OSINT: How Much of Your Life Is Publicly Discoverable?

OSINT is the practice of assembling public fragments into a profile. Investigators use it. So do social engineers building a convincing scam call.

What leaks without you noticing

• Reused usernames that link a professional profile to an anonymous one.
• Photo metadata and recognisable backgrounds that reveal home or school.
• Birthday posts, pet names and school names, the classic security answers.
• Public voter, company and property registries.
• Old breach data tying an email address to a phone number.

Reducing your exposure

• Use different usernames for different areas of life.
• Strip location data before uploading photos; delay holiday posts.
• Answer security questions with random strings stored in your password manager.
• Lock down friend lists and tagged photos.
• Re-run the search on yourself every few months.