Protect yourself

People who run an online shaming campaign start from what they can find about you: old data breaches, social profiles, public registers, services that sell information. Reducing what can be found and closing access to your accounts makes their work harder. A few hours are enough, even in pieces.

Accounts and passwords

Check on Have I Been Pwned (haveibeenpwned.com) whether your email has appeared in any data breach, and turn on the free alert.
Use a different password for every service, stored in a password manager.
Turn on two-step verification everywhere. An authenticator app is better than SMS: an SMS can be intercepted if someone gets a copy of your SIM card.
In the security settings of each account, check the linked devices and sign out of sessions you do not recognise.

Telegram and WhatsApp

Telegram: Settings › Privacy and Security › Two-Step Verification, with a recovery email.
Telegram: Settings › Privacy and Security › Phone Number › “Nobody”. People who already have your number in their contacts will still see it. If you do not need it, remove your username too.
Telegram: limit who can add you to groups and call you, from the same settings.
WhatsApp: turn on two-step verification, use “Privacy checkup” and silence calls from unknown numbers (“Silence unknown callers”).
Before blocking someone, save the chat: after the block you may lose messages that are useful as evidence.

Your data online

Search for your name, your number and your address on Google and note what you find.
With Google’s “Results about you” tool you can ask to remove from the results pages containing your address, phone number or email, where the service is available.
You can ask the sites that publish your data to delete it (right to be forgotten, Art. 17 GDPR): it is free and they must reply within one month. If they do not, you can lodge a complaint with the Garante (the Italian data protection authority).
In Switzerland you can ask your municipality to block the disclosure of your data to third parties (Datensperre). Rules differ from municipality to municipality: ask the residents’ registration office (Einwohnerkontrolle).
In Italy some information is public by law, for example land registry extracts (visure catastali) for properties. They cannot be hidden, but it is useful to know they exist.
If you have a website, hide your details in the domain registry. For .it domains the registrant’s name stays visible anyway.

Make your profiles private for a few weeks and remove your phone number, address, workplace and school.
Review your public photos: houses, number plates, uniforms and regular places show where to find you.
With reverse image search (Google Lens) you can see where your photos are circulating.

If you have a website

Put it behind a protection service such as Cloudflare and make sure the server accepts only traffic that comes through it.
If the real address of the server has already been exposed, change it: old DNS records stay in archives.
Keep the access and attack logs: you will need them for the complaint.

Your family

Calmly explain what is happening, especially to elderly relatives: someone who is informed gets less frightened and does not fall into traps.
Agree not to answer unknown numbers, not to give information over the phone and to warn each other straight away. A code word helps to recognise fake calls.
If an address is published, warn whoever lives there and a trusted person in the neighbourhood, and inform the police.

If someone monitors your phone or computer

The “Leave now” button at the bottom right closes this page and opens a neutral site.
Use private browsing, or clear your history after visiting this site.
If you think there is a spy app on your phone, read the Coalition Against Stalkerware guide before removing it: whoever installed it might notice.

Information checked on 14 October 2026.