Your digital footprint is the trail of details about you that anyone can find online. You cannot erase all of it, but you can make it much smaller, and that alone makes you a harder target.
What is fine to share, and what is not
Photos, opinions, and everyday updates are usually fine. The details worth keeping private are the ones that help someone find you, pretend to be you, or guess your passwords: your home address, your phone number, your exact workplace, your date of birth, and where you are right now.
A few habits that shrink your footprint
- Set your social accounts to private, so only people you approve can see your posts.
- Prune old public posts. Delete or hide anything that shows your address, your car number plate, your children’s school, or documents with personal details.
- Remove your phone number, home address, and workplace from the « about » or « contact » sections of your public profiles.
- Turn off the setting that lets strangers find you by your phone number or email.
Opt out of the big data-broker sites
Data brokers are companies that collect your details and sell them, often on people-search sites. Most let you ask to be removed. Search for your name, find the sites that list you, and use their opt-out or « remove my listing » pages. If your contact details show up in Google search results, you can use Google’s « Results about you » tool to ask Google to hide them.
Think before you post your location
Live location, tagged venues, and photos taken at home all reveal where you are. You do not have to stop sharing your life. Just add a small delay, and leave out the pin that says exactly where to find you.