The Digital Footprint You Didn't Know You Were Leaving

Your name. Your city. Your job title. Your relatives' names. It's all out there — and attackers don't need to hack you when they can just look you up. 

In this episode of SipCyber, Jen Lotze settles in at Pryes Brewing — brick walls, big windows, the river just outside — with a hop water in hand and something worth saying: most of us spend our lives trying to be known, but online, a little strategic obscurity might be the best defense you've never considered. 

The data broker ecosystem is massive, largely invisible, and actively feeding the phishing emails and vishing calls that feel unsettlingly personal. That text that knew your city. That call that referenced your coworker's name. That's not magic — that's aggregated public data being weaponized against you. 

Key Topics Covered:  

• How attackers use publicly available personal data to manufacture trust  
• Why "people search" sites are a threat actor's first stop  
• Yael Privacy Lab's data broker opt-out list — free and practical  
• The Intel Techniques workbook for manual removal  
• Paid services (DeleteMe, Optery) that automate and monitor removals  
• How Google's subscription tools can alert you to new exposures 

This isn't about going off the grid. It's about being a little harder to find — and a lot harder to fool. 

🍺 Featured Spot: Pryes Brewing 

You can't control every breach — but you can control how much is floating out there about you. Subscribe for weekly cybersecurity insights from the best local spots across the country, and share this with someone whose name is probably on one of those sites right now. 

#DataPrivacy #DataBrokers #OnlinePrivacy #Cybersecurity #PhishingPrevention #DeleteMe #Optery #DigitalFootprint #InfoSec #SipCyber #CyberSafety #PrivacyTools #OSINT 

Transcript

Jen Lotze 0:03

Hey there coffee lovers and internet explorers. Some places make collaboration feel easy before anyone even opens a laptop. Prize Brewing has that kind of energy. The brick, the huge windows, the river just outside. People drifting in before events and meetings and concerts. I'm here with my team before an event. We're sitting around one of those lawn tables that somehow make everyone talk more honestly. And today I had a hop water. Old citrusy, really refreshing. One of those drinks that feels simple in the best way possible. No alcohol, no heaviness, just good conversation and that little pause before the event begins tonight. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, while everyone was talking and planning and laughing, I caught myself thinking about something I do not think we talk about often enough online. Most of us want to be known. Known as good at what we do, known as Sip Cybergirl, known by our teams, known by our communities, known by the people we care about. That part is human. But online, sometimes it's even more important to be forgotten. That's the part that attackers count on. Not hacking in the movie sense, just collecting little pieces of people. Your name, your role, your phone number, your relatives, your old addresses, enough information to sound believable. That fake text feels more real when it knows your city. That phishing email feels more convincing when it references your job. That phone call feels more trustworthy when they already know the names of the people around you. Trust builds slowly in real life. Online, attackers try to manufacture it instantly. And there are actually some really good tools now if you want to clean that up a little bit and get rid of what's floating around out there about you online. Yale Grower's big ass data broker opt-out list is a good free place to start. The Intel Techniques workbook is two. Both of these walk you through removing yourself from a lot of those people search sites. And if you'd rather not spend your weekend doing all that manually, there are services like Delete Me and Optery that will handle a lot of the removals for you and keep checking over time. Because your information has a way of showing back up again. Even Google has started helping people with some of this. If you have a Google subscription, like storage subscription, it can alert you when personal information about you appears online and help you request removals. Because honestly, being a little harder to find online matters. Not invisible, just a little less exposed. And sitting here at Prize, with all that hop water and all the noise of the room around us and the outdoors, I keep thinking about how good it feels to be known by the right people and how peaceful it can feel to disappear a little from everyone else. Thanks for joining me on this trip to Prize Brewing and for taking a small step to secure a digital life. Until then, stay safe and keep sipping.