Why people are cutting back their online profile

Anita Smith has always been cautious about how much she shared online.

But her concerns increased following an abusive relationship with a partner, who later stalked her.

Although police intervened, she left the UK and also scaled back her online profile.

“I erased my online presence as much as I possibly could, including removing the locations of some posts, and a couple of Instagram accounts,” says Ms Smith, whose name has been changed for this article.

Ms Smith, who works in communications, still has a LinkedIn account but doesn’t use her full name.

“I deleted quite a few things off my LinkedIn too, lots of things that were location based, although a few posts do remain.

“I have posted recently as I’m trying to build a brand although I’m sceptical as to how much I share.”

She has kept an original private Facebook account: “I cleanse it once a year, and check on photos and privacy of posts and where I have been tagged.”

Ms Smith has also become more aware of the terms and conditions of social media platforms.

“I follow AI trends and I know a lot of images are training AI models and we don’t have ethical guidelines on how they can be used. That’s another massive factor why I will never put my child on social media as the images can be used for whatever want.”

As scams become more sophisticated, research suggests that more people are concerned about the information they share online.

In a report by Statista, 39% of respondents said they were worried about how companies use their online data, while a quarter (26%) admitted to using a VPN.

There are a number of reasons why people might want to reduce their online profiles.

“First of all, people underappreciate privacy,” says Vytautas Kaziukonis, chief executive at Surfshark, a security software company that encrypts user’s online data and aims to make browsing secure.

“What might be innocent information right now might be bring you into difficulties 10 years down the line, for example, if there’s a change of laws, or political environment.”

Another issue is the explosion of AI, says Mr Kaziukonis.

“Fraud is getting better and better, and one thing that is essential for all scams is having data,” he says.

AI is getting to the stage where it can impersonate people close to you. Add to that ability any personal information shared online, then you have a “deadly combination”, says Mr Kaziukonis.

Also, information shared online about us is collected by data brokers and sold to advertisers.

Mr Kaziukonis says the information is also available to scammers. “It’s the Wild West out there,” he says.

So what can we do to minimise our footprints?

Firstly, it’s important to think about how much information you share online.

“Don’t share your home address anywhere, for example, accidently filming a video with a laptop in the background that has sensitive information on, and when you go online shopping don’t add all details to every random website, for example, your date of birth,” says Mr Kaziukonis.

“It could be leaked and used against you.” He also advises using a different email address for websites that you sign up to. “That limits the spamming.”

It’s worth remembering that under data protection law, you have the right to ask a company what data they hold on you, and request that it is deleted.

“They have to comply as otherwise they can receive huge fines,” says Mr Kaziukonis.

Gus Hosein, executive director at charity Privacy International, recommends several ways to reduce your digital footprint.

He suggests using a VPN (virtual private network) which, for a price, offers a user more privacy when online.

He also recommends cookie-blockers and selecting web browsers with privacy controls.

“The underlying solution remains that we must keep the pressure on our governments to have strong laws to protect everyone,” Mr Hosein says.

Karen Renaud is a computing scientist at the University of Strathclyde working on security and privacy.

Last year she studied 15 privacy policy documents, which lay out what a company is going to do with your data.

She found that the most complicated of them would take 32 minutes to read and would require college-level education to understand.

“The situation is pretty dire,” she says.

She advises it’s a good idea to clear out the cookies on your browser from time to time, and reduce the cookies you accept.

“Also, you can stop some tracking. Google, for example, makes it possible to prevent tracking of your searches.”

Some people turn to services such as DeleteMe and Surfshark, which help remove personal information from data brokers.

Amanda Unterreiner, product manager at US-based data removal service DeleteMe, says high-profile individuals like video gamers and judges use their service as a safety measure.

“In the case of judges… because if they’re announcing some decision, someone might show up at their house.”

She also mentions the case of the killing earlier last year of United Healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson.

“Stories like that kind of spark regular people to think I better get protected.”

Ms Unterreiner went through the process of having her data removed when she joined the company.

“You could see every other place I had ever lived, every phone number I’ve ever had, every email address, on the first page of Google. If someone wanted to steal my identity… they would be able to cause some real personal damage.”

The company also offers a service to mask your house on Google Maps.

“You can look at street view, but that particular property will just be kind of very pixelated.”

There’s multiple reasons why Saam Collingwood, who lives near Stratford-upon-Avon, has cut back her online profile over the years.

The first was following an incident at work where she had included her personal Facebook account on an email to a client and her employer was unhappy.

“They were able to see photos from a night out,” she says. “That didn’t go down too well.”

In another incident she was trolled by a stranger online after posting a video of herself learning a dance routine on YouTube.

Plus, rising online fraud convinced her to further reduce her online profile.

She hasn’t completely erased her online presence but she no longer posts regularly on Facebook, reducing it about twice a year.

“I don’t like it when people tag me, people knowing I’m not at home. Most times I remove the tag.”

She says she has upgraded her anti-virus and security software with a service from online security firm Norton.

“I wanted to make sure websites weren’t taking my details. It makes me more comfortable.”

But are there any downsides to not being so present online?

“I miss seeing old friends [on Facebook] and people I would contact once or twice year,” says Ms Smith.

Mr Kaziukonis says it’s common to hear people say they don’t care about privacy but he believes this is a flawed argument.

“They say I have nothing to hide. But would they mind sharing every single email they have sent? We have curtains at home, we want to feel private. It’s human nature.”