Personal Information Management—Tools and Practices To Rein In Your Digital Footprint
As an increasing number of daily activities move online, sharing personal information on the internet has become a regular occurrence. Every time internet users sign up for an online service, use an app, or purchase something online, their data can be captured and stored for later use. And the fact that many share their personal information willingly doesn’t diminish the impact growing digital footprints can have on their lives.
In this guide, we’ll explore personal information management services and practices that can help you reduce your digital footprint and improve personal information security. We’ll also show you how virtual cards can protect your financial information during online transactions.
Disclaimer: The details in this guide are current as of January 2025. For up-to-date information, please visit the official websites of listed services.
Why Is Personal Information Management Important?
Your personal data can be collected and used for legitimate and legal purposes that could benefit you. For example, businesses might collect it to provide you with a service or improve the quality of their offering. You can also divulge your personal information to exercise your rights, such as when filing insurance claims or accessing government services.
However, some reasons for personal information collection might not seem legitimate to you. And businesses and other organizations aren’t the only entities interested in your personal information—cybercriminals are, too.
Some of the dangers and inconveniences that can result from sharing personal information include:
- Identity theft—If cybercriminals get ahold of your personal information, they can steal your identity and use it to cause you financial and personal damage.
- Exposure during data breaches—Hackers might target individuals and companies to steal their personal information, sell it, or use it to commit fraud.
- Privacy compromises—Companies can profile, track, and monitor your behavior based on the personal information they gather.
- Reputation damage—Some personal information you share can damage your reputation and lead to missed opportunities, such as when applying for a job.
- Sale of your data—Data brokers are a type of company that will gather user data from various sources, often without knowledge or consent, to sell it.
If you employ personal information management strategies to reduce your digital footprint, you can reduce the risks of these potential consequences of sharing your personal information online.
How To Manage Your Personal Information Online
The three methods you can use to reduce your digital footprint and better manage the personal data you’ve already shared or plan to do so include:
- Remove the data that’s already online
- Set up identity theft protection
- Limit what you share online
Remove the Data That’s Already Online
While you can manually remove personal information aggregated by personal information databases, you can also enlist the help of personal data removal services. These companies target data brokers and people search engines to automate personal data removal requests in your name.
Data removal services usually operate by searching through personal information databases to determine your exposure, sending you a report of their findings, and filing opt-out requests to have your data removed. For maximum effectiveness, data protection services usually re-send these requests periodically in case your information reappears where you don’t want it.
When choosing a personal data removal service, pay attention to the following:
- Coverage—There are countless data brokers and people search sites online. You should look for a data removal service with wide coverage, and that’s actively adding new brokers as they emerge.
- Privacy policy—Data removal services will ask you to provide your personal information so they know what to scan for. You should check their privacy policies to see how they handle your data and also research their track record.
- Additional support—In some cases, sites might require you to submit a data removal request on your own. Your data removal service can help you by providing guides on how to do it.
Some of the most highly recommended personal data removal services include Incogni, Optery, and PrivacyBee.
Set Up Identity Theft Protection
Identity theft protection services offer features that help you detect and react to potential identity theft and the proliferation of personal information. Typically, they will:
- Monitor for signs of identity theft, such as credit score changes and suspicious bank account activities
- Check if your personal information has appeared on the dark web, in public records, or even on social media
- Offer assistance in case of identity theft, as well as insurance to cover potential damages
What makes these services especially valuable for personal information management is that they’re often bundled with tools that can actually help you manage your data. Depending on the service and plan you choose, your identity theft protection solution might also include:
- A virtual private network (VPN) solution—VPNs connect your device to the internet using a secure tunnel and servers in their network, making it harder for hackers to intercept your data and marketers to track you online.
- A password manager—These solutions can store personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers, and shipping addresses in an encrypted vault and help you practice good password hygiene.
- Antivirus software—Antivirus software protects your devices from infection with malicious software that might be used to steal your personal information or otherwise cause harm.
Like with personal data removal services, choosing a reputable provider to entrust your personal information protection and management with is important. Some tools you might try include Norton LifeLock, Aura, and IDShield.
Limit What You Share Online
One of the best personal information management methods you can employ is limiting the amount of personal information you share online. If you don’t want to completely forego the conveniences offered by online services, you can minimize your personal information footprint by:
- Reviewing the privacy policies of the services you use and choosing only the ones with reasonable data-gathering intentions
- Choosing the most private settings on services you use, such as Google’s or Amazon’s products or services
- Being mindful of the information you share and how it might impact your personal and professional life
If you’re looking for a method to specifically reduce the sharing of your financial information when making purchases online, consider using virtual cards. They act as a stand-in for your actual payment card numbers, helping protect you against financial information theft.
While your bank might offer them, choosing an independent virtual card provider such as Privacy will give you access to more features that will help protect your data and funds.
Privacy Cards Help Reduce the Risk of Financial Fraud
When you connect your debit card or bank account to Privacy, you can create unique virtual cards for your online payments. Privacy Virtual Cards work like regular payment cards while protecting your financial information from being stolen if a merchant suffers a data breach.
Privacy is a PCI-DSS-compliant service that uses robust security protocols to protect the information you share with it. The service employs AES-256 encryption to secure data in transit and at rest and regularly undergoes third-party security audits to ensure compliance with industry standards.
Other security features include:
Privacy Cards—Types and Their Features
Privacy offers three card types for different use cases:
- Single-Use—These cards are designed to close moments after completing the initial transaction. They’re best suited for one-time purchases on unfamiliar and unsecure websites. Even if a potential hacker manages to get ahold of the card information, they won’t be able to use it.
- Merchant-Locked—After the first transaction, these cards "lock" to the merchant, allowing multiple purchases from that specific vendor. You can use Merchant-Locked Cards to make purchases on your favorite online stores or pay for recurring subscriptions.
- Category-Locked—These cards "tie" to a specific merchant category, not a specific vendor. Category-Locked Cards are ideal for budgeting and keeping track of expenses on specific categories such as groceries, gas, or entertainment.
You can set spending limits and pause, unpause, or close your virtual cards anytime without affecting the connected funding source. Privacy will decline transactions that exceed your preset amount and block further charges on a paused or closed card, reducing the risk of unauthorized and accidental charges by sneaky merchants.
Additional Convenience Features
Privacy offers several convenience features to streamline virtual card management and online shopping experience:
- Privacy Browser Extension—Available for browsers including Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Safari for iOS, the extension lets you create virtual cards directly from the checkout page and autofill card information for quicker checkouts.
- Privacy App—The mobile app, available for iOS or Android, lets you monitor virtual card usage on the go, helping you spot suspicious activity quickly.
- 1Password integration—If you use 1Password to store and manage your passwords, you can easily create virtual cards within the 1Password browser extension and autofill card information on checkout pages, saving you time and effort.
- Shared Cards—You can share your virtual card with trusted family or friends while you remain in control of spending limits and card usage.
- Card Notes—You can add notes to virtual cards for easier tracking of expenses or reminders.
Get Your First Privacy Card
To join over 250,000 satisfied Privacy users and start using virtual cards to secure your online transactions, follow these steps:
- Create an account
- Complete the know-your-customer (KYC) process
- Link a funding source (your bank account or debit card)
- Request and generate your first Privacy Virtual Card
You can choose any of the four monthly plans Privacy offers depending on your specific needs:
