Old accounts and forgotten photos can make you a target. CBS News Confirmed's Alex Clark shares how to delete your data and stay safe as internet scams reach a record $16.6 billion in losses.

The persistence of personal data on the internet has created new opportunities for scammers, with internet-related crime losses reaching a record $16.6 billion, representing a 33% increase from the previous year. Scammers often exploit publicly available information, including old social media profiles, photographs, and personal details exposed online.

Data brokers collect individuals' online activities, selling these details to advertisers, political groups, and people-finder sites. Individuals can review their digital footprint by searching for their name, usernames, and addresses on search engines. Tools like Google’s "Results About You" and email-based history checkers can help users locate personal data accessible online.

Common sources of public information include outdated accounts on platforms like MySpace, exposed photo albums on social media, and personal details such as addresses or phone numbers listed on people-finder websites or documents posted by others. To reduce exposure, users are advised to delete unused accounts, adjust privacy settings on social platforms, and use opt-out processes on data aggregator sites. While some online data can be removed or hidden, complete elimination is generally not possible.

Protective steps also include sharing personal information sparingly, creating secure and unique passwords, and ensuring connections are secure. If sensitive data is found in places outside one’s direct control, such as a colleague’s resume, it is recommended to discuss data sharing preferences with friends and family. Additional security measures like enabling two-factor authentication and regularly updating passwords can reduce the risk of identity theft or online impersonation.



How to clean up your digital footprint, protect against scams

The internet, very long memory. It's impossible to get stuff off of there. We're talking about everything from forgotten social media profiles to photos from a college party you may not remember, and lots of other reasons as well. Scammers, taking advantage of all this information to steal from you and from other people. In 2024, scammers stole a record $16.6 billion through internet crimes like identity theft and online impersonation. That is a 33% jump from the year before. So, how can you protect yourself? That's where the CBS News Confirmed team comes in, Alex Clark with our team, put together some tips so you do not become a scammer's next victim. Nearly everything you do online leaves behind a trail of data. They're like little breadcrumbs. So, we're using an example named Tina today, and these breadcrumbs that she's leaving behind represents the data that she's left while browsing online. So, what happens is behind the scenes, your data gets collected by what's called data brokers. They may sell your data to advertisers, political organizations, and even to people finder sites. She doesn't want that, so here's how she can try to stop that. First, Tina can investigate her digital trail. She can go to Google, Google her name, username, and addresses to see what comes up, and Google also has a new tool called Results About You that will do this automatically if you trust them. And she can also use a website that searches for her history using her email, so that's another option. These are her search results that she finds. So, first off, there's an old MySpace page. Second, there's a Facebook album with a wild party on it. Next, her full address is listed on a people finder site, and her phone number is listed on a colleague's resume. So, how can she clean this all up? Our first tip is to delete any accounts you don't want to appear anymore. So, does she really need this old MySpace page? No, delete it. Next, let's take a look at this social album. When she logs into Facebook, she's going to look for the three dots in the album, and when she selects that, she can go to edit her privacy settings. She'll select Friends, so that strangers can no longer see these. Next, there's a people finder website that has Tina's address on it, and most of these sites have what's called an opt-out page. So, she's going to go there and see if she can get her data removed. Some services will do it for you, but there's no guarantee that it's gone for good. So, now we've cleaned up Tina's profile, we've cleaned up most of Tina's data, but there's still one thing left, the resume, her number on a colleague's resume, and this wasn't even in her controls. She was listed as a reference for someone, which is something that's easy to forget about. So, how can you tackle those? What she's going to want to do is limit how often she gives her name and address online, use unique, secure passwords, and make sure that her connections are secure. Just look for the S and the lock in the bar. Lastly, she's going to discuss her data goals with friends and family. She asked her friend to remove that number. Problem solved. I love these tips. They're so specific, and you just walk us through how to do them. Alex, thank you so much for being here. Of course. So, on that last point, when your number, if your number's listed on someone else's document, like someone else's resume, if you're listed as a reference, you can't do anything about that, really, but you can kind of scale back your own behavior, as you pointed out. Is there any way to delete that? Well, unfortunately, there's no way to completely eliminate all the data you have online, but using these tips and working with other people, your friends and family, letting them know what your goals are, you can actually get some of it taken down, or at least harder to surface when you search, and that's going to protect you in the long run. If you think a scammer or anyone else already has your data, how do you, what do you do then? You call them up? Yeah, that can be extremely terrifying. Just think about it. Some of your most personal details are out there on the internet, and with artificial intelligence and other new tools, they can be used against you in new ways. So it's important to act fast. You want to enable two-factor authentication on your accounts. Set up new secure passwords. I'm talking 12 characters, numbers and digits. Mix it up. No more passwords? The quicker you act, the better. All right. I got some passwords to change, Tony. All your passwords are a curse word, this password. I'm not, I can't tell you, but my passwords are, the root of it is old, and I just keep adding. I hate this password. Alex Clark, thank you so much. Thank you.

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