What Is a Privacy Score and Why It Matters

When you run a scan with Less Visible, you get a privacy score between 0 and 100. But what does that number actually mean, and why should you pay attention to it?

How the privacy score works

Your privacy score is a percentage that reflects how many data broker sites are not exposing your personal information. The formula is straightforward:

Privacy Score = (Clear sites / Total sites scanned) x 100

If we scan 85 data broker sites and find your information on 12 of them, your score is:

(73 / 85) x 100 = 86

A higher score means less exposure. A lower score means more of your data is publicly accessible.

What's a good score?

Here's how to interpret your privacy score:

• 90-100 (Excellent) -- Very little of your data is publicly exposed. You're in great shape, but monthly monitoring is still recommended to catch new listings.
• 70-89 (Fair) -- Some data broker sites have your information. This is where most people land on their first scan. Targeted removal requests can improve your score significantly.
• 50-69 (Poor) -- Your personal data is widely available. Multiple sites are exposing your name, address, phone, and possibly more. Immediate action is recommended.
• Below 50 (Critical) -- Your data is highly exposed. This level of exposure puts you at elevated risk for identity theft, social engineering, and unwanted contact. Prioritize removal.

What factors affect your score?

Several things influence how exposed your data is:

Public records footprint

The more public records tied to your name -- voter registration, property ownership, court filings, business registrations -- the more data brokers have to work with. People who own property and have lived in multiple states tend to have lower initial scores.

Social media presence

Public social media profiles give brokers additional data points: photos, employment, education, location, and connections. Setting profiles to private reduces what brokers can scrape.

How long you've had the same phone number

Phone numbers that have been active for years appear in more databases. Newer numbers tend to have less exposure.

How common your name is

Common names sometimes benefit from data confusion -- brokers may not confidently link all records to you. Unique names are easier to match across databases.

How to improve your score

The most effective steps, in order of impact:

1. Opt out of data brokers -- Submit removal requests to supported sites that have your data. Less Visible helps track eligible automated and guided requests.
2. Lock down social media -- Set all profiles to private. Remove your phone number and home city from profiles. Limit what's visible to non-connections.
3. Use a P.O. box -- When possible, use a P.O. box or mail forwarding service instead of your home address for registrations and subscriptions.
4. Use unique email addresses -- Use a different email for different categories of services (shopping, social media, financial). This limits what brokers can cross-reference.
5. Monitor regularly -- Data brokers refresh their databases constantly. Monthly re-scans catch re-listings before they propagate to other sites.

Tracking your score over time

Your privacy score isn't static. It changes as:

• Removal requests are processed (score goes up)
• Brokers re-list your data from refreshed sources (score goes down)
• New broker sites are added to the scan (score may shift in either direction)

Less Visible Pro members get monthly re-scans with score tracking over time. You can see exactly how your privacy is trending and which sites keep re-listing your data.

Start with your baseline

The first step is knowing where you stand. Run a free scan to get your privacy score and see exactly which sites are exposing your data. It takes under a minute and no credit card is required.