A director's digital footprint: what can lawfully be found out about you

• Corporate history: companies, shareholdings, positions, dates of changes.
• Litigation episodes, including those in which you were a third party.
• Publications, interviews, speeches, comments, old profiles.
• Indications of assets from open registers in certain jurisdictions.
• Connections: partners, relatives, matches by address and contact details.
• Photographs and metadata left in the public domain.
• Data from leaks already in open circulation.

Not in the mere existence of the information, but in the combinations. Taken separately, an address, a daily routine and family composition are disconnected pieces of information. Brought together, they become a map for anyone preparing to apply pressure.

The second source of problems is the people around you. A director may be careful in public, but their assistants, drivers and relatives post geotags, interiors and routes.

The third is old traces: closed companies, forgotten profiles, advertisements, documents that appeared online years ago. They do not disappear and are the first things to be found.

A digital footprint audit shows exactly what is available, where it is held and what conclusions can be built from it. Some of the data is then deleted or restricted by lawful means; some remains, and that fact simply has to be taken into account in planning.

A separate assessment covers what can be found out not about you, but through the people around you - this line of enquiry is usually underestimated.

Those entering a public transaction, dispute or conflict: before the process begins, not after the first leak to the press.

Those changing jurisdiction, status or level of public exposure.

Those who have already had an incident: pressure, blackmail, an inaccurate publication. In such a situation, the first step is to understand what the other side built its picture from.

• Reputation checks
• Assessment of risks and vulnerabilities
• Personal political risks