THE DARKEYE FIELD GUIDE

Your online life.
A clearer view.

What’s out there? Is it really yours? And what can you do about it?

Practical guides to your public footprint, with methods you can use, examples you can follow and sources you can check.

Find your next step.

Search the guides

8 guides

Discover · 4 min read

Understand the difference between what exists online, what is public and what a search engine can find.

Discover · 4 min read

A repeatable self-search method, from name variants and old usernames to checking the original evidence.

Discover · 3 min read

Find forgotten profiles, check what remains public and decide what to update, preserve or close.

Understand · 3 min read

A practical way to handle namesakes, conflicting clues and uncertain matches without turning guesses into findings.

Understand · 4 min read

Follow a finding from the overview to its source, assess match uncertainty and turn evidence into a sensible action list.

Take action · 4 min read

Choose between editing a page, contacting its publisher, requesting search removal and refreshing an outdated result.

Keep watch · 4 min read

Create a baseline, distinguish new information from newly discovered pages and decide which changes deserve attention.

Take action · 3 min read

A focused self-audit before a job application, client pitch or public project, without trying to rewrite your entire online history.

A FEW USEFUL DISTINCTIONS

The words matter. A possible match is not a confirmed identity. A missing page is not proof of deletion.

Public footprint: Information about you that other people can access online. It can include your own pages and mentions published by others.Explore this topic
Possible match: A result with some connection to you, but insufficient evidence to establish that it is yours.Explore this topic
Source evidence: The original page or record supporting a finding, with its context, observation date and matching rationale.Explore this topic
Search removal: Removing a result from a particular search engine. This does not itself delete the page on the original website.Explore this topic
First seen: When a review first found a source. This may be much later than the date it was published.Explore this topic
Coverage gap: A source or part of the search that was not checked successfully. A gap is not an empty result.Explore this topic