The six questions behind every story we publish

Every article on this site starts from the same short list. Who has the information? Is it public or private? Can search engines see it? How long might it stay available? Can it be corrected or removed? What should you do next?

Those questions map onto the sections in the menu. Digital Footprints follows what you leave behind without meaning to. Online Privacy covers the settings and choices that change what companies collect. Online Reputation deals with what appears when someone searches your name. Social Media looks at who really sees a post. Safety, Data Brokers, Browser Privacy and Internet History covers the people-search trade and what your own devices keep.

This page is the map. If you're not sure where a question belongs, start here and pick the section closest to your problem. If it touches two sections, it's probably two problems, and they're worth handling separately.