Methodology
How the exposure risk score works.
The score is an estimated risk score based on identifiers entered by the user. It is not proof that a record was found and it is not a complete internet scan.
- Email and phone risk
- Name and location matching
- Address exposure
- Business owner exposure
- Data broker likelihood
What the score means
The score estimates how easy it may be to connect the information entered to public listings, people-search records, business profiles, social profiles, account recovery risks, or data broker cleanup tasks.
A higher score means the entered information is more identifying or more likely to create cleanup work. It does not mean Check Privacy Score found a confirmed exposed record.
Risk factors used
The scoring engine looks at contact identifiers, location identifiers, identity linkability, business ownership signals, data broker likelihood, and account security actionability.
Examples: a phone number is usually more identifying than a first name alone. A name plus city is more searchable than a name alone. A name plus address is higher risk because it can connect identity and location.
Confidence level
Confidence is based on how much context the user provided. A single email or phone number may produce a useful estimate, but confidence is still limited because no external verification has been performed.
Confidence should not be confused with certainty. The score is meant to help prioritize manual verification and cleanup.
v3.1 Source-Informed Factors
The current scoring model uses source-informed categories rather than claiming verified external findings. These categories include email/breach exposure surface, account recovery and login risk, people-search and broker match likelihood, address/public-record exposure, identity linkability, business/public-profile exposure, data broker cleanup priority, and cleanup urgency.
This keeps the score honest. It helps users understand what to verify next without pretending that the site has secretly searched every database on the internet.
Future verified data sources
Future versions can add optional verified integrations such as official breach APIs, licensed data sources, or user-approved searches. Any verified result should be labeled separately from estimated risk.
Future verified checks
Later versions can add verified external checks, such as breach APIs, licensed data sources, or user-approved searches. Those should be clearly labeled separately from estimated scores.