Target Hardening
February 2, 2026
In a previous post, we talked about what makes up your digital footprint—the accumulation of data about you scattered across the internet. Now let’s get practical.
This is a hands-on exercise. Set aside 30 minutes, open a new browser window, and follow along. By the end, you’ll have a clearer picture of what a stranger could learn about you with nothing but an internet connection and some patience.
Some of what you find might surprise you.
Start with the obvious. Open Google and search for your full name in quotes.
"John David Smith"The quotes force Google to search for that exact phrase. Without quotes, you’ll get results for anyone named John, David, or Smith.
Work through variations:
Note what comes up. LinkedIn profiles, social media accounts, news mentions, old forum posts, race results, wedding announcements, obituaries you’re mentioned in. Everything is fair game.
What to look for: Results you didn’t expect. Old accounts you forgot about. Information you didn’t realize was public.
Your email address is an identifier that connects accounts across the internet.
Search for each email address you’ve used:
"[email protected]"This often reveals:
Bonus step: Check if your email has been involved in known data breaches at haveibeenpwned.com. Enter your email, and the site will tell you which breaches included your information.
These are the aggregators that compile public records, social media data, and data broker information into convenient profiles.
Search for yourself on each of these:
You don’t need to pay for full reports. The free previews show you enough to understand what data they have: names, ages, addresses, relatives, phone numbers, and sometimes email addresses.
What to look for: Accuracy (is this actually you?), outdated information (old addresses), relatives listed, and the general scope of what they’ve compiled.
These are government databases that are open to the public by law.
Property Records: Search “[your county] property records” or “[your county] assessor.” If you own property, you can likely find your name, address, purchase price, and property details.
Voter Registration: Search “[your state] voter registration lookup.” Many states let you verify your registration, which also confirms what information is in the system. Some states make voter rolls publicly downloadable.
Court Records: Search “[your county] court records” or “[your state] judiciary case search.” If you’ve been involved in any civil or criminal court matter, there may be a record.
Business Filings: If you’ve registered an LLC or done business under a trade name, search your state’s Secretary of State business database.
What to look for: What information is attached to your name in official records. Property records often include your full legal name and home address. Court records can reveal details about lawsuits, divorces, or other legal matters.
Your profile photos appear in more places than you might realize.
Go to images.google.com and click the camera icon to search by image. Upload your primary profile photo—the one you use on LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social accounts.
Google will show you where that image (or similar images) appears online. This can reveal:
Bonus: Try TinEye.com for a different image search engine with its own index.
Log out of your social media accounts (or use a private browser window) and visit your profiles as a stranger would see them.
Facebook: Go to facebook.com/[yourusername]. What’s visible? Profile photo, cover photo, intro information, posts?
LinkedIn: Visit your LinkedIn profile while logged out. By default, most LinkedIn profiles are fully public.
Instagram: If your account is public, everything is visible. If it’s private, your bio, profile photo, and follower/following counts are still visible.
What to look for: Information you thought was private but isn’t. Photos visible to non-friends. Location information in your bio or posts.
If you’ve used the same username across multiple platforms, search for it.
"johndsmith92"This can reveal old accounts on forums, gaming platforms, social networks, and other services. Username reuse creates a trail that connects your activity across the internet.
Tools like namechk.com will check if a username exists across dozens of platforms at once—useful for seeing where your username is registered, even if you’ve forgotten.
Finding information is the first step. The next steps depend on what you found:
Outdated social accounts: Log in and delete them, or at least update privacy settings.
People search listings: Most of these sites have opt-out procedures (we’ll cover these in a future post).
Unexpected public records: You generally can’t remove these, but knowing they exist helps you understand your exposure.
Photos in unexpected places: If your image is being used without permission, most platforms have reporting mechanisms.
Breached passwords: Change them immediately, especially if you’ve reused them elsewhere.
This exercise isn’t about making you paranoid. It’s about knowing what’s out there.
Most of us have accumulated years of digital footprint without ever stopping to look at it from the outside. Old accounts we created and forgot. Photos we posted without thinking about metadata. Public records we didn’t know were public.
Once you know what’s exposed, you can make informed decisions about what to clean up, what to lock down, and what to accept as the cost of participating in modern life.
The goal isn’t to disappear. It’s to stop being surprised by what strangers can find.
Next in the Target Hardening series: “Opting Out” — the step-by-step process for removing yourself from data broker sites.