Have you ever Googled yourself and been surprised by what's publicly available?

There is no cleanup. Services claiming to offer that seem somewhere between disingenuous, and scams. Quite possibly well-meaning, or maybe not.

From passing comments from folks that have received requests from those services, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the information remain, and the removal notices to also get posted.

There are ways to deal with this (somewhat), not the least of which is flooding with overlapping and semi-related and unrelated information.

But I’d not expect direct removal to work, absent regulations such as GDPR or CCPA.

Best to let your elected representatives know, too.

re: unlisted phone numbers: I had a semi-listed number. Ex-directory, but available if you called carrier information and asked.

The Internet is forever. At least as far back as the Internet that is, which is technically < forever but which might be > you.

Has anyone here gone through the process of cleaning up their online presence?

Best not to create one to begin with, and good luck with that. Google is the obvious chief offender so the less information you divulge the better, but there exist plenty of other places an online "presence" can be created, some of which are unequivocally beyond your control to manage. Government websites (for example) are extensive, routinely hacked or inadequately secured to begin with, and Google is their friend.

You can contract with a number of services that allegedly scour the Internet for personal information they claim the ability to purge, but I their effectiveness cannot possibly reach 100%. Any device can store practically limitless amounts of anything for theoretically forever.

razaq241 wrote:

I've been looking into how much personal information can be found online, and it's honestly surprising how easily someone's phone number, address, relatives or previous locations can sometimes be discovered.

Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, almost everyone had a book in their house with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of almost everyone who lived in their immediate area. The book was free and got delivered right to your doorstep. If you wanted to search other cities, public libraries had books for other cities. No one thought it was weird.

The books were also useful as improptu booster seats for children so they could more easily reach their dinners.

John Galt wrote:

You could pay for an unlisted number though. 50¢ a month.

True, though personally, I don't think I knew anyone who did. And certainly, a phone book doesn't compare with the amount of information that one can find on the Internet. All without requiring a trip to the library. But my name, address, phone number, and email address being out there doesn't bother me. I don't think I have any old twitter posts that would come back to haunt me if I ran for political office, but I sure don't plan on doing that!

razaq241 wrote:

I've been looking into how much personal information can be found online, and it's honestly surprising how easily someone's phone number, address, relatives or previous locations can sometimes be discovered.

What I'm trying to understand is how much control we actually have over this information.

If your details are already publicly available, what's the most effective way to remove them?

And if you successfully get something removed, how do you prevent it from appearing somewhere else?

Has anyone here gone through the process of cleaning up their online presence? I'd be interested to know how effective it was and whether the results lasted.

In 1999, at a security conference, Scott McNealy, then co-founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems, said:

You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

27 years later, it is clear that he was right.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

In 1999, at a security conference, Scott McNealy, then co-founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems, said:

You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

27 years later, it is clear that he was right.

A truly prescient statement.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

In 1999, at a security conference, Scott McNealy, then co-founder and CEO of Sun Microsystems, said:

You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.

An utterly short-sighted fool.

He had opportunities there, and a leadership role, and he… didn’t.

GDPR and CCPA are some of the responses to what McNealy foresaw.

You could pay for an unlisted number though. 50¢ a month.

IdrisSeabright wrote:

True, though personally, I don't think I knew anyone who did.

You do now 😄