Suggestions for "sanitizing" an online presence.

[Aglifter]

As the title indicates, suggestions welcome.

[PawPaw]

Wat, are you running for public office? Too late. About the only thing you might do is disable all your online accounts and wait ten years. That might reduce your online presence to a mere whisper, but it will still be there. It will just have dropped off of most of the search engines.

[oilcrash]

Hijack your own presence. Break your own habits to the point that anyone trying to discern information about you is presented with a shotgun blast of contrary information. The earlier data will be reliable, but as this continues data will be less and less reliable, until you fall into patterns and habits of obfuscation.

As Chris said, Don't bother, don't try.

[skb12172]

An important question is, what is your concern and what are you hoping to negate/accomplish by this action? I've found that the older information is, the more specific you must be in searching for it. As time passes, it will fade into the background static. There is just so…much…information on the internet that someone almost has to be looking specifically for something in order to find it, when it comes to an average citizen.

[308Mike]

An important question is, what is your concern and what are you hoping to negate/accomplish by this action? I've found that the older information is, the more specific you must be in searching for it. As time passes, it will fade into the background static. There is just so…much…information on the internet that someone almost has to be looking specifically for something in order to find it, when it comes to an average citizen.

Roger that! It's called data pollution. If necessary, have a few friends help you in screwing up anything and everything with your data - and CHANGE your posting names. Of course, anyone looking for that data will notice the date of the references and how they changed, or you could even head over to DU and tell the folks there that you found a real jerk of a Republitard and want others to post with that name so you might teach him a lesson in data security and reliability - all the while they'd be muddying up any and all posts, data, reliability of that info to where it almost becomes meaningless (unless they really want to know and have hired a pro to dig through all the data - but that's EXPENSIVE).

Changing your username/posting name while others are now posting under your old name will usually be enough to throw anyone off your trail - unless they have access to the posting IP addresses.

FYI - there are also companies out there who will act like prospective employers performing a bogus background check to see just what others have to say about you (and who might be trying to screw you - including your own company). This provides you the opportunity to force them to set the record straight under threat of legal action, or at least know where you need to minimize certain portions of your employment resume.

This is why the vast majority of companies simply verify employment dates and say NOTHING about employee performance or discipline issues. It's simply NOT worth it.

[Termite]

you could even head over to DU and tell the folks there that you found a real jerk of a Republitard and want others to post with that name so you might teach him a lesson in data security and reliability - all the while they'd be muddying up any and all posts, data, reliability of that info to where it almost becomes meaningless ...

Now that's an amusing idea.

[Aglifter]

I was thinking more along the lines of deleting stuff off FB - prob changing user names.

Not too worried right now - things might get interesting in 5-10

[Steamforger]

I changed login names and never put anything on FB that I didnt care to come back around. It didnt hurt that there is a cancer center using both my fisrt and last names. I remember NPR, I think, saying something about going to hobby forums, like fishing, and commenting early and often. Blast the intarwebz with the most bland and boring shite that a investigator, a gov worker, will eventually get bored and find something else to do.

[skb12172]

Strangely enough, what usually pops up for me is my professional website, followed by several product reviews I've contributed on Amazon.

[Yogimus]

Hand over all your accounts to strangers