Digital Footprints: 6 in 10 Americans Have Something Online They Don’t Want Others to Find [Survey]

Unless internet users take steps to disable web tracking and maximize privacy settings online, every click, post, and search contributes to a growing “digital footprint”, a snapshot of someone’s life online.

The internet has a memory, but erasing the past isn’t always as simple as a click of the button. Today, more and more internet users have anxiety about what someone else can find out about them with just a few Google searches.

So how many people want to hide their online identities? To get a better understanding of how people feel about their digital footprints, we surveyed U.S. internet users to see how many regret parts of their online personas, how many want part of their digital footprints to remain hidden, and the data they’re most concerned about people finding online.

Key findings

• 60% of internet users have parts of their online life they don't want others to find.
• More than two-thirds (69%) of people express concern over how much data the government can find out about them online.
• Three-fifths (61%) of people oppose government monitoring of social media for immigration purposes.
• Privacy is the top reason people want their digital footprint to remain unseen by others.

Most people want to keep their digital footprint hidden

Digital data tied to a specific person is known as their digital footprint. This can include things that they intentionally put online, such as social media posts, as well as details that others track and collect, such as location data or browsing history.

Over time, an individual’s digital footprint can grow and may come to include things that they don’t want other people to know, such as personal data, contact information, embarrassing photos, and more. In fact, more than half of people (60%) say that there is something in their digital footprint that they don’t want other people to find.

The personal data people most want scrubbed from the internet

The majority of people want some of their personal information removed from the internet; however, with so many different types of data included in someone’s digital identity, the exact information users want removed can vary from person to person.

Personal details, like date of birth or ethnicity, are the most common things U.S. adults want scrubbed off the internet, followed by contact information.

Interestingly, about 4 in 10 of those who had a regrettable digital footprint have photos or videos of themselves online they want removed, a staggering number that reflects social media’s impact on our privacy. Similarly, 35% said they have old social media accounts they don’t want others to find online.

For many, digital regret had more to do with past versions of themselves than privacy: roughly 20% had criminal or court records they want removed, while 1 in 10 reported something in the news about them they’d like to forget.

Most common digital footprint concerns

Knowing how many people want their information taken off the internet, and the data they want deleted the most, the last thing we wanted to know was why users want those parts of their digital footprints taken down.

Privacy concerns are the top motivator in this regard, with 70% of people citing them as a reason they want their digital data deleted. That is more than 20 percentage points higher than any other answer, as “safety concerns” came in second with a little less than half of respondents (49%) choosing it. The only other answer to be chosen by more than 25% of people is the idea that what is included in someone’s digital footprint is simply nobody else’s business.

American opinions on digital footprints and the government

Despite the desire of many people to keep their digital data private, numerous groups and entities can access the digital footprints of millions of users, including the government.

Government monitoring of digital activity has been in the news recently, as the monitoring of social media accounts for prospective immigrants has become official policy. This policy appears to be unpopular among the general population, as more than 3-in-5 people (61%) say they oppose the idea of social media posts being used to determine immigration eligibility and benefits.

Even less popular is the idea of the government monitoring the digital footprints of citizens. When asked, nearly 70% of people expressed concern about how much of their personal data the government can access.

Bottom line

Safe and secure access while browsing the web should be something everyone has access to. Here’s how you can start:

• Find the best data removal tools. See which data removal services stand out for automating opt-outs, offering strong privacy features, and helping you wipe your data from the web.
• Learn how to keep yourself and your data hidden online. There are steps users can take to stay anonymous online, and learning the best practices for achieving online anonymity can go a long way in keeping personal data secure.
• Use a VPN to cover your digital tracks: The best VPNs help make your online activity private from your internet service provider and even the government.

Methodology

All About Cookies surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults ages 18 or older using a survey platform in August 2025. Results were stratified across age and gender to create a nationally representative sample.