular communication platforms today - social networks.
The above technique for deleting or correcting your personal data is sometimes just perfect.
In addition, almost all resources of this type allow you to delete user pages along with accounts. True, the waiting time for deletion after confirmation by the registered user can vary quite widely.
Despite the fact that after this time, access to the account will be blocked, and other users, even through the search, will not be able to find right person, this does not mean that your information has been removed from the owner's server. However, for most users who have no connection to crime or terrorism, this will be enough. But in search engines, a link to a deleted page may remain.
Complete deletion of information in social networks
If we talk about how to delete information about yourself on the Internet, regarding specifically social networks, then today you can find a lot of specialized services.
According to many users, one of the most interesting and popular is the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine Internet resource. Turning to it, you can remove both data and pages ever posted on the most popular social networks, quickly enough.
Many call this process "virtual suicide". To remove personal information from the Internet, it is enough to log into your registered account using your login and password, after selecting the network for which you want to delete the registration, and start the process itself.
After that, it remains only to watch how all personal data, friends, photos, comments, links, etc. are deleted. According to eyewitnesses, the complete removal of a user's page with a thousand friends from the Facebook social network takes just over fifty minutes. When performing similar actions in manual mode, it will take about nine hours.
Special Services
Now let's see how to delete information about yourself on the Internet using the services of other directions. Take, for example, the growing popularity of Reputation.com. This service does not delete data, however, it reduces the likelihood of displaying negative information about a user or even a company by hiding it in search engines and promoting positive reviews. True, for such services, as the reviews testify, you will have to pay.
The Delete Me and Remove Your Name services look interesting, but they are also paid. The first one costs $129 per year (8600 rubles) per user, the second one has minimum size payment of $1,000/67,000 rubles).
Speaking about how to delete information about yourself on the Internet, some experts advise turning to Google tools. Suitable, for example, is the Me On The Web service, which helps track the moments of “emergence” of user information such as an email address or number mobile phone in the Internet. After detection, you can get rid of both the saved pages and their copies.
What is the result?
Of course, these are not all methods. However, even looking at them, you can absolutely understand that in full, whether you like it or not, you will not be able to delete your personal data. Still, at least something, but remains. Especially when it comes to government or banking structures, mobile devices, etc. So, we are all, as they say, hanging on the hook.
We are engaged in reputation management and negative removal. But not everyone has the opportunity to contact someone for a fee. Therefore, we will figure out how to do it yourself, even if only partially.
Search engines
First of all, it should be borne in mind that search engines take information from social networks, and not just from sites and forums. Therefore, you will not be able to remove the issue in the search engine if all the information is publicly available on the social network.
A search engine is not an organism that accumulates everything in itself. Think of search engines as a kind of mechanism, an aggregator. He will have nothing to give out if the information is not in the public domain.
What can be done in this case:
- If you just want irrelevant information in Google search results changed for the current one, click here.
- If you want from Google search results removed the image, follow this link.
- Implementation of the "right to be forgotten" in Google. Fill out this form if you want to remove information about yourself in the search engine.
- The right to be forgotten in Rambler. And let them use Yandex technologies, .
- You have the right to request that links be removed from the Mail results. To do this, fill out the form.
- If you need to remove information from Bing search results, please follow this link.
We will analyze Yandex separately in another article.
How to delete information about yourself on the Internet: databases
There are many such databases. Here is some of them:
Such databases are designed to help find people that others may have lost. But there will always be someone who uses the good for the wrong purposes.
On the same Pipl, the output looks like this:
This is a common example, so the initials are taken as such. By the way, the site includes links to all sites, blogs, pages in social networks. We did not attach a screen with this.
You can try to find yourself. So, to test the service.
Helper Services
Not everyone is good at surfing the internet. Not everyone knows how to delete information about themselves on the Internet. The creators of the following applications and sites understand this, why they created their offspring.
If the article turned out to be interesting for you, so as not to miss the following.
Remember that awkward feeling when you know that your potential employer is "checking" you on the Internet. Or when you restrain yourself so as not to leave some sharp comment - God forbid, your missus will see it. The Internet knows almost everything about each of us. This fact is annoying, isn't it? Fortunately, removing yourself from the Web completely is not that difficult. Here's how to do it.
For well-known public figures, it is, of course, impossible to disappear from the Web. But for the average person, it is very easy to commit web suicide. It all depends on how much information about you is already on the Internet.
Step 1: Deleting Your Social Media Accounts
The first thing that will be bombarded is the results of a search for your last name or nickname in a search engine. As a rule, these are accounts on Facebook, Vkontakte, Twitter, Youtube, Google+, and wherever you use your real name. Delete your profiles:
How to get out of Facebook?
Step 2: Remove yourself from search engines
Once you get rid of social media profiles, their content will continue to "float" on the Internet. Photos, notes, resumes. First of all, you need to find out where your information is shown online. Any search engine will help you with this. The only way to remove your data from these sites is to contact the resource directly and ask them to erase any information about you, or at least your name.
After that you can refer to search engines with a request to remove the edited pages or index them again. For example, Google has special services that will help you remove the content of a site or image from Google search results.
It's not certain it will work. But it's worth a try. Your chances increase if a post infringes your copyright or a page displays sensitive information about you. If you can’t completely remove yourself from search engines, then you should try to destroy all your personal data from profiles as much as possible. So, apart from your name, Internet detectives will get nothing else.
Step 3: Getting Rid of the Loop of Public Life
In addition to social networks, there are so-called databases of people. For example, try to "punch" yourself or your neighbor through some of them: , here or . You will most likely be a bit (to put it mildly) surprised at the amount of information these databases provide.
You can delete all information about yourself for money ($99), or you can try to do the same yourself. And contact search engines like those mentioned above, or various social media and media monitoring systems, will help you with this.
By completing the third step, you will get rid of everything that may appear in the search results. But this will not remove absolutely all of your data from the Web from everywhere. As long as your address or phone number is registered somewhere, people will be able to find you.
Step 4: Removing nicknames associated with email
If you try hard, then by e-mail you can get to your nicknames and pseudonyms that you used on different sites, blogs, forums. And this thread can already lead to your real name. The process of deleting this information depends on the sites where you have registered.
Ideally, if you manage to remove your main email from them. You should at least try to change the username. If we are talking about forums, ask the moderators to remove posts that can somehow identify you. Come up with new nicknames for each site.
Step 5: Maintaining Your Anonymity
From now on, you must always ensure that your personal data is not leaked onto the Web. No social networks with a real name, and periodic monitoring of sites to make sure none new information about you there does not appear. You will have to create accounts for a non-existent person, as well as an email box specifically for working on the Internet. In order not to suffer with the selection of fictional characters, you can use the name generator.
But even after doing all the above machinations, with a strong desire, information about you can still be found on the Internet. However, this will be much more difficult to do. At the very least, you will protect yourself from amateur detectives and increase the level of confidentiality of your personal data.
