Understanding What Personal Information You Share Online
Every time you use the internet, you leave behind traces of personal information. This includes obvious details like your name, address, and phone number, but also less obvious data like your browsing habits, location, shopping preferences, and even the device you use to connect. Understanding what information exists about you online is the first step toward managing your digital footprint.
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Your personal information spreads across many platforms and services. Social media accounts contain photos, posts, location tags, and relationship details. Email accounts hold years of correspondence and account recovery information. Shopping websites store your address, payment history, and purchase preferences. Search engines record what you look for. Streaming services track what you watch. Utility companies, banks, insurance providers, and government agencies all maintain records about you in their systems.
Data brokers—companies whose business is collecting and selling personal information—compile profiles about millions of people. They gather information from public records, online transactions, social media, and data purchases. This information gets sold to marketers, insurers, employers, and other organizations. Most people don't realize how much information about them is being bought and sold every day.
Third-party tracking presents another concern. Many websites and apps contain hidden tracking tools from companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon. These tools follow your activity across different websites to build detailed profiles about your interests and behavior. They do this even if you're not logged into their services. Your internet service provider also tracks which websites you visit.
Practical takeaway: Start by listing the main services and platforms you use regularly—email providers, social media accounts, shopping sites, banking apps, and streaming services. Write down what information each one likely holds about you. This awareness forms the foundation for the steps that follow.
Reviewing Your Social Media Presence and Settings
Social media platforms contain some of the most detailed personal information you voluntarily share. These platforms collect your posts, photos, location data, relationship status, work history, education, political views, and interests. They also track how you interact with content—what you like, comment on, and share. This information helps them target advertisements to you and sell data to other companies.
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Most social media platforms offer privacy settings that let you control who sees your information and how your data gets used. On Facebook, you can adjust who sees your profile, posts, and contact information. You can limit who can send you messages or tag you in photos. Instagram offers similar controls—you can make your account private, control who can comment on your posts, and limit who can see your stories. Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, and other platforms each have their own privacy options.
Review what information appears on your profile that's visible to strangers. Many people post their current location, work address, phone number, or other contact details without thinking about who might access this information. This data can be used for stalking, harassment, identity theft, or targeted scams. Search your own profiles as if you were a stranger to see what information is publicly available about you.
Consider what you've posted over the years. Old posts, photos, and comments you made months or years ago may contain information you wouldn't share today. Many platforms allow you to delete or archive past posts. Some tools let you delete posts in bulk rather than one at a time. You might also want to limit who can see your past posts by adjusting your privacy settings going forward.
Practical takeaway: Log into your three most-used social media accounts this week. Go to the privacy or security settings for each one. Review what information appears on your public profile. Make a list of any personal details (phone number, address, email, location, birth date) that you don't want strangers to see, and remove or hide that information.
Taking Control of Your Email and Account Security
Email accounts serve as the central hub for your online identity. Your email address appears on accounts for social media, shopping, banking, and countless other services. If someone gains access to your email, they can reset passwords on other accounts, access sensitive documents, and potentially steal money or information. Email is also where data breaches often send stolen information, making your email address valuable to criminals.
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Start by reviewing which services are connected to your email address. Many people have multiple email accounts from different providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) and don't remember what's connected to which one. Services often send password reset links and sensitive notifications to your email. If you no longer use an email account or no longer want certain services connected to it, disconnect them. Most websites allow you to change which email address is associated with your account.
Check what permissions you've granted to third-party applications. Many apps and websites offer options to "sign in with Google" or "sign in with Facebook" rather than creating a new password. When you use these options, you grant that app or website access to information from your Google or Facebook account. Review which applications have this access and remove permissions for any you no longer use. Google and Facebook both provide dashboards where you can see and manage these connected apps.
Security is critical for email accounts since they control access to everything else. Use a strong, unique password that's different from passwords you use elsewhere. A strong password includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, and is at least 12 characters long. Consider using a password manager—a secure tool that stores complex passwords for all your accounts so you only need to remember one strong password. Enable two-factor authentication on your email account, which requires you to enter a second verification code when logging in from a new device.
Practical takeaway: Log into your primary email account. Look for settings related to connected apps or "authorized applications." Make a list of any apps or websites that have access to your email or personal information. Remove access for any services you no longer use or don't recognize. Then change your email password to something stronger and enable two-factor authentication if it's available.
Requesting Removal From Data Brokers and Background Check Sites
Data brokers collect and sell personal information, and they maintain searchable databases about most people. Some of these sites allow strangers to look up your address, phone number, relatives, and other private information. Background check sites compile criminal records, financial information, and other sensitive data. While this information often comes from public records, having it aggregated on searchable websites creates privacy risks.
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Many data broker and background check sites allow you to request that your information be removed from their databases. However, there's no single government registry of all data brokers, so you need to identify which ones have information about you and contact them individually. Some major data brokers include Spokeo, BeenVerified, Intelius, PeopleFinder, and Whitepages. Background check sites include companies like Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and numerous smaller regional companies.
The removal process typically involves visiting a company's website, searching for your name and information, and then finding their removal or "opt-out" process. Most companies require you to verify that you're the person whose information you're requesting to remove. This usually means confirming personal details or clicking a verification link sent to your email. Some companies charge fees for removal, though many removal options are free. Be cautious of services that claim they'll remove your information for a large fee—most of the work can be done yourself.
Understand that removal is not permanent. Data brokers continuously gather new information, so your information may reappear on their sites over time. This means you may need to request removal multiple times over the years. Some people create a reminder to search for themselves on major data broker sites every six months or yearly and request removal again if their information has reappeared.
Practical takeaway: Search for yourself by name on Google and on at least two major data broker sites (try Spokeo.com and BeenVerified.com). Take note of where your information appears. If you find your details on any data broker or background check site that you'd prefer didn't have them, look for their opt-out or removal process and submit a removal request. Document which sites you contacted and when.
Managing Cookies, Trackers, and Your Browsing Privacy
Cookies are small files that websites store on your computer or phone to remember information about you. These include login credentials, items in shopping carts, and preferences about how you like websites to look. While some cookies are useful—they let you stay logged in and remember your preferences—many are tracking cookies that follow you across different websites to monitor your behavior.
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Most web browsers allow you to view, manage, and delete cookies. In Chrome, you can go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies and Other Site Data to see which sites have stored cookies on