Digital decluttering before the new year?
You don't want others to see your personal data, such as your household account book or web search history, on your device. However, erasing traces of your activity from your device or the web can be a daunting task.
Gizmodo's Nield reporter has summarized how to remove data from any device or web account.
For smartphones and tablets
Sell your smartphone or tablet, give it to your niece or nephew, or donate it to a museum ... whatever the scenario, if it's no longer your property, make sure you erase all your data. .. You don't want the next owner to log in to your Twitter account and see the image.
If the data inside is encrypted, it will be relatively easy to reliably erase it from your smartphone. Device encryption is a feature that has been standardized on iOS devices since Marshmallow (Android 6.0) in 2015 for Android devices. If you use a passcode, facial recognition, or fingerprint recognition to unlock your device, your data is protected.
Being encrypted means that once you reset your smartphone or tablet to factory settings, it's virtually impossible for anyone to recover your data, even sucking storage from your mobile device and loading it on other machines. It is impossible even if you try. You can check if the encryption of your Android device is turned on from "Security"> "Other security settings" (menu may differ depending on the device) in the settings.
To reset your Android device to factory settings (after backing up the necessary data, of course), go to Settings> System> Advanced Settings> Reset Options> Reset All Data Tap "Erase (factory reset)".
If you're an iOS user, open Settings and select "General"> "Reset"> "Erase All Content and Settings" to get your device to factory default with all your data deleted. Again, if you're going through this reset procedure, first save all your photos, music, and all the data you need in a safe place.
For personal computer
Laptops are similar to smartphones, and fortunately today's Windows and macOS machines are easier to erase than before. Windows 10 doesn't encrypt disks by default (VeraCrypt is recommended if you're thinking of buying more security measures), but you can be sure that the files will be deleted once you initialize them.
In other words, after erasing the hard drive, it is out of reach of data recovery programs and third parties trying to extract data from the hard drive. After backing up your important data, open Windows settings and open the "Update and Security"> "Recovery" tab. Under Reset this PC, click Start, select Delete All, and in the next dialog select Delete files and perform drive cleaning.
Data deletion and reset on macOS is also easy. Starting with OS X Yosemite 10.10 (2014), disks are encrypted by default with a tool called FileVault. To make sure FileVault is turned on properly, open the Apple menu, click System Preferences, and select Security & Privacy> FileVault. If for some reason it is disabled, you can set it here.
Restoring encrypted data is almost impossible, so a complete initialization of its storage literally means a complete initialization. Please copy all your personal data and important files somewhere before you start. Open the Apple menu, select "Restart", hold down Cmd + R and wait for your Mac to boot.
Select "Disk Utility" from the options, and select the OS of your computer and the drive that stores the files. Click "Erase" at the top, select "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", and click "Erase" again. When the process is over, you can either reinstall macOS or give it to the next user (press Cmd + Q and then shut down and turn off your Mac).
For web accounts
It is not possible to cover all registered web accounts, but we can give you advice on major ones. Options vary depending on the service. For Facebook, for example, after deciding to delete your account, it can take up to 90 days for all data to disappear.
If you want to delete your Facebook account, open the settings page on the web and click "Your Facebook information"> "Delete account and information"> "Delete account" (If you want to use the data for secondary use, export If you want to continue using Facebook Messenger, you can choose to deactivate your account, but your personal data will not be deleted, it will only be hidden.
If you unsubscribe from Twitter, the procedure is similar and easy. Open the settings page on your browser and select "Delete account". Enter the password and confirm it. You can recover your account for the next 30 days, but after that grace period it will disappear forever. If you want to save it, export the post.
Various third-party services can erase Facebook posts and tweets, but given their suspicious reliability and privacy standards, it's hard to recommend, so use it at your own risk.
Google has a lot of data about you, and you can remove some or all of them from the activity management page. To stop future data collection, turn off the toggle switch for each item. To delete it, follow the link in My Activity. You can delete the saved data by date by selecting "Criteria for deleting activity". If you want a backup, go to Google Takeout first.
Sometimes it's easier to mess with Google apps and services. In Gmail, click all emails on the left and select the checkbox in the upper left. Select all (the number of messages in your account will be displayed), then press the delete icon to send to the trash. Unless you click Trash> Empty Trash Now, your email will be stored for 30 days.
If you want to erase all Apple-related data such as iTunes purchases, calendar appointments, iCloud emails, iCloud photo libraries, go to this page of Apple. Sign in, click "Delete Account", read the notes and confirm at the bottom of the page.
For other activities
Personal data is floating in unexpected places. If you dispose of your smart speaker, erase everything you say to Alexa. From this device page, click the button to the left of your Echo and select "Manage Recorded Audio"> "Delete".
Many cloud storage services are worth a monthly fee and will keep your deleted files for a while in case you suddenly need them. It's a great help if you accidentally delete it, but it's annoying if someone can access your account or computer and retrieve the files. If you have confidential documents that you want to delete properly, make sure that you have deleted them properly.
For example, in the case of Dropbox, go to the deleted files page, select the files you want to delete, and click "Permanently delete". With Google Drive, select the files you want to delete on the Trash page and click Delete Permanently (Trash icon). In the case of OneDrive, to delete files completely, click the Recycle Bin and perform the same operation.
If you want to delete your web account, it may be a good idea to cancel the linked third-party application. This is because your personal data may be duplicated elsewhere. You can check the list of apps linked to your Facebook account here, and the list of apps linked to your Google account here. Not all of them have access to personal data, but some may.
You can leave your data and accounts alone, but you want to erase them properly even if it takes time. If you can prevent information leaks, it is worth the effort.
Source: VeraCrypt, Facebook (1, 2, 3), Twitter, Google (1, 2), Google Takeout, Apple, Amazon, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive