Digital Life · Protect
Not paranoid. Not careless. Just the handful of steps that close the easy doors, finished in a few evenings.
The ruling
Perfect privacy would mean disconnecting from everything that makes modern life work. This page does not ask you to do that. It asks you to spend a few evenings closing the doors that cost nothing to close and that stop the most common ways your information gets used against you.
The steps here are ones an ordinary busy household will actually complete. They do not require changing your phone, abandoning platforms, or learning to use specialized tools. If you want to go further, there are good guides written for that audience. This is not one of them.
What this page covers: freezing your credit, reviewing the permissions your phone shares with apps, requesting removal from the largest data broker sites, and tightening browser settings. Together, they form a baseline that takes most households from wide-open to reasonably protected.
Start here
A credit freeze tells the three nationwide credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, to block new creditors from pulling your file. When a lender cannot see your report, they will not open the account. That single step stops the most common form of identity fraud: someone using your Social Security number to open cards, loans, or phone lines in your name.1
Freezing is free by federal law, does not affect your credit score, and does not interfere with your existing accounts, employer background checks you have authorized, or your own credit monitoring.2 When you need to apply for new credit, you lift the freeze temporarily at the bureau the lender uses. Most lifts happen within an hour online.
Create an account at each bureau. You will need your name, address, Social Security number, and date of birth. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each have a separate portal.
Request the freeze. Each bureau calls it a "security freeze" or "credit freeze." The option is usually under account security or credit report settings.
Save your PIN or confirmation. Some bureaus give you a PIN to lift the freeze later. Store it in your password manager or your household account inventory.
Freeze for every adult in the household. Each person's credit file is separate. Both partners need their own freeze at all three bureaus.
If you have children under 16, you can request a credit freeze on their behalf as well. The process differs by bureau; the FTC provides instructions for each.2
Cost: Free. Federal law prohibits the bureaus from charging for credit freezes or lifts. No subscription is needed.
Your phone
Most apps request more permissions than they need to function. A flashlight app does not need your contacts. A weather app does not need continuous access to your precise location. Revoking unnecessary permissions takes a few minutes and reduces the data available to advertisers and data brokers without changing how you use your phone.3
Start with the permissions that matter most: location, camera, microphone, and contacts. On both iPhone and Android, you can review these by going to your device's Settings, then Privacy (or Privacy and Security).
Set most apps to "While Using" rather than "Always." Navigation, weather at your current spot, and ride-sharing need your location while open. Social media and shopping apps rarely do.
Grant access only to apps that genuinely use them: video calls, your camera app, and voice recorders. Revoke from anything else.
Your contacts list contains names, phone numbers, and email addresses for everyone you know. Share it only with your phone and messaging apps, not with games or utility apps.
On iPhone, set "Ask App Not to Track" as the default (Settings > Privacy > Tracking). On Android, opt out of ad personalization (Settings > Privacy > Ads).3
While reviewing, delete any apps you no longer use. An uninstalled app cannot collect data.
Your information
Data brokers are companies that compile publicly available records and app-collected data into profiles they sell. These profiles can include your name, address history, phone numbers, relatives, and sometimes estimated income. The profiles fuel targeted advertising and also provide raw material for scam calls and identity theft.4
You cannot remove yourself from every broker, and new records re-populate over time. But removing yourself from the largest people-search sites significantly reduces the amount of personal information available to anyone who searches your name. The FTC recommends starting with the sites that appear when you search for yourself.4
Search your own name. Open a private browser window and search your full name plus your city. Note which people-search sites show your information.
Submit opt-out requests. Each site has its own removal form. The largest include Spokeo, Whitepages, BeenVerified, and Intelius. Most removals take 2 to 14 days.
Repeat every six months. Brokers re-aggregate from public records continuously. A single removal is a good start, but periodic checks keep the doors closed.
California residents: The state's Delete Request and Opt-out Platform (DROP) lets you send a single removal request to all registered data brokers at once. Starting August 2026, brokers must process those requests every 45 days.5
Cost: Manual opt-outs are free. Paid removal services ($3 to $15 per month) automate the process and handle re-listing. Whether to pay is a time-versus-money decision, not a security requirement.
Your browser
Every major browser includes privacy controls that most people never change from their defaults. Adjusting a few settings reduces the amount of browsing data shared with advertisers without breaking the sites you rely on.
Third-party cookies let advertisers track you across websites. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge all offer settings to block or limit them. Safari and Firefox block most third-party cookies by default. In Chrome, go to Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Cookies, and select "Block third-party cookies."
Standard search engines build a profile from your query history. Alternatives like DuckDuckGo do not track searches or build ad profiles. You can set one as your default in your browser settings and switch back for any search that needs it.
DNS, the system that translates website names into addresses, can reveal every site you visit to your internet provider. CISA recommends using encrypted DNS services such as Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), Google (8.8.8.8), or Quad9 (9.9.9.9), which are free to use and can be set at the device or router level.3
Most social platforms default to sharing more than necessary. Set your profile to friends-only where possible, disable location tagging on posts, and review which third-party apps have access to your account. This is also a good time to remove old apps you no longer use from your connected-accounts list.
Watch for these
Freezing one bureau but not all three.
Lenders pull from any one of the three. Leaving one unfrozen leaves a door open.
Paying for credit monitoring instead of freezing.
Monitoring tells you after fraud happens. Freezing prevents it. Do the freeze first; monitoring is a secondary layer.1
Installing a browser extension from an unknown source.
Some privacy extensions collect more data than they block. Stick to well-known, open-source extensions recommended by reputable sources, and keep them updated.
Using the same email for everything.
When a store's mailing list is breached, your primary email becomes a target. Consider a separate address for shopping, newsletters, and account signups. Free email services make this easy.
Keep going
Privacy and account security work together. A frozen credit file and a strong password manager cover different threats.
Your account inventory, backup plan, and offline copies of the records that matter most.
The physical and digital sides of keeping your household safe, covered in one guide.
This page was last reviewed in July 2026. Digital guidance changes faster than most preparedness topics. If that date is more than a year old, confirm key steps against the sources above before acting on them.
Enough for now
Revisit every six months, or whenever you get a new phone.
This guide is part of When Something Looks Off — all the guides for this concern in one place.