Delete, Edit, Moderate, Curate Part 4

Delete: to eliminate especially by blotting out, cutting out, or erasing (Merriam Webster Dictionary).

Is it even possible to actually delete something, especially in this computer age? Well, yes and no. There are so many ways to save things, I’d be careful what to post on the Internet. Of course, some people will be watched more closely than others (famous people), but still, you just never know!

I ran a simple Google search for the phrase, “Can you actually delete something from the Internet?” and it returned an article from 2020 by Eric Franklin (reference at bottom). There were plenty of other results, but that one caught my attention. He discusses deleting any shopping, social network, and web service accounts, getting your information off of online data collection sites like whitepages.com, removing information from specific websites, hope Google cleans its cache of websites in its search results, and finally, deleting your email address(es). Good grief!

There are services advertised for deleting your digital footprint on the Internet. Please search for these, but remember: these services must be paid for. When you see the staggering amount of information out there, you might decide that it's best to leave it to the experts.

After all that, you might still be on the Internet. As an example, I’ll share a quick story: a family member was active in one of the school’s Parent-Teacher Associations back in the 1980s. She is not on social media, and uses the Internet for games and things of that nature. A friend found her picture in a newspaper clipping from decades ago, took a digital photo of the paper copy, and posted it on Facebook, asking us if we recognized one of the ladies in the photo? Of course we did, and her name and photo are on the Internet.

Now, I was smart enough not to post her name in my comments, but it’s in the caption of the picture. Image searches are not yet as powerful as text ones, but they’re getting there. It’s actually a bit creepy!

You can delete your own additions to the Internet, like comments on social media posts, or even emails, but once you’ve sent something out, it’s really close to impossible to take back.

References