It\u2019s frankly concerning just how much online services \u2014 and people we\u2019ve never met \u2014 know about us. In fact, most of this data lands online because of us: the average internet user has dozens of accounts \u2014 if not hundreds.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why doing a vanity search on yourself is so useful and eye-opening. Think about it: your digital footprint has been building up for years. Social media, message boards, old marketplace listings \u2014 everything you\u2019ve ever typed is just sitting there, waiting to go off like a ticking time bomb.<\/p>\n
Carelessly posted photos, videos, or even old comments have been known to go viral years later, causing serious retroactive problems for the poster. You might be thinking, \u201cWho\u2019d even care about me?\u201d Well, trust us, plenty of folks would. This ranges from angry exes, advertisers, and scammers, all the way to potential employers and government agencies. HR departments routinely deep-dive<\/a> into candidates\u2019 histories before hiring. Furthermore, data found by using shadowy services that search for information leaked in data breaches is frequently used for doxing<\/a> and harassment.<\/p>\n So, if you don\u2019t manage it, your digital footprint can unexpectedly come back to bite you. Sure, it\u2019s impossible to erase it completely, but you can certainly try to minimize the amount of information available to everyone. Today, we talk about how to scrub your digital footprint without sliding into full-blown paranoia. (Actually, we\u2019ve got a few extra tips tucked away for the truly paranoid among you too!)<\/p>\n First things first: enter your first name and surname, email address, and main usernames into a search engine and see what pops up. Beyond doing manual searches, there are several useful tools that can help you find your account details across dozens, if not hundreds, of services and sites \u2014 most of which you\u2019ve probably forgotten about. Some examples:<\/p>\n Why egosurf? By searching for yourself, you\u2019ll first see exactly where you once registered (and perhaps forgot about), and second, you\u2019ll be able to check for any fake or impersonating accounts using your name. If you do find an imposter account, contact the website\u2019s support team and demand they remove the fake profiles. Be prepared to verify your identity to the support agent, but remain vigilant: there\u2019s a risk of phishing scams that exploit the KYC (Know Your Customer)<\/a> verification process.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve dealt with the fake accounts and compiled a list of your genuine ones, it\u2019s time to delete the superfluous and outdated ones. The fewer dead accounts online holding your personal data, the better. Don\u2019t rely entirely on the initial search or your own memory. Dig deep into your email archives to see which sites and services message you as their user. You can also review the list of saved passwords in your browsers or password managers<\/a>.<\/p>\n I once discovered an account I made \u2014 on a gun forum, of all things \u2014 which I\u2019d used only once to message another member. While those specific details might not have made me easier to hack, an attacker could easily have extracted the password from that old, likely vulnerable message board platform. If I had reused that password elsewhere, I\u2019d be in trouble. This is exactly why you should set up a unique password for every new account and store it securely in a reliable app<\/a>.<\/p>\n To quickly tackle old accounts, check out the open-source service Just Delete Me<\/a>. It even has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. This tool shows how easy or difficult it is to delete your information on specific websites, helping you decide if the effort is worth the reward.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the accounts you\u2019ve registered are only\u00a0half the battle. Sometimes social media sites generate shadow profiles<\/a> containing data on you that may persist even after you delete your account. These profiles can include information you never directly shared with the service. For example, you might have granted the Facebook app access to your phone contacts without ever importing them into your account. All the data from your address book could end up in that shadow profile.<\/p>\n Even more unsettling, sometimes these accounts get created for users who\u2019ve never even registered with the service, by gathering data from other platforms and open sources. While it\u2019s nearly impossible to completely prevent shadow profiles from being created, you can definitely minimize the damage. Go through your old apps, and revoke their access to your sensitive data \u2014 things like your camera, photos, contacts, location, and so on. Going forward, meticulously monitor which permissions you grant to each new app.<\/p>\n If you discover that your Google, Apple or social media accounts are still linked to a third-party service you haven\u2019t used in ages, go ahead and unlink them. These old connections always increase your risk of a data breach or leak.<\/p>\n If your searches turn up links to compromising or false information about you, you can utilize your right to be forgotten. This right was established in Europe in 2014 with the introduction of the GDPR, and similar concepts exist in other countries.<\/p>\n Submit a request using the dedicated forms provided by search engines. Google<\/a>, Bing<\/a>, and others have these available online. Some search engines lack a transparent mechanism for removing personal data, so for those, you can try reaching out through their customer support chat.<\/p>\n While this cleanup of search results won\u2019t actually remove the data from the original website, it will make the information significantly harder for the average person to find. If you need the actual data deleted, you must contact the owners of the websites where the information is posted. The service who.is<\/a> can help here: it will show you whose name the domain is registered to. From there, it\u2019s old-school OSINT: search for the site creator on social media, reach out privately, and try to negotiate a removal. If a friendly approach fails, you may need to use your country\u2019s legal system as leverage.