# How Does the Scanning Process Work?

_Source: https://support.privacybee.com/privacy-and-security/how-does-the-scanning-process-work_

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### Overview:

Once your Identity Vault is complete and your license is active, Privacy Bee gets to work scanning for your personal information across the internet. This article explains how that process works and what to expect.
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### How Privacy Bee Finds Your Exposures

Privacy Bee scans for your personal information by matching the details in your Identity Vault against records on data broker sites, people search sites, and other online sources. The more complete your Identity Vault is, the more accurately Privacy Bee can identify exposures that belong to you.

The key details used for matching include:

* Full name
* Date of birth or age
* Physical address
* City and state
* Email address
* Phone number

These details must align before our **Global Response Team** can verify an exposure and submit a removal request on your behalf.
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### Why You Might See Exposures That Aren’t Yours

Privacy Bee uses broad-based scanning to find as many of your exposures as possible. Because many sites contain similar names and overlapping records, this can sometimes surface results that appear to be a match but aren't actually yours. These are called false positives.

We prefer catching a few false positives rather than risking a real exposure being missed. If you find an exposure that doesn't belong to you, you can add it to **Ignored Records** in your Identity Vault. This will suppress the exposure, so no removal request is sent, and help our scans learn which information to prioritize going forward.
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### How Removals Are Confirmed

Once a removal request has been submitted, Privacy Bee continues scanning to confirm whether the request was honored. Follow-up checks typically happen at:

* 3 to 4 days after submission
* 7 days
* 14 days
* 28 days

If your information is still visible after these checks, Privacy Bee continues requesting removal. Some companies update their systems slowly, so it may take time for a removal to reflect online even after a request has been accepted.

| Some companies update their systems slowly, so it may take time for removals to reflect online, even after a request is accepted.
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### How to Track Your Progress

You can track the status of your removals at any time through your Dashboard or the Data Brokers page. Exposure statuses will move through the removal process over time - from Discovered to Removal In Progress to Closed as work is completed. 

| The more complete your profile is, the easier it is to match exposures and take action quickly.




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