How can I find out what information about me is available on the Internet?

If you enter your name into any search engine, you will likely see dozens of results. Some of which may contain sensitive information - address, telephone number, names of family members. Collectively, this data forms a detailed digital profile that can be exploited by data brokers, scammers, stalkers and other attackers.

The best way to find out what information people can find about you online is to look it up yourself. We talk about services that will help with this.

1

The most obvious option is a query in search engines

Enter your name, nickname, address, phone number and email into Google and other search engines and study the results.

In addition to simply entering a name, the search results are noticeably narrowed by search operators (they are called “dorks”): they pull out documents and pages that are lost during a regular search. The ones that work most reliably on Google are:

• site: — search within one site (for example, site:vk.com Ivan Ivanov);
• filetype: — search for files of the desired type (for example, filetype:pdf);
• intext: — requirement that the word must appear in the text of the page.

There are also quotation marks for searching for an exact phrase on Google, but they are not strictly observed. In Yandex, quotation marks, on the contrary, fix the phrase literally - in the same order and without declensions, so for an exact search by name or quote it is often more convenient. But we keep in mind that all requests in Yandex are open to Russian security officials.

It's best to search in private mode (incognito), via a VPN, or in a separate browser that you don't usually use - this will help prevent your past searches from influencing your search results.

2

Google Tracking Information

Google allows you to track search results that contain information about you. To receive such notifications, you need to provide the service with your data and consent .

The Google Alerts service has similar functionality - it automatically monitors new mentions of topics you specify in search results and sends notifications by email.

3

Search by nickname

The WhatsMyName service helps you find accounts on various sites by user name or nickname.

If you do not want your profiles to be linked, do not use the same nickname for different sites, services or platforms and do not provide your real name.

4

Search by email address

ThatsThem searches a database of hundreds of millions of email addresses and shows you what information might be associated with a given email, such as name, phone number, physical address, etc.

We advise you to visit the website haveibeenpwned.com from time to time and check if your address has been included in any major data leak. If this happens, depending on what exactly was leaked, you need to take three steps:

1. Change the password on the affected site.
2. End all unfamiliar sessions (they can be found in the security settings, in the list of connected devices).
3. If you have used the same password on other sites, change it there too.

To protect your personal data, it is better to create several mailboxes for different purposes. Often, personal correspondence and accounts on dozens of platforms are tied to one address. If you differentiate the flows of information and do not tie everything to one email at once, this will significantly reduce the damage in the event of a leak. Let one address be for communication, and the second, non-public, for everything else.

5

Search by photo

To find out which sites have your photos, you can use Google's reverse image search or PimEyes . The second will provide specific links only after payment, but its free version will allow you to find out the sites where the pictures are posted - then you can try to find them yourself.

There is also “ Yandex Search by Images ”, which works well for RuNet.

6

Browser fingerprint

The browser can provide sites with technical information necessary for correct operation: what fonts and plugins you have installed, information about the operating system, time zone, default language, screen resolution and other parameters. This information may also be collected by data brokers. Since there are many such parameters and they differ on each device, they can be used to uniquely identify the user (this is called a “digital fingerprint” or fingerprint).

The Cover Your Tracks service allows you to find out how trackers see your browser.

7

Can this data be deleted?

• You can clean up your social media profiles yourself. You can also close your profile - this will minimize access to your personal data.
• Data brokers or information brokers are companies that collect, process and sell your personal data. Information is usually collected from government registers and social networks or purchased from IT companies willing to share it. They are primarily interested in demographic, behavioral and financial data, as well as contact information. Data brokers' clients include targeted advertising and consumer behavior analysis companies, banks and other financial institutions. But your data can also fall into the hands of security forces and scammers, or simply leak into the network.

  Brokers can be prohibited from collecting information about you, but this is a long and painstaking process. There is a long list of brokers here - you will need to contact each of the organizations, verify your identity and fill out an opt-out form. There are services that offer to regularly delete your personal data for a fee (Incogni, privacybee, DeleteMe), but verifying their integrity will be problematic.

• If services or social networks provide such an opportunity, you can ask them to delete your personal data that is no longer relevant, threatens your reputation or safety, or was posted by third parties without your knowledge.

For example, in Google you can fill out a deletion request form, and in Yandex you can contact support. If your intimate photos or videos are uploaded to Pornhub, it also provides the option to delete data.

• In March 2021, amendments to the federal law “On Personal Data” came into force. According to them, you can contact any data controller and ask them to delete your personal information. The service has three days to comply, but if this does not happen, you can file a complaint with Roskomnadzor or a statement of claim in court.
• Please note that you can only delete your phone number, email address, passport number and home address in this manner, but not information of public interest such as news, court and government records.

We tell you more about ways to delete your personal data in the memo.