When Your Name Is In The Press, What Should You Share?

Whether you’re a small business owner, social media influencer, or other public figure, you probably know the value of publicity. You welcome attention from news articles or media because it has the potential to promote and grow your business. Publicity can help create a positive image for your brand and could even attract new clients. Plus, having your name in the press is a way to celebrate your career’s milestones and achievements.

While publicity can have a positive impact, exposing too much of your personal information is a threat to your personal privacy and security. News media outlets occasionally cross the line when it comes to invasion of privacy. For example, in a 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, reporters barged their way into the homes of the two suspects on live national television. They rooted through family photos, displaying Social Security cards and driver’s licenses of not only the suspects but their family members. Similar cases of doxxing have become more frequent in the last few years, with journalists digging up regular people’s personal information and using it against them.

Let’s say your name, job title, and salary is mentioned in a Business Insider article. If there’s enough public information out there about you, threat actors can create a dossier on you, track down where you live, and execute a robbery. Alternatively, they might assault your employees with social engineering scams, making your business vulnerable to a data breach. So, how do you protect yourself once your name is in lights? If having some public information out there is inevitable, you can still lessen your digital footprint to defend the more sensitive stuff.

You deserve the right to privacy. When being interviewed, protect your family members by not mentioning their names and avoid dropping hints about where you live. Avoid flaunting your wealth on social media, announcing that you’re going away on vacation, or sharing photos of your home. All of these advertise to bad actors that you’re a prime target, exposing you to physical threats, extortion, robbery, and kidnapping. Your perceived accessibility plays into your risk of becoming a target.

The best way to protect yourself and your information is to use Hush, a digital privacy service. We search the Internet for information that makes you vulnerable to threat actors. Once we find and flag it, you get to decide what stays or goes. We scrub the data points you prefer to keep private, and leave anything that brings value to your brand or business without putting you in harm’s way. Take control of your digital privacy with Hush.

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