Make yourself hard to find Data brokers scour the following to build a hefty profile of exactly who you are: Public records: Think government documents. Social media: Any publicly available info about you. Commercial sources: This includes companies you interact with. Self-reported info: Stuff you willingly put about yourself on the internet. The list goes on and on. These data dealers gather all that up, package it and sell it to people-search sites, which then turn around and provide it again to anyone else willing to pay. This opens you up to problems, from identity theft to doxxing to an inbox and phone filled with spam texts, emails and calls. You can’t delete yourself from the internet totally, but you can make a big dent in how easy your details are to find for data brokers. Think of it like locking your car or putting in a home security system. Will these stop all crime? No, but they’re needed deterrents. Doing this yourself is a huge chore, taking literally hundreds of hours. Then, bank on spending at least 40 hours a month after, making sure you haven’t been readded to data brokers’ lists and other data-hungry sites. Luckily, there are services that do the dirty work for you, and Incogni is the best I’ve found. Right now, get 60% off using code KIM60. It’s so worth it! | 