Day 3

Physical Security + DeleteMe: Opt Out Of Public Information Databases

 
 
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Day 3: Physical Security + DeleteMe: Opt Out Of Public Information Databases

Now, we’ve already organized our accounts, wiped our old devices, and started cleaning up our online footprint. But today, we’re stepping out of the cloud and into the real world because physical security is just as important as your online privacy.

Because if your address, mail, or phone number gets exposed, it can undo a lot of the work you’ve already done online.

So let’s talk about protecting your real-world identity: setting up a secondary mailing address, using burner phones or SIMs, and a few pro tips to keep your personal info off the grid.

What’s up S’mores! I’m Shannon Morse and welcome to Day 3 of my 30-Day Security Challenge, where we’re protecting your digital life one bite-sized step at a time.

If you’re following along, make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next video. You can grab the full 30-Day Challenge checklist and notes over at ShannonRMorse.com.

When people think about “hacking,” they imagine someone in a hoodie behind a computer screen. But honestly? One of the first steps for any hack to happen is data reconnaissance.

If a stranger can find your home address, your phone number, or your routine, they can dox you, stalk you, or even socially engineer access to your accounts.

So the goal today isn’t paranoia… it’s prevention. You’re just putting a little privacy bubble between you and the rest of the internet. It’s the same reason we put passwords on our home Wifi networks.

I think a lot of people underestimate how physical data leaks can cause digital problems.

Ever get one of those “pre-approved credit card” letters in the mail? Those are gold for identity thieves. And all it takes is one old data broker entry with your real home address for someone to find where you live.

If you’ve ever googled yourself and seen your name, address, and relatives show up and that’s what we’re fixing today.

This is also super important for creators, small-business owners, and remote workers because your home address might be tied to your domains, business filings, or shipping records. So let’s fix that.

There are 3 parts to today’s video, with the first being Data Brokers.

STEP 1: DATA BROKERS

Todays video is sponsored by DeleteMe which is a company I’ve personally been a customer of for years. They make everything I’m about to talk about in this video much, much easier to manage, and I also have a coupon code exclusively available for my viewers.

A lot of “people search” sites publish your personal info… things like your name, address, phone number, or even family members. These databases scrape public records and resell your data.

You’ve probably seen the data broker sites if you google yourself - they pop up with your information and if you can see your own info when you google yourself, so can everyone else. Creepy, huh?!

These companies scrape public records to create profiles on you with everything from your name, address, and birthday to your relatives, old jobs, and phone numbers.

These sites pull info from property records, DMV databases, business filings, and more. Even if it’s technically legal, it’s still unsettling.

You can manually opt out of each site - the problem is a lot of these sites make it incredibly annoying to do so. They make you jump through hoops, send an email or a letter, send in a picture of your ID, and given that there are hundreds of these sites now (I’m not even joking - just look at this list), it’s impossible for one human to stay on top of this along with just living your life.

When I was young and naïve, I once had a viewer text me and tell me they found my phone number online, which was very disturbing and parasocial, but I did appreciate them letting me know.

After that, I asked my information security friends how to fix that problem, and they recommended I sign up for this service called Abine’s DeleteMe - they’ll do the removals for you and keep your data off those sites on a routine basis. Which freed up my time and allowed me to not stress about where my data was.

DeleteMe is a privacy service that automatically removes your personal information from hundreds of data broker sites - and keeps doing it all year long, just in case it reappears somewhere in the future.

I use it personally, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to stop stalkers, scammers, or data miners from digging into your private life.

Use the code SNUBS for 20% off and see how DeleteMe can help you take your online privacy to the next level. Hit up https://joindeleteme.com/MorseCode to sign up today!

Once you’ve started removing data from data brokers, you’ll probably notice that they keep on getting your data from somewhere - so where is it coming from?

Well, if you’ve deleted your old accounts and devices from Day 2 of this challenge, then you can now just focus on updating the information for the accounts that you actually use. Since lots of sites and services sell our data to third parties (including data brokers), we should flood those sites with data that doesn’t just hand out our personal information.

If you’re finding this video helpful, a subscribe would me a lot to me. Subscribing is a simple and free way to support creators on youtube!

So if you’re following along with the challenge, hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you don’t miss tomorrow’s video. You can grab the full checklist and daily recap at ShannonRMorse.com.

BIG Patreon shoutout to to my smores! You can join them and support my channel by going to patreon.com/shannonmorse for perks like early video access and my private discord!

As usual, all the videos on my channel are free to watch, and I thank my youtube members and patrons for making that possible.

That brings me to

STEP 2: SETTING UP A SECONDARY MAILING ADDRESS

Instead of giving out your home address for every online order, subscription, or package, set up a secondary address.

