Digital Privacy is REAL WORLD SAFTEY! How to Scrub Your Personal Info Off Google (For Free) A Step by Step Guide
- Mariah Lynn
- Jan 27
- 7 min read
A Miss Tactical Guide for Women Who Don’t Want Creeps on the Internet Knowing Their Address or Anything Really...
Ladies, grab your laptop, your emotional support snack, and that digital awareness, because today we’re doing a digital cleanse. It’s not the fun stuff but it’s the totally necessary house keeping side of personal safety for yourself and your family and depending on how good you have been about to oversharing with the internet will determine the amount of time and glasses or wine or coffee this cleanse will take.
We’re talking deleting your entire existence off Google so strangers can’t see where you sleep, work, and digital walk through of your home layout from your 2008 Zillow listing.
Because newsflash: no one needs access to your entire life map.
Especially the internet.
Digital privacy isn’t optional anymore it’s personal safety. This step-by-step guide shows you how to find and remove your personal info.
Let’s begin.
STEP 1: Use Google’s “Remove My Info” Tool
(Yes, Google did something helpful for once.)
Google finally realized that showing your home address and phone number to random people on the internet is… not cute.
Click Start Request and submit anything that includes:
• Your address
• Phone number
• Doxxing attempts
• Scraped personal info
• Anything that gives “why is this online?”
It’s free and surprisingly effective
STEP 2: Eliminate Yourself From Data Broker Sites
(AKA the digital cockroaches of the internet.)
These companies profit off your info like it’s Black Friday every day. The give or sell things like phone numbers, address and family history.
Here are the actual opt-out links so you dont have to dig for them:
Whitepages
PeopleFinders
BeenVerified
Spokeo
TruePeopleSearch
FastPeopleSearch
Intelius
Remove yourself from these and you’ve basically turned into a quick Google search digital ghost.
STEP 3: Take down the shady background check sites
(The Dollar Tree versions of data brokers.)
MyLife
Radaris
US Search
NeighborWho
Delete yourself from these and watch your online footprint shrink like magic.
STEP 4: Hide your domain registration info
(Because buying a website shouldn’t mean revealing your home address.)
Turn on WHOIS privacy wherever you bought your domain.
It hides your name, address, phone number, email everything.
If your domain host doesn’t offer it for free?
Switch. Immediately.
STEP 5: Blur your house on Google Maps
(No one needs a virtual tour of your porch family vehicals.)
If Google Street View shows:
• Your house
• Your car
• Your plates
• Your doormat
• You in your pajamas dragging a trash can
Blur it.
How:
1. Go to your house on Google Maps Street View.
2. Click Report a problem.
3. Select “Blur my home.”
4. Submit.
Boom. Gone.
STEP 6: Delete your old Zillow or any home listing photos
(Because NO ONE needs free access to your entire home layout and floor plan.)
Let’s be brutally clear:
If your home was ever listed for sale or rent, Zillow etc it is still out here showing complete strangers your kitchen, bedroom, bathroom angles, and exactly where all your windows and probable children's bedrooms are.
That is not a flex. That is an invitation for creeps.
Here’s how to fix it
How to remove your Zillow photos:
1. Go to Zillow.com
2. Search your address
3. Look for the listing with photos of your house
4. Click More → Verify you’re the owner
5. Claim the home
6. Go to Edit Home Facts
7. Scroll to the photos
8. Delete every single one
If Zillow doesn’t let you delete them, you can:
• Contact Zillow Support
• Request removal under privacy & security grounds
• Tell them images reveal your floor plan and compromise safety
They will remove them.
You just have to ask... firmly.
Here is a sample email you can use:
Subject: Immediate Removal Request
Hello,
I am writing to formally request the immediate removal of all listing data, photographs, and related media associated with my private residence from your platform.
The images currently displayed reveal detailed interior views and effectively expose my home’s floor plan, layout, and security vulnerabilities. This presents a serious privacy and safety concern for my family. Following recent security concerns and personal safety scares, it has become clear that the continued public display of this information puts us at unnecessary risk.
For liability and safety reasons, I am requesting that all interior and exterior photographs, virtual tours, and detailed property information be removed without delay. This request applies regardless of whether the data was syndicated from a third party or previously associated with a past listing.
