Your phone number may be more accessible through a simple Google search than you may have thought. What’s more, this personal information can be exploited by individuals with malicious intent.
To protect your phone number from appearing on the internet, it is crucial to understand the steps you can take to safeguard it.
Ways your personal phone number ends up on the internet
When we engage in online shopping or sign up for different accounts, we are often asked to provide our phone numbers. This is understandable since the delivery person may need a way to reach us somehow.
However, we may not always realize that we are sharing our phone numbers. While downloading new apps, we are required to agree to various terms, but rarely does anyone read through them. As a result, our phone apps can distribute our information, including our phone number, with our consent but without our knowledge.
Regarding these accounts, even though most site owners promise to keep our personal information safe, data breaches and leaks can still occur. This leads to our personal info being accessible to potential bad actors. Unfortunately, we may not find out about the issue for a long time, during which our personal contact information circulates on the web.
Lastly, data brokers and people search sites also contribute to the spread of our personal phone numbers on the internet. By scraping the web, they collect different types of information and sell it to interested third parties, making it accessible to anyone who wants it. This way, there's no telling if your private details haven't fallen into the wrong hands.
The risks of having your personal phone number listed on the internet
Having your phone number publicly visible in Google searches can have unpleasant consequences. The constant flood of unwanted robocalls, marketing calls, and potential scams can be overwhelming and annoying.
Moreover, scammers can take advantage of your listed phone number to gather more personal information, such as your address or financial information, putting you at risk of identity theft and fraud.
In addition, scammers may also engage in spoofing, making it seem like your number is the one appearing on the recipient's phone, allowing them to trick your friends and family members into revealing sensitive information.
How can you remove your phone number from the internet?
To protect yourself from online threats, you may want to remove your phone number from the internet. Here's what you can do:
Remove your number from social media platforms
On Facebook and Instagram, adjust your contact settings, and once on your Twitter account, turn off your phone number "discoverability."
Remove your number from Google Search results
You can submit a removal request via Google's web page, but keep in mind that eligibility criteria are strict, and your request may be denied. To delete it from the original web page, you will need to contact the site owner directly.
Remove your number from data brokers and people search sites
Data brokers often host your phone number on the internet. Fortunately, most allow you to submit removal requests. The opt-out process may take some time, but preserving your personal information is worth it. You can opt out from a data broker website manually or with help from an outside company. That said, guides on how to opt out are at your disposal.
Protect your contact info and personal information
To protect your phone number and other personal information, you'll want to keep vigilant. Once you've done everything you can to remove your phone number from Google's search results and the internet, you can try these steps:
Review app permissions
Go to your phone's settings and adjust permissions to prevent the apps from sharing your personal phone number with third parties.
Optimize personal information settings
Check your online account settings. You may have had the website automatically grant third parties access to your personal information.
Register at the National Do Not Call Registry
You can opt out of a significant number of telemarketing calls by listing your phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. By doing so, you can reduce unsolicited calls, however, robocalls may still occur occasionally.
Consider a data removal service
Continuous monitoring of the internet for your phone numbers and personal info can be both tedious and time-consuming. The same goes for opting out of data broker sites.
Data removal services, like Incogni, can simplify this process by automatically sending opt-out requests to data brokers on your behalf, thus reducing the appearance of your data in search engines.
