5-Minute Privacy Tips to Reduce Your Digital Footprint

It’s Global Information Governance Day. In theory, organizations spend the day overhauling cybersecurity to keep your data safe. In reality, that’s not always the case. So, here are some five-minute privacy tips you can actually control. 

Privacy Tip #1: Lock down your phone

Smartphones are one of the most privacy-violating necessities around. On average, people spend four and a half hours on their phones, and they give away a lot of personal info in the process. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to reduce risk. 

1. Check app permissions

Every time you give an app permission to access your personal information, like your location data or contacts, you put that data at risk. Imagine if one of those apps suffers a breach or sells your information to a third-party site like a data broker. 

To take the first step, look for something like a permission manager in the settings. There will be a list of permissions that you’ve granted to apps in the past. Look for:

• Location: Most apps (reading, streaming, authenticators) don’t actually need to know where you are. Limit access to “While Using” or “Never.”
• Calendar: Social media and photo apps often request this.Keep it private to prevent apps from tracking your personal meetings, lunch breaks, and weekend plans.
• Contacts: When you grant access, you share the names and numbers of friends and family, exposing their data. 
• Photos and videos: Metadata embedded in files reveals exactly when and where a photo was taken. This data is a goldmine for cybercriminals. 
• Health and wellness: Remove permissions or verify that your apps’ privacy policies don’t allow them to sell your biometric info to third-party data brokers.

The rule of thumb should be data minimization, meaning you give apps the least amount of data possible to do whatever you need them for. And sometimes, you can see if there’s an alternative that doesn’t require quite so much data fuel for its daily grind. 

2. Turn off AI training

Some apps may have it in their policy that they can use your data to train AI tools. In theory, that will help make those AI tools better and ultimately make the apps more useful for everyone. It sounds like a win-win, right? 

Since personal data has shown up in chatbot outputs and AI company breaches before, it’s probably safer to go ahead and turn that off. 

3. Turn on 2FA

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is one of the best ways to protect your accounts from exploitation on your phone. It goes beyond a simple password and username and requires one more piece of authentication, usually a one-time-passcode or biometric data like a fingerprint or face scan. 

Make sure you use 2FA for any apps that allow it, or at the very least for banking apps and health apps. 

4. Start saying no

Get used to clicking no when new apps ask for permissions that don’t make sense, like a free game app that wants your location. 

While you’re at it, pay attention to the privacy information on your app store. Google Play will let you know if an app shares data with third parties, what types of information it can collect, and whether the app encrypts data in transit. Say no to apps that collect a lot of information and can sell that to data brokers. 

5. Hand out fake information

A lot of apps ask for your name, age, birth date, and other data. Usually, it’s just so they can verify you’re over 18 and track your activity. 

If you want to stay extra safe, start giving them the wrong birth date, off by a year or even a few days, and create a fake name. 

Privacy Tip #2: Rethink your web activity

Your internet service provider (ISP) and the company that provides your browser know a ton of information about you, including your general location, which sites you visit, and anything you’ve purchased on those sites. So what can you do without ruining the web experience completely? 

1. Say no to cookies

Cookies are a method websites use to track your activity. On most sites, there will be a popup that asks if you want to allow all cookies, only necessary cookies, or deny all cookies. Whenever possible, deny all. There really are some kinds of cookies you can do without. 

2. Read privacy policies

Pay attention to the privacy policy for any website or platform you use on the regular. To make it easier, put the policy into an AI chatbot and ask about anything you should be worried about, like third-party data sales and tracking. 

If a site doesn’t allow you to delete your information or collects far too much, you can likely opt out or find another service with better protections. 

3. Know your security terms

Some web-based services are SOC-2 and ISO 27701-compliant. That means they adhere to strict privacy standards and are more likely to be able to keep your data safe from breaches. While no security is absolute, keep an eye out for these certifications. 

4. Use Brave or another privacy browser

Brave and Tor are two top options for privacy. They can block trackers and pop-ups while also hiding your IP address from the websites you visit. While they may not present the same level of convenience as Google, since tracking is how Google shows you the most relevant results, they’re a worthwhile alternative if you’re concerned about reducing your digital footprint. 

5. Do a Google search to see where you’re exposed

Unless you’ve spent your whole life locking down your digital footprint, you can probably find your name, phone number, email, and home address scattered across a dozen or so data broker sites. Spokeo, Whitepages, and BeenVerified are just a few of the most common. 

Opt out from one site every time you do a search. Ideally, it should only take 5-10 minutes, though some data brokers deliberately make it more difficult. 

You can take a look at our DIY opt-out guides to help you, or you can rely on DeleteMe’s service to opt out on your behalf. 

Privacy Tip #3: Share less on social media

Nearly nine in ten Americans believe that people in general share too much on social media. If you want to get serious about your privacy, you can change that in just a few minutes. 

1. Audit your “friend” list

A large follower count might feel good, but every account on that list is a potential leak. If your profile is “Private,” but you have 500 “friends” you haven’t spoken to in a decade, your data isn’t actually private.

Go to your friends/followers list and remove anyone you don’t recognize or trust with your home address. If you wouldn’t invite them to your house, they shouldn’t see your posts.

2. Disable “discoverability” via phone or email

By default, platforms like X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram often allow people to find your profile if they have your phone number or email in their contacts. This makes it easy for anyone with access to your phone number, including data brokers and cybercriminals, to track down your social media as well. 

In your settings under “Privacy” or “Discoverability,” toggle off “Let others find me by my email/phone number.” 

3. Mask your past and present location

Many platforms automatically attach a location to your photos or allow you to “check-in.” Even worse, many people post vacation photos while they are still away, signaling an empty house.

Turn off “Location Services” specifically for social apps in your phone settings. Never tag a location or post a photo until you have physically left that place, and don’t share about where you’ve lived or gone to school in the past. 

4. Revoke “Connected Apps”

If you’ve ever used “Sign in with Facebook/Google,” those apps might still have a “token” to access your profile data even if you deleted the app years ago.

Go to your social media settings (usually under “Security” or “Apps and Websites”) and view the list of authorized apps. Click “Remove” or “Revoke” on every single one you don’t use daily.

5. Scrub Your “About” Section

In the early days of social media, it was standard to list your high school, your birthday, and your hometown. Today, that is a goldmine for “Security Question” hackers and identity thieves.

Clear out your bio. Delete your birth year, your specific job title, and your “Home Town.” If the platform requires a birthday for age verification, set the visibility to “Only Me.”

Privacy Tip #4: Take privacy seriously

We’d love it if every app, website, and social media platform you visited could guarantee your safety online. They can’t. Unfortunately, secure by design is still a rare feature, and big companies often have the greatest disregard for your privacy. 

Until companies and regulators step up, it’s all on you. Make sure you know how to keep yourself safe and take the steps needed, even if it’s just five minutes a day. 

Learn more: 

• Try our free scan to see where your information is exposed online
• Learn more about data brokers and how they contribute to a surveillance economy
• Read more about our privacy tips (some of these might take a bit longer than five minutes)