<\/p>\n Data leaks happen online virtually every day, exposing massive amounts of personal data: IP addresses, names, phone numbers, email addresses, payment info, and much more. Websites like Have I Been Pwned<\/a> allow you to enter your email and get alerts if it shows up in a new leaked database.<\/p>\n However, for a comprehensive approach and greater convenience, it\u2019s best to monitor leaks through Kaspersky Premium<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 we search for breaches using both email addresses and phone numbers. You can add all your email addresses and phone numbers (for yourself and your family) and be confident that we\u2019ll warn you about a breach almost immediately, thanks to the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN)<\/a> \u2014 our global threat intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, preventing leaks single-handedly is an impossible task for the average user. So, the best defense is to limit how much personal data you share when registering new accounts.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most popular of these services is archive.org<\/a>. Information you\u2019ve deleted from other places might still be stored here, as the service takes snapshots of web pages and keeps them even after the original site is taken down.<\/p>\n Send an email to info@archive.org<\/a>. Include the specific URL you want removed and specify the time period you wish to exclude from the archive. To ensure the data is deleted, explain your situation in detail. Clearly state that your personal data was posted without your consent.<\/p>\n An email inbox overflowing with old messages that contain private information is also part of your digital footprint. Go through your mail using keywords like \u201cpassword\u201d, \u201cSSN\u201d, or \u201caccount\u201d, and delete any emails containing this sensitive data. Unsubscribe from old mailing lists. This lowers the chance that your email address will leak from a marketer\u2019s database. To safeguard the emails you need and to spot phishing attempts in time, use Kaspersky Premium<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget to regularly \u2014 at least once a month \u2014 clear your browser history, cookies, and cache on all your devices. Alternatively, set up your browser to clear this data automatically when you close it. This lessens the chance of an outsider collecting information from your device if they gain access to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n On smartphones, you should disable or periodically reset your advertising identifier. Both Android and iOS privacy settings have options for this, which we discussed in detail in our post How smartphones build a dossier on you<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n If we were to break down all the privacy settings for every popular service, we\u2019d need an entirely separate blog for that. Wait a second\u2026 we have one! The easiest way to check and adjust your privacy and security settings is through our free service, Privacy Checker<\/a>. It will guide you on how to configure popular social platforms, services, and even operating systems to your desired level of privacy \u2014 ranging from the \u201cWho cares about me?\u201d mindset to the \u201cEveryone is watching me\u201d level.<\/p>\n If you find your intimate photos circulating online, or if an extortionist is threatening to share them with your contacts, don\u2019t panic. Immediately reach out to StopNCII.org<\/a>. And next time, only send intimate content to people you absolutely trust. Use secure messaging apps<\/a> that offer an auto-delete feature for messages. When taking intimate photos, do so in a way that makes it impossible to identify you.<\/p>\n Ready for a safer digital life? We have a few more useful tips for you:<\/p>\n A step-by-step guide to deleting as much of your digital footprint as possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2775,"featured_media":24798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1225,9],"tags":[43,97,131,783],"class_list":{"0":"post-24797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-privacy","8":"category-tips","9":"tag-privacy","10":"tag-security-2","11":"tag-tips-2","12":"tag-tracking"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-ae","url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/24797\/"},{"hreflang":"en-in","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/29727\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/29615\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/28658\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/31552\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/30202\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/40674\/"},{"hreflang":"tr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.tr\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/13901\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/54591\/"},{"hreflang":"fr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.fr\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/23300\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/32818\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/deleting-digital-footprints\/29823\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/35559\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/deleting-digital-footprints\/35182\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/privacy\/","name":"privacy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2775"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24799,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24797\/revisions\/24799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Start by googling yourself regularly<\/h2>\n
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Get rid of old accounts and posts<\/h2>\n
Dealing with shadow profiles<\/h2>\n
Invoke your right to be forgotten<\/h2>\n
Set up data breach notifications<\/h2>\n
Check internet archive services<\/h2>\n
Clean up your inbox<\/h2>\n
Erase local traces<\/h2>\n
Review your privacy settings<\/h2>\n
Erase your nudes<\/h2>\n
The \u201cparanoid mode\u201d bonus for the truly anxious<\/h2>\n
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