Recon Phase: Assess Your Exposure

Start with deep web reconnaissance. Query your name across search engines: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo. Run yourself through data broker aggregators such as Pipl and Spokeo. What you’ll find will chill your chrome: forum posts from a decade ago, tagged photos, database leaks creating a permanent record. Screenshot everything. Know your enemy.

This is your dossier in the hands of insurance algorithms, hiring AIs, and anyone with corporate script to spit into your ears. Every data point is ammunition against you.

Lockdown Protocol: Maximum Security Settings

Dive into privacy settings on every platform and crank everything to maximum restriction. Facebook: make past posts invisible, hide your friend list, scrub personal data. Kill facial recognition. Delete location metadata. Instagram: go private, strip geotags from existing posts. Twitter: protect tweets, disable photo tagging.

Audit connected apps and revoke access ruthlessly. Most users have dozens of zombie apps with full permissions—posting rights, DM access, friend list harvesting. Facebook’s “Apps and Websites” section reads like a corporate espionage hit list. Burn it all.

Data Minimization: Operational Discipline

Stop bleeding information. Before posting, run the five-year test: “Could this be weaponized against me?” Because it will be. Employers, universities, law enforcement all run social media background checks. That party pic or political hot take could burn you when you least expect it.

Deploy multiple personas across separate accounts and “live a thousand lives.” Family-facing identity, professional network, pseudonymous handles for sensitive interests. Never link them via shared emails or phone numbers. Compartmentalization is survival.

Scorched Earth: Purge Your History

Bulk-delete old posts using automated tools such as Redact or TweetDelete. Platforms deliberately make manual deletion tedious—they profit from your digital trail. Automation levels the field. These tools scroll through years of history, removing content by age or keyword.

For content others posted, invoke platform policies or direct negotiation. In some jurisdictions, “right to be forgotten” laws give you legal backing (Thank you, General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR] and California Consumer Privacy Act [CCPA]. Use them.

Counter-Surveillance: Block the Trackers

Disable ad personalization in every platform. Google’s My Ad Center, Facebook’s ad settings, Twitter’s preferences—turn them all off. This doesn’t kill ads, but it disrupts profile building.

Run hardened browsers with tracker protection. Firefox and Brave block social media surveillance pixels across the web. These social media platforms embed tracking beacons on millions of sites, shadowing you even when logged out. Use container extensions such as Firefox’s Facebook Container to isolate social media cookies, preventing cross-site correlation.

The Long Game

Your online presence is a weapon others wield against you. The corps monetize it. The state surveils it. Rivals exploit it. Taking control means accepting that convenience is the trojan horse they use to own you.

You’re not deleting your digital life; you’re curating it with intent. You’re choosing what the machine knows about you. In a world where data is power, controlling your information is the ultimate act of rebellion.

Stay ghost, stay free.

This is the third of five blog posts in this Cyber Punk series.

AI Art credit to Samuel Lewis, CISSP