Need of Anonymity for Online Information

Nowadays Online Information, there is a very line that segregates a person’s digital and physical identities and can be broken with ease. Social media have now evolved and now they contain all information such as an individual’s friends, family, etc. When applying for a job, with your educational qualification and work experience, the recruiter also checks your social media before hiring that particular person. For instance, a misapprehended tweet or comments from past years or an improper photo can destroy job opportunities or also end a career.

There is a thought that once something is posted or uploaded online, it is permanent and almost impossible to comprehend. Simply said, don’t post anything online that can damage an individual himself and his opportunities. Monitoring the passive data collected by companies is as important as checking the online information of the person.

To take control of online data and privacy, some tips are mentioned below:

In Europe, the citizens can request Google to remove information posted on its site.

Steps: The citizen has to fill out the “Right to be Forgotten” form. In the form, specific URLs that want to be delisted, search queries associated with these URLs, and lastly explain why that particular query needs to be deleted. After the form is filled, google employees review cases daily. Google may deny some requests for the removal of links.

“Have I Been Pwned” is a service run by Troy Hunt, a cybersecurity expert which can be used to find any account information that has been compromised or is involved in a data breach?

“Google Accounts Page” which provides various options to boost privacy, reduction in data collection, etc. such as

• Privacy Checkup
• Security Checkup
• Delete Me

To delete accounts or lock down social media accounts

Facebook, in the settings tab, there are various options that can help to change who can watch, like comment on your post, etc.
To delete Facebook account: Settings & Privacy>Settings>Your Facebook Information>Deactivation & Deletion to deactivate it.
On Instagram, to boost privacy Clicking Settings, Account Privacy, and switch to ‘Private account’
To deactivate your Instagram account, log in and go to the request deletion page.