Data Breach & Privacy Check
Instant scan of 17+ billion breached records — find out if your email, passwords, or personal data have been exposed.
Known Data Breaches
Confirmed incidents tracked by Have I Been Pwned — search to check if a specific service you use was breached.
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What Is a Data Breach?
A data breach occurs when an unauthorized party gains access to a system and extracts user records. Breaches can be caused by hacking, misconfigured databases, insider theft, or exposed cloud storage. Once stolen, data is often sold on dark web markets or published publicly.
Why does it matter if my email appeared?
Even if your current password is strong, old passwords from a breach may be reused elsewhere. Attackers use credential stuffing — automatically trying stolen email/password combinations across hundreds of services. A single breach can cascade into account takeovers across your entire digital life.
What Data Gets Stolen?
| Data Type | Risk Level | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Passwords | Critical | Enables direct account takeover via credential stuffing |
| Email addresses | High | Enables targeted phishing, spam, and account enumeration — including IRS impersonation scams during tax season |
| Phone numbers | High | SIM swap attacks, SMS phishing (smishing) |
| Names & addresses | Medium | Identity fraud, social engineering, physical targeting |
| Dates of birth | Medium | Identity verification bypass, combined with other data |
| Security questions | High | Account recovery bypass if questions are shared across services |
| IP addresses | Low | Reveals approximate location at time of registration |
| Usernames | Low | Can be used to track users across services |
What to Do If Your Email Was Breached
Your Email on Data Broker Sites
Beyond breach databases, your email address may appear on commercial data broker sites — companies that aggregate and sell personal information. Unlike GDPR in Europe, the US has no federal law requiring brokers to delete your data on request.
California (CCPA/CPRA) and Virginia (VCDPA) give residents the right to opt out and request deletion. For everyone else, removal must be done manually, broker by broker.
Check our Data Broker Exposure guide to understand your risk and find opt-out links for major brokers.
US users: Your ISP can sell your browsing data
Since 2017, US ISPs are legally permitted to sell customer browsing data without explicit consent. Combined with email breaches, this means your online behavior can be linked to your real identity and sold to third parties. A VPN encrypts your traffic and prevents ISP-level tracking.
The Verdict: Staying Safe After a Breach
Assume your email is already in at least one breach. With over 15 billion accounts exposed across thousands of incidents, it is statistically likely. The goal is not to prevent exposure — it is to limit the damage when it happens.
Unique passwords + 2FA are the two most effective defenses. Even if one service is breached, attackers cannot reuse your credentials elsewhere, and 2FA blocks most automated account takeover attempts.
For maximum privacy: Use an email alias service (SimpleLogin, AnonAddy) to give each service a different email address. A breach then only exposes one alias, not your real email — which protects you from spam, phishing, and cross-service tracking.
Protect Your Privacy — Top Rated VPNs →