✓Ready-made checklist

Digital footprint audit

What is available about you and how to tidy it: searching for yourself, listing accounts, privacy settings, old posts and app access, deleting the rest.

Items inside: 14

View the checklist

Add to Unload Download .txt

Download a text file for your notes, or open the list in your installed Unload app and confirm the import.

The list adapts to you

Answer the questions and only the items you need stay on the list. Your answers carry over to the app and the file.

Anything to include?

Your checklist

Titles only

Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.

Search for yourself in a private window
By different versions of your name, including old surnames and usernames. That shows what others see, not your personalised results.

A private window shows your public version; normal results are personalised and quietly hide the awkward parts.
List every account you have
From your password manager, email and sign-up history. There are always more than you remember.
Check privacy settings in the services you use
Who sees posts, who can message and find you by phone, what the public profile shows. Defaults change without you.
Review old posts
What was fine ten years ago reads differently now. Most services offer a bulk way to limit old posts.
Check location data in photos and posts
Home, work, children's school, regular routes. Posting in real time reveals more than people intend.
Revoke access from third-party apps
Services you once let sign you in. Many stay connected for years and keep reading your data.

Old integrations are a quiet leak: access granted once keeps working until it is manually revoked.
Check whether your data appeared in breaches
And change passwords wherever they were reused. A shared password turns someone else's breach into yours.
Download your data from accounts you delete
Photos, messages, documents. After deletion recovery is usually impossible, however much you need it.
Delete or close unused accounts
Every unused account is a future breach. If deletion is impossible, strip the data and detach the email.
Review photos of other people and children
Publishing them is a decision made for someone else. Asking or removing is easier than explaining later.
Separate work and personal presence A professional public presence
Different accounts, addresses and privacy settings. The mixture reveals itself at the worst possible moment.
Review children's accounts together with them Children have accounts
Not secretly: doing it together teaches and preserves trust. Doing it secretly teaches only better hiding.
Switch on login alerts
In email and key services. It is the earliest signal that something has gone wrong.
Set a reminder to repeat in a year
New accounts appear and defaults change. An annual audit keeps the footprint the one you chose.

Your digital footprint is visible to more than you

Accounts, old photos, comments from a decade ago, tagged locations, public lists and details you once typed into a sign-up form all live on. Employers see them, strangers see them, and so does anyone deliberately looking for you.

Auditing your footprint is not paranoia and not about deleting everything. It is about knowing what is available and making sure it matches your decision today rather than the decision made by the version of you from years ago.

Where to start

Step	What it gives
Search for yourself	You see what other people see
List your accounts	Some you have not opened in years
Check privacy settings	Defaults change without your involvement
Review old posts	What was fine then reads differently now
Delete unused accounts	Each one is a future leak

Search in a private window and try different versions of your name, including old surnames and usernames.

Settings worth checking in every service

Who sees your posts and old entries, who can message you and find you by phone number, whether location data is attached to your photos, what your public profile shows, which apps have access to the account and which of them still use it.

Check old third-party apps you once authorised: they frequently remain connected for years.

What to do with old accounts

An unused account is a risk: it ends up in a breach and you never find out. Delete or close anything you no longer use. If a service will not delete, strip the personal data and detach the email address.

Before deleting, download anything you care about: photos, messages, documents.

Photos and children

Think separately about photos of other people and of children: publishing them is a decision made on their behalf. Most regret is not about one’s own photos but about other people’s, posted without much thought.

When the audit is done

You know what a search finds, your accounts are listed, privacy is set deliberately, old third-party access is revoked, unused accounts are deleted and their data is saved.

Frequently asked questions

How do I check my digital footprint?

Search for yourself in a private window under different names, list your accounts, review privacy settings and old posts, revoke access from third-party apps and delete unused accounts after downloading anything you want to keep.

← Checklists