Over the years, some social networks become fashionable and others are forgotten. Surely 5, 10 or 20 years ago you were using platforms that have been forgotten in the cyberspace dump. And surely you have registered in networks that you tried for two days and never opened again.
With this, what you do is give your data to more and more servers that are vulnerable and that can be victims of cyberattacks, which will end up in spam in your mailbox or, worse still, with your account hijacked. You no longer need to wonder where these scammers get your mail from.
To make sure your personal data doesn't spread (any more than it already is), you should unsubscribe from all internet services you no longer use, especially if you use the same password everywhere. That is why we will give you some advice that may be of help to you in this task, which, as we have already warned you, is slow and heavy.
If you haven't entered BeReal, Mastodon (or any other network that you no longer touch), it hasn't come for a few more weeks. Take it easy, because if you want to do it all at once it will become a mountain. Perhaps you can dedicate some time to it every day, to gradually reduce your trace on the internet.
In case you have forgotten them, here is a series of social networks that still exist today and for which you may have created an account one day, even if no one remembers them:
For your peace of mind, Vine, Google, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Fotolog, Picasa, Shootr and Tuenti, among many others, have passed away or have become another business.
Do a mental review of your activity on the networks of the last 10 or 20 years and assess which ones you still use and which ones you don't. In those that you no longer touch, try to enter again (if necessary, recover your password) and find a way to cancel your account. It won't be easy, but on every network there should be a way to do it. And if you can't delete yourself, change your password: this way you cancel any previous leak that contains your access data.
Over the years, our situation changes and our public image too. You might wonder if all the photos and videos you've posted on social media would still pass the filter of what you want to show or not. That's why we recommend that you review your old photos and videos from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram... It can even be fun to see the first things you posted. Arm yourself with patience and review the material, hiding or deleting everything that you are not interested in teaching. You never know who might do that retrospect of your profile.
In networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter, it is good to clean up your followers and contacts from time to time. To go well, once a year you should review useless posts and contacts. And filter them.
It's not just about social media. When blogging was a trend, people exerted their influence through these web pages that everyone could open and feed content. However, over time they have been forgotten, and those WordPress, Wix, Weebly, GeoCities or Blogger that you cared for so much in another era are now worthless material. In fact, you may even have forgotten that on your first blog you gave out your full contact details publicly.
If it's something very personal that you like to keep for sentimental reasons, perfect. You only have to adapt the sensitive content. If not, delete it and close the account. Cyber attacks are the order of the day.
This text was originally published on the RAC1 website.
