Highlighted wordsare glossary terms — tap one for a plain-language definition.
Your Digital footprintWhat it means: The information about a person that exists because of their online activities.Example: Old posts, forum accounts, and profiles still public years later.What to do: Search your own name and clean up or lock down what you find.Important: Deleting something doesn't remove copies, screenshots, or archives.What does this mean? is the trail of data you leave behind. Periodic audits let you clean up old posts, lock down profiles, and catch breaches early.
Search yourself
Start with your own name on Google and Bing. Set up Google Alerts so you're notified when new mentions appear.
- Set a Google Alert for your full name in quotes.
- Check old social profiles you've forgotten about.
- Ask data brokers to remove your info.
Watch for breaches — a smoke detector, not a certificate
Have I Been Pwned lets you check whether an email address appears in known breach data. Two things worth knowing: finding your email in a breach does not automatically mean someone currently controls your account, and not finding it does not prove your information has never been exposed. Think of a breach-checking tool as a smoke detector, not a certificate that everything is safe.
- Subscribe to breach notifications so you hear about new leaks early.
- If a breached password was reused anywhere, change those accounts first.
- Turn on breach monitoring in your Password managerWhat it means: Software that generates, stores, and fills unique account passwords, and may also manage passkeys or other credentials.Example: The manager generating and filling a 20-character password you never have to recall.What to do: Set one up and move your email, banking, and cloud passwords into it first.Important: Protect it with one strong passphrase plus MFA, and never share that passphrase.What does this mean? or browser too.
- Make WHOIS info private if you own a domain.
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Unfamiliar term? Open the Digital Safety Glossary