Please confirm in writing once the images and data have been removed, or advise if you require any verification from me to complete this request promptly.
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Miss Tactical
Now lets work on the steps that will help stop your information from popping up in these places in the first place.
Step 7: Stop Giving Out Your Real Birthday Online
Here’s a truth most people don’t think about:
Your real birthday is not required almost anywhere online.
When you sign up for emails, apps, loyalty programs, social media, or random coupons, that birthday field is rarely about identity. It’s about marketing, data profiling, and searchability.
Use a fake birthday. Always.
Hot Tip: Make it consistent so you don’t lock yourself out of accounts later.
Personally, I choose the birthday of my favorite author. I look it up once and use it across platforms. It’s easy to remember and if I forget it I can look it up, it is impossible to trace back to me, and keeps my real information out of databases that get sold, leaked, or scraped.
The same rule applies to your name.
That email you signed up for to get a free Texas Roadhouse coupon? It didn’t need your full legal name. The fewer places your real name, birthday, and address exist online, the safer you are.
Nobody needs your real birthday except your doctor, your bank, and the government.
Everyone else? They’re just building a data profile.
Step 8: Lock Down Your Social Media
(You need to decide what personal info you share even with those you know. Everyone has a comfort level here but remember once something is online it is there forever and anyone who really wants to find it, will. Grandmas password is not that hard to guess, get it?)
Unless your account is strictly for business, your personal social media should be private. Period.
But privacy settings alone aren’t enough.
You need to decide your personal comfort level:
• Do you allow friends of friends to follow you?
• Old coworkers?
• Acquaintances from years ago?
• Do you share photos of your children or family at all?
Personally, I don’t.
I don’t post personal details. I don’t share family photos. I text the people who actually matter. My social media exists for business — not my private life.
That might not be your approach, and that’s okay. But you need to consciously choose your boundaries instead of letting platforms choose them for you.
And just because Facebook asks for your work history, hometown, hobbies, relationship status, and life story doesn’t mean you need to fill it out.
Keep it simple.
Keep it clean.
Keep it limited.
Make it a habit to do an annual social media cleanup:
• Remove old posts with personal details
• Delete outdated photos
• Review followers and friends
• Recheck privacy settings
Your digital footprint should shrink over time — not grow.
My last Hot Tip for social media.. LORD, PLEASE STOP THEM from sharing....
• Stop Posting when your are on vaction
• Stop Posting where you are when you are there
• Stop Posting your child in swim wear or less, eating, etc remember the internet is full of CREEPS!
Step 9: Be Strategic With Job History and Professional Profiles
Sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, and Indeed are gold mines of personal data.
Yes, they’re useful for job searches.
No, they don’t need your entire life story.
Whenever possible:
• Keep profiles private or limited to recruiters/employers
• Avoid listing exact dates, locations, headquarters, or detailed timelines
• Keep job descriptions brief and non exsact dates
• Skip graduation years and overly specific details, no one needs to know where you went to high school or college.
I intentionally avoid listing my full job history publicly — even on LinkedIn. If I have to include something, I keep it minimal.
Let’s be honest: Your skills and interview are what land the job. Employers will ask for details after you apply anyway.
Publishing your entire professional timeline online doesn’t help you.
It helps data brokers, stalkers, scammers, and hackers.
And we’re not here to make their job easier.
Final Thoughts: Digital Safety Is Personal Safety
This isn’t the fun, glamorous, high-speed tacticool topic everyone wants to jump to first but it matters. A lot.
Your digital footprint is part of your personal security whether you like it or not. And yes, it takes time. It takes effort. It takes practice. But once you do this once and build the habit, it gets dramatically easier.
Personally, I check in on my digital footprint about twice a year. That schedule may look different for you and that’s okay. The point is consistency, not perfection.
This guide is written for the average person.
Not influencers. Not public figures. Not celebrities who need layers of professional protection.
For you, me, and the everyday mom and dad just trying to protect their family this is enough. And it’s a solid place to start.
So send this to the friend who overshares.
The one whose entire life pops up on Google.
The one who still has their house photos, work history, and kids’ school listed publicly.
Set aside some time. Pop on your favorite show or podcast in the background. Treat it like a workday and hammer through it.
You’ll be glad you did.
And your family will be safer because of it.
— Miss Tactical
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