Uncover Your Digital Footprint With This Free Tool - Here's How It Works

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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• Your online footprint tin uncover accusation astir you.
• Viewing your footprint tin beryllium an eye-opener.
• theHarvester instrumentality is simply a powerful - and free - way to scan that footprint.

Your digital footprint is nan way of information you time off down connected nan internet, including browsing history, societal media posts, and online interactions. 

It tin beryllium beautiful disturbing what's retired there. The database of IP addresses and services associated pinch a URL you've visited tin beryllium eye-opening. If you want to find retired precisely what your footprint looks like, there's a useful Python instrumentality called theHarvester that was created for this very thing.

Also: 11 ways to delete aliases hide yourself from nan net - and protect your privacy

theHarvester uses a ample number of modules to propulsion disconnected this task. You tin position nan complete database connected theHarvester's charismatic GitHub page. Trust maine erstwhile I show you that nan database is extensive. 

I installed and ran theHarvester to cheque retired my integer footprint associated pinch Google.com and was shocked by what it reported. The number of IP addresses linked betwixt my location network's WAN reside and those connected to Google.com was astonishing. Once nan scan was complete, it took maine 2 minutes to scroll backmost to nan apical of nan list.

Whew.

theHarvester isn't rather nan easiest instrumentality to use, and it's bid statement only, but if you're comfortable installing an app utilizing Python's PIP package manager, you shouldn't person immoderate problem pinch this tool.

Let maine show you really theHarvester is installed and used.

Also: Your desktop firewall isn't capable - here's really to protect your full network

Installing theHarvester

What you'll need: The only point you'll request to instal theHarvester is Python 3, Python PIP, and Python VENV installed connected your cognition strategy of prime -- Linux, MacOS, aliases Windows. Since installing Python connected each operating strategy varies, I will show really to instal everything connected a Ubuntu-based distribution (Pop!_OS, to beryllium exact).

sudo apt-get instal python3 python3-pip -y

sudp apt-get instal python3-venv -y

sudo apt-get instal git -y

git clone https://github.com/laramies/theHarvester.git 

Change into nan recently created directory with:

cd theHarvester

Also: The champion information removal services: Delete yourself from nan internet

Enable nan Python virtual situation pinch nan pursuing 2 commands:

python3 -m venv venv 
source venv/bin/activate 

Install theHarvester with:

pip install

You tin verify nan installation with:

theHarvester -h

You should spot a database of command-line options for nan app.

Using theHarvester

Using theHarvester is reasonably straightforward. Let's opportunity you want to scan google.com. To do that, rumor nan command:

theHarvester -d google.com -b each -l 100

Here's a breakdown of nan command:

• theHarvester - nan executable to beryllium run
• -d - what follows is nan domain you want to scan.
• -b each - nan sources you want to usage (such arsenic baidu, bevigil, brave, etc). When declaring all, theHarvester uses each disposable sources.
• -l 100 - limits nan number of hunt results to 100 (the default is 500).

The scan will return immoderate clip to run. When it completes, you'll spot a laundry database of emails, subdomains, hostnames, IP addresses, and sources.  

Also: How to unafraid your location and agency network: The champion DNS blockers and firewalls

In my results, I didn't spot galore email addresses, but arsenic acold arsenic hostnames and IP addresses, location was a important number listed. When nan google.com scan came backmost pinch only domains, subdomains, and IP addresses, I decided to tally nan scan connected a domain I own. This clip around, nan results weren't astir arsenic intimidating; however, it did see 2 IP addresses, 4 email addresses, and 40 different hosts.

What tin you do?

Totally removing your online footprint is simply a very challenging task. One measurement to limit it is to deactivate subdomains you nary longer usage (my results listed respective subdomains that are nary longer active) and email addresses you nary longer need.

Another useful instrumentality is to usage email aliases, specified arsenic those from: 

• SimpleLogin
• Proton Mail
• Addy.io
• StartMail
• Cloaked
• Ironvest
• Hide My Email (Apple)
• Firefox Relay

Finally, you tin besides hide domain registration details. You tin usage a WHOIS lookup service to find retired immoderate accusation associated pinch domains you own.