Here are your options:

  • PO Box: Simple, secure, and affordable. Just note: some companies won’t ship to a PO box.

  • Private Mailbox Service: Places like UPS Store, iPostal1, or Anytime Mailbox give you a real street address - which works better for deliveries.

  • Virtual Mailbox: If you travel a lot or run a business, you can get your mail scanned and forwarded digitally. Services like Earth Class Mail offer this for a fee.

  • You can search online for comparisons and the best option for you based on where you live.

  • Physical locations such as PMBs have the added benefit of deterring package theft and porch pirates, because packages are locked away by the business and you have to physically pick them up.

In my life as a content creator, I have a private mailbox service that I can use for product reviews, PR, and business mail. That ensures that if a PR company or a device manufacturer isn’t storing my data correctly, they can only leak my PMB, not my home address.

Bonus tip: use your new mailing address on everything that doesn’t legally require your home address - like online shopping, fan mail, or public domain registrations.

Since this is a paid service, look into all your options. If a family member has an office you can send mail to, ask them if you can send mail there. If you run a business, a mailbox service might be a business expense (disclaimer: I am not a tax accountant).

STEP 3: GET A BURNER OR A NEW SIM

Next up: your phone number.

We give out our numbers constantly, and that makes them one of the easiest ways to identify or track someone. Your phone number is one of the most abused identifiers out there. It’s used for verification, recovery, 2FA, marketing, data brokerage and unfortunately, for phishing and scams. I’m sure we’ve all gotten weird text messages or phone calls that are marked as spam at one point or another, likely because a scammer found our number on a data broker site (which again, is why I recommend DeleteMe so much).

So here’s what I would recommend:

  • For public or semi-public use, keep a separate “burner” number that you can use for giveaways, forms, and subscriptions.

  • For personal or private use, only close friends, family, and business partners get your real number.

  • I prefer using a real number for 2FA if a site still doesn’t accept authentication codes in more secure forms (I’ll talk more about 2FA in a future video).

Pro tip: never tie your burner number to your main email or payment accounts. Keep it separate. If you ever get spammed or leaked, you can delete that burner number, and your real one stays safe. That way you don’t run the risk of someone using your burner number to hack into your email or main payment accounts.

You can get burner numbers from places like Google Voice (free, reliable, and easy to manage); Hushed (great for short-term use or international numbers); and All in One Privacy Services, which also offer private and encrypted email, virtual payment card numbers, and more. I’ve tried a couple of these services myself, but I’d love to hear your recommendations below.

You can also use a secondary app like Signal to hide your phone number from anyone you add on Signal who doesn’t already have your phone number in their contacts. This is a great option if you don’t want to pay for a second SIM or eSIM, or you don’t want to deal with the hassle of having a second number via an app like Google Voice.

STEP 4: LIMIT FUTURE DATA LEAKS

Now that your mail and calls are locked down, let’s talk about a few physical privacy habits that go a long way:

  • Shred sensitive mail like bank statements or medical info before tossing them.

  • Opt out of data broker sites with DeleteMe (like we talked about earlier).

  • Avoid sharing location tags in real time on social media. Post that vacation photo after you get home.

  • Label packages with your alternate address when selling or trading items online. And if you post unboxings or mail hauls on social media, rip off shipping labels or cover them up.

  • Use a secondary email address, too, for online shopping and to give out publicly. Make sure that new account is also secure - don’t reuse a password, set up 2FA, more on these soon!

  • Use a registered agent or LLC for business ownership to keep your name off public filings.

  • Lock down your voter registration or DMV info if your state allows address privacy programs.

  • Use privacy screens on laptops or phones when working in public so people can’t peep on your monitor.

  • Also cars now collect a ton of telemetry data so look into disabling always-on location tracking and opting out of manufacturer data collection, and don’t save your home address into your car’s built in map, or put it into rentals.

  • Once you’ve got a new set of secondary profile information, update all your accounts with that new info.

These small changes make it a lot harder for someone to connect your online persona with your real-world location.

This is a big set of tasks that overtime have a big privacy benefit. You’ll start noticing that if your data IS sold to third parties like Data Brokers, it’s your secondary information being populated, not your home address and private phone number.

Tomorrow, we’ll dig into home network security - Wi-Fi safety, router settings, and how to stop strangers from snooping on your connection.

And again, huge thanks to DeleteMe for sponsoring this video - use my link JoinDeleteMe.com/MorseCode for 20% off.

Thanks for watching. Stay smart, stay secure, and I’ll see ya tomorrow for Day 4. Bye yall!

 

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