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Your name is not just a name online anymore. A quick search can surface your home address, phone number, relatives, and other personal details on data broker and people-search sites you never agreed to join and that’s exactly the kind of information that powers robocalls, spam texts, and more targeted scams. Greg Rhodes and Refresh Computers technician Adam Littlefield break down how this data gets collected, why it gets sold in endless loops, and what you can do right now to reduce your digital footprint.

We walk through practical steps for removing personal information from the internet: searching your name, email, and phone number, checking major data broker sites like Spokeo, Whitepages, and BeenVerified, and submitting opt-out and removal requests. We also share two free tools worth turning on: the national DoNotCall.gov registry to cut down legitimate telemarketing, and Google’s “Results about you” to spot when your contact info shows up in search results and request removals.

From there, we shift into upgrade decisions with real-world value: Refresh Computers’ trade-in program aimed at moving people to Windows 11, plus why secure data wiping matters before you recycle or hand off a device. Then we zoom out to Apple season with iPhone 18 rumors, talk of a folding iPhone, price pressure from hardware constraints, and the big unanswered question: what’s happening with Siri and an AI overhaul. We wrap with a clear checklist for what to do before you sell, trade in, or recycle a phone so your data doesn’t go with it.

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