# How Does One Get an Article About Personal Life Removed From the Internet?



## making_art (Apr 6, 2012)

I had someone send me a link to an article like this example posted below in Google with my name and details that are very personal that I had written for someone. Anyone can Google my name and this article appears!

Here is the example of how it was presented but this is of course not related to me:
04 Healing Through the Drum A Personal Story doc free ebook download from www.native-drums.ca


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## David Baxter PhD (Apr 6, 2012)

It is difficult to fully control the distribution of anything on the net. However, there are some things you can do to limit the _*visibility*_ of something on the net.

First, do you own the copyright to this article? or were the rights to the article sold or given to someone else? This is important because you need to be the copyright owner to file requests like those below.

1. Search for critical phrases that identify the article in question. Then visit each site that contains the article, let them know that they not authorized to publish your copyrighted material, and request removal of the article as the copyright owner. Ask them to confirm via return email that the material has been removed. Do this for every site that contains the article. Most people will comply with this if asked.

2. For any sites that do NOT comply with your request, you can file a complaint with Google at Removing Content From Google - Google Help - you can also request that Google remove any references to this site from their search index at the same time: Removing Content From Google - Google Help 

3. File the copyright infringement claim to Bing (Microsoft, which is now the same as Yahoo since they merged) at Microsoft - Information on Terms of Use 

4. Do the same for AOL at Reporting Claims of Copyright Infringement - AOL Legal 

You can find a somewhat outdated summary here: How do you send Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notifications to AOL, Bing, Google, Yahoo!, and the other major search engines? - SEO Logic?


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## making_art (Apr 6, 2012)

Yes, I own copyright of this article. This is similar to the scenario I'll give you below but it is just an example. 

I went to a support group on depression and gave a talk to the group with a power point about my personal experience with depression. I was asked to share a hard copy with other members which I was more than willing to do. A year later I get a new job and someone I barely know asked me if I had depression! They asked if I had written a personal experience about my depression on the internet! No!! 

It is one thing to share with a particular group of people but with the whole world including my employers or colleagues....that is a different story....I'm just so surprised by this.

Thank you, Dr. Baxter. I will follow the steps above. Like I don't have enough to do these days. Sigh....


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