Tips about how to leave the digital universe

You can’t remove everything, but you can remove a lot of online information

Data breaches. Identity theft. Bank fraud. Every week, we read about cybercrime.

Maybe you’ve considered the unthinkable: removing yourself from the Internet.

Well, there’s bad news and good news. You can’t erase yourself completely from the digital universe. Courts and government agencies have been posting public records online since the mid-1990s. Your motor vehicle records, voter files, property tax assessments, professional licenses, and court files are all on the digital books, and they’re not going anywhere.

The good news: You can remove a lot of online information and significantly reduce your digital footprint. Here’s how: . DELETE ONLINE ACCOUNTS You probably have more online accounts than you realize — most of us do. We sign up for all sorts of services, from Netflix and Amazon to Groupon and Twitter. Even if you haven’t downloaded an app in years, Apple, Facebook or Google still possess a lot of private information, along with many other services. If you really want to terminate your Internet presence, you’ll want to eliminate these accounts, especially the ones you don’t use anymore.

The easiest way to do this is Account Killer, a website that provides links to your most popu- lar accounts and instructions on how to wipe the slate clean. GET OFF DATA BROKER SITES You’ll probably find this creepy. Are you sitting down? OK: Almost anyone can learn your phone number, home address and criminal record. All they have to do is pay a little money to a “data broker,” also known as a “people-search site.” Often, the information is free.

Primary data brokers like Intelius collect information from public records. Secondary data brokers, like Spokeo, aggregate information from primary brokers and usually add data collected from social networks and other online sources.

If you want to have your information removed from data broker sites, you need to contact them and request to opt out. CLOSE EMAIL ACCOUNTS This is a very big step. Email is still the most popular method of communication in the world, and email addresses are used for all kinds digital transactions, including online banking.

It’s not enough to just stop using email. If you leave an account open and fail to monitor it, your account could get hacked without you even realizing.

Gmail is the most popular service out there, with more than 1 billion users. Before you close your account, make sure you’ve downloaded and saved all of your old data, because you never know when it might become important.

Login and visit the “Account Preferences” page, then Delete Products, then hit Gmail. Follow the instructions, and finally hit “Delete Gmail.”

Yahoo is still a popular choice, despite widespread data breaches. Go to the “Terminating your Yahoo account” page.

Confirm your password. Click Terminate this Account.

But remember, if you do close your Yahoo account, you will not be able to use services associated with it, such as Flickr and Tumblr. USE A VPN You can make your browsing a lot more private, thanks to a “virtual private network,” or VPN. You can use this secure network to encrypt your connection, making it difficult to hack. In the business world, VPNs let employees working remotely create an encrypted connection with the company network so they can work safely. But others can use VPNs too.