One of the first things you probably heard about the internet was to be careful how much information you share publicly. However, even without realizing it, it’s possible that you’ve let some information slip over the years. If you’re trying to make sure you maintain as much privacy as possible, there are a number of things you can do to track down that information and try to get it off the internet. Here are four steps to take to take a look at your cyber footprint.
1. Revisit Any Old Usernames You Remember
Most people have gone through a number of usernames on the internet. If you remember those usernames, it’s possible for you to check for your usernames across the internet and revisit the accounts that have them. If there’s any important information on any of those accounts, you’ll be able to see and fix that.
Not all accounts with a specific username will be your own account. If you used a handle that’s a bit easier to come up with, it’s possible that some of these accounts will be those that someone else created. However, it’s still a good idea to check on all accounts that come up as registered. You never know when you might have made an account but forgot about it.
2. Do Some General Internet Searching
It’s a good idea to just look around on the internet. No matter what search engine you prefer, it should be able to help you look around for your old information pretty easily. If you have a less common name, you might be able to look around just for your name; if you have a more common name, it’s probably a good idea to search for your username instead.
With general internet searching, you might be able to find profiles that didn’t show up in the username search process. Whether it’s because the sites aren’t available on the username tool you used or because you’re finding new profiles that cross-referenced your old ones, it can help you clean up any remaining profiles that you didn’t remember.
3. Enlist Some Other People to Search for You
When you’re the one searching, you’re going to be searching with a very specific set of thoughts in mind. However, no matter how good you are at looking for information, you’re at a disadvantage because you’re only one person. What if you were able to extend your searching options to include more than just yourself? That’s where some friends can come into play.
If you have friends who can help you a bit with the process, you can enlist them to help you find old profiles of yours. They’ll likely search with different keywords and different phrases, which will turn up different results. This can make it easier for you to more completely scan the internet for your past information so you can take down any that you might not be comfortable with having available publicly.
4. Run Some Searches With a Public Record Search Engine
A public record search engine can be a great way to find out what information is available publicly about you. While most people won’t go so far as to run a people search on you, the information in a public record search engine, especially information about your online history, can be a great way to scan the internet and clear it of any information you want to remove. This is where PeopleFinders can be hugely beneficial.
When you perform a people search with PeopleFinders, you can find out a lot of information about someone. This is also true when you’re performing a people search on yourself. No matter who you’re looking for information about, you can get a huge amount of information from PeopleFinders. Searching yourself is a great way to keep an eye on what information other people could also gather about you.
Conclusion
Your cyber footprint is a way people can learn more about who you really are. In certain cases, this could be something you want to reduce as much as possible. Whether you’re actively concerned about your privacy or you just want to check on what people can learn about you, you can use tools from the internet, including PeopleFinders, to find out all that information so you can move forward.
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