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How To Erase Yourself From The Internet

How To Erase Yourself From The Internet
By 

Freelance journalist

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Who knew a page full of links could be so useful?

JustDelete.me is a page full of links -- not ugly blue hyperlinks but links disguised as buttons. Each button represents an online service; anything from LinkedIn to Skype to Wikipedia.

Click a button and JustDelete.me will take you to the page on that online service that allows you to delete your account. If you click the "show info" link under each button, meanwhile, JustDelete.me will tell you, in plain English, how to delete your account from that site.

Buttons are color-coded: a green button means deleting your account is easy, a yellow button means it's moderately difficult, red means it's hard and black (uh-oh) means "it's impossible to delete your account on this site."

Turns out some sites love your data so much they won't remove it. Ever.

In addition to its primary purpose of teaching people how to delete their accounts -- and serving as a one-stop shop for people who want to pare down their online presence -- JustDelete.me publicly shames services that don't let users remove their data. And for those who haven't yet created eternal accounts on these types of sites, including Netflix, Pinterest or Pastebin, JustDelete.me serves as a warning that some sites will never let you go.

JustDelete.me was created by Robb Lewis, a UK-based developer frustrated by the lack of transparency offered in online service deletions. "After seeing a few tweets about how difficult it can be to delete your Skype account and then hearing that Netflix flat-out won’t delete your details I decided to build JustDelete.me," Lewis writes on his blog. Lewis is currently taking suggestions for sites to add to JustDelete.me; he can be emailed or contacted on Twitter here.

[h/t LifeHacker]

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Before You Go

9 Gadgets To Help You Avoid Surveillance
Fingerprint Gel(01 of09)
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The Japanese government counter-terrorism practice of fingerprinting foreigners who enter the country may have inspired Doctor Tsutomu Matsumoto to invent "fingerprinting gels", a way of faking fingerprints for scanners.Learn how to make your own here. (credit:AP)
White Noise Generator(02 of09)
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Worried someone around you is secretly recording everything you do? No fear! There's a relatively low-tech way to defeat such snoops, via white-noise-producing audio jammers. These tiny devices use good ol' white noise to blur the sound picked up by hidden microphones and other surreptitious recording devices. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr:" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5bb3698be4b0fa920b9816cf" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="29" data-vars-position-in-unit="35">Flickr:</a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/anonymous9000/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name=" Anonymous9000" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5bb3698be4b0fa920b9816cf" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/people/anonymous9000/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="30" data-vars-position-in-unit="36"> Anonymous9000</a>)
Phonekerchief(03 of09)
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MIT's Technology Review calls it the newest, hottest Thanksgiving accessory -- but you can use phone-size "Faraday cages" like this (sold by uncommongoods) to block your cellphone's call signal, WiFi and GPS. Handy now that federal courts are ruling that cops can track suspects via cellphone sans warrant, and Apple can remotely disable your phone camera with a click. As security researcher Jacob Appelbaum said in an interview with N+1 back in April, "Cell phones are tracking devices that make phone calls." So shouldn't you be prepared for when you don't want to be tracked? (credit:uncommongoods)
LED-Lined Hat(04 of09)
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Hidden cameras got you down? Blind them all with a simple baseball cap lined with infrared LEDs. Amie, a hacker on WonderHowTo, shows the world how to make one, while this German art exhibition lays out how these ingenious devices work. (credit:AP)
Bug Detector(05 of09)
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These receivers reveal the telltale electronic crackle of hidden mics and cameras. Strangely enough, they were around long before "surveillance culture" became a common phrase. Today they're sold in all sorts of shops for surveillance paranoids. (credit:Gadget Playground)
Camera Map(06 of09)
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Sometimes hiding your face isn't enough; sometimes you don't want to be seen at all. For those days, there's camera maps. The NYC Surveillance Camera Project is currently working to document the location of and working status of every security camera in New York City. This project has been replicated by others in Boston, Chicago and Bloomington, Indiana. Notbored.org has even published a guide to making your own surveillance camera maps (here). (credit:AP)
Dazzle Camouflage(07 of09)
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Credit to artist Adam Harvey for this one. Inspired by the "dazzle camouflage" used on submarines and warships during World War I, he designed a series of face paint principles meant to fool the facial recognition schemas of security cameras. Check out The Perilous Glamour of Life Under Surveillance for some tips on designing your own camera-fooling face paint. (credit:Adam Harvey)
Throwaway Cellphone(08 of09)
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Walmart may be the premier symbol of corporate America, but its disposable cellphone selection can help you start a thoroughly maverick lifestyle. $10 TracFones work on most major networks, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon, and come with minutes prepaid so you can dispose of the devices when you're done. (credit:AP)
RFID-Blocking Wallet(09 of09)
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Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) chips are now regularly implanted in passports, ID cards, credit cards and travel papers. These tiny chips make machine-reading your documents easier -- but could also let anyone with the right type of scanner scrape your information and track your whereabouts. Luckily, gadget geeks have come to the rescue again, this time with RFID-blocking wallets. Working on the same principle as the "phonekerchief", these wallets create a Faraday cage around your items, keeping their data secure until you take them out to be scanned where they're supposed to be scanned. Destroying the chip is simpler: just nuke it in the microwave for five seconds. Of course, whatever you're microwaving might burst into flames first... (credit:AP)
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