What a footprint is made of
Your footprint is the trail of information that exists about you online. Some of it you created on purpose, such as profiles, posts and reviews. Some of it exists because of what you did, such as old accounts, forum comments or mentions in other people’s photos. And some of it was collected without much thought from you. A cleanup will not erase everything, but it can remove the pieces you control and make the rest harder to find.
Set aside an afternoon, and keep a simple list or spreadsheet. Writing down what you find makes it easier to finish.
Step 1: Search for yourself
Search your full name in quotation marks, then again with a city, an employer or a school. Try your usual usernames and email addresses too. Check the first few pages of results and the image results, and use a private browsing window so your own history shapes the results less.
Note anything you did not expect: an old profile, a tagged photo, a published address or a mention on a site you forgot. Be aware that people with common names will see results about others, and that results vary by location and device.
Step 2: List your accounts
Most people have far more accounts than they remember. To rebuild the list:
- Search your email for phrases such as “welcome”, “verify your email” or “confirm your registration”.
- Check the saved logins in your browser or your password manager.
- Look at the “sign in with” connections in your main accounts, which show other services linked to them.
- Review the apps installed on your phone, including ones you no longer open.
Sort the list into three groups: still used, probably not needed, and unknown.
Step 3: Close or reduce old accounts
For accounts you no longer use, look for a delete or close option in the settings. Some services only offer deactivation, which hides a profile without removing the data, and some keep records for a period afterward. If you cannot find an option, a written request to the company is often possible.
Before deleting, download anything you want to keep, and check that the account is not tied to a login for something else. If an account holds payment details, remove them first. Every account you close is also one fewer target in future data breaches.
If you cannot delete an account, edit it: remove the real name, photo, phone number and address, and replace them with the minimum needed.
Step 4: Review what is public
Visit the privacy settings of the accounts you keep, and look at your profile the way a stranger would. Many services have a “view as” or logged-out option.
- Set posts to friends-only or private where that makes sense.
- Remove or limit tagged photos and location tags.
- Trim the profile fields (birthday, workplace, phone number) that are visible to everyone.
- Delete old posts or comments you would not want attached to your name today. Some services allow bulk deletion by date.
Remember that people can copy or screenshot content before you remove it, so deletion lowers the risk but does not guarantee the content is gone. It is worth thinking about the effect on your business reputation if you represent a company, since posts from years ago can still be associated with you.
Step 5: Deal with content on other people’s sites
When something about you appears on a site you do not own, you have a few options, none of them certain:
- Ask the person who posted it to remove it or edit it. A polite message resolves more cases than people expect.
- Use the site’s reporting or removal form, especially for personal details such as an address.
- Ask the search engine to remove specific results where its policy allows, for example for certain kinds of personal information. This removes the link from search results, not the page itself.
Listings on people-search sites usually have an opt-out process, and the same profiles tend to reappear on other sites over time. That ongoing problem is explored in the article on data brokers.
Step 6: Secure what remains
A cleaned-up footprint is less useful if someone can take over the accounts you kept. Use a unique password for each account, and consider a password manager if that sounds like too much to remember. Turn on two-factor authentication where it is offered. Old, unused accounts tend to be the weakest, which is another reason to close them.
Step 7: Reduce new tracking
Cleaning up the past is only half of the job. Reviewing app permissions, tightening your browser, and using a separate email address for newsletters and sign-ups keep your footprint from growing as quickly in the first place.
Make it a habit
Put a reminder in your calendar once or twice a year, and repeat a shorter version: search your name, scan your accounts list, and check your privacy settings, since services change them without much notice. Before posting something, a quick question helps: would I be comfortable if this were attached to my name in five years? If the answer is no, consider not posting it.