Check what’s public about you

The quickest way to see what a stranger can learn about you is to look at yourself the way they would. This is a self-check you can run in about fifteen minutes.

View your profiles as an outsider

Log out of your social accounts, or open a private browser window, and visit your own profile. Whatever you can see while logged out is what anyone can see. Note the posts, photos, and contact details that appear.

Run through this quick check

• Search your full name in a search engine, and try it with your town or workplace added.
• Search each username you use, since the same handle often links your accounts together.
• Look at photos you are tagged in, including ones other people posted.
• Check for old accounts you forgot: an early social profile, a dating profile, a forum, an old blog.
• Try a reverse image search on a profile photo you use, to see where else it appears. A reverse image search means searching by the picture itself rather than by words.

Note what to fix

As you go, keep a short list of anything that reveals your address, phone number, workplace, date of birth, or daily routine. Do not try to fix it all in the moment. Just write it down so nothing gets missed.

Then act on your list

1. Set any still-public accounts to private, and remove contact details from public profiles.
2. Delete or close old accounts you no longer use.
3. If your contact details show in search results, use Google’s « Results about you » tool to ask Google to hide them.
4. Ask data-broker and people-search sites to remove your listing.