What never to put on your public site

You control almost all of your own privacy, and you give most of it away in small, avoidable pieces. This is the blunt list of what stays off the open page.

Anything that places you

A window with a recognisable view, a landmark through the glass, a street sign, a building you can be tied to. Check every image for what is behind you before you check how you look in it. The location hidden inside the file, too — strip it before you upload.

Anything that connects to the other life

A legal name anywhere. A personal email or number reused from the rest of your life. A tattoo or scar left in shot that a colleague would recognise. A face on the open page, if discretion is the point. Each is a thread; publish none of them.

Anything you could not survive leaking

Treat the open page as permanent and public forever, because it is. The most explicit images, the private set, the things meant for a trusted few — those live behind a password, never in the open. If a leak of it would cost you, it was never a public-page thing.

Most exposure is self-inflicted, one small detail at a time. The whole of privacy is choosing not to publish them.

Deciding what shows and what stays hidden is the quiet core of how we build.