How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, and Vanish without a Trace

by Frank M. Ahearn

Family and friends, corporations and nonprofits just throw your personal information up on the Web without a second thought to protecting your privacy. If you don’t believe me, just go to a Web site like Switchboard.com or Yahoo! People Search or BirthDatabase.com and see how much of your personal information is available there free of charge. Your address, your phone number, and probably your age are all there, if you haven’t specifically asked those companies to take down your information. Facebook and Twitter and Yahoo! are all well-meaning businesses. So are the utility and phone companies that bend over backward trying to beat the competition in customer service . . . and end up putting personal information within reach of anyone who thinks to extend an arm.