Overview
Privacy Bee’s Dark Web Presence Scan searches dark web sources for personal information that may have been exposed in data breaches or other online incidents.
The scan uses verified information from your Identity Vault to identify potential matches and helps you determine which findings belong to you.
The scanner has three levels, with access depending on your Privacy Bee license.
Understanding the Three Scanning Levels
Level 1: Surface Scan
Available to everyone, including Free members.
The Surface Scan searches dark web sources using verified information from your Identity Vault.
It identifies potentially exposed information and presents the findings for your review. Because dark web records may contain information belonging to different people, not every result is necessarily yours.
Level 2: Thorough Scan
Available to paid subscribers.
The Thorough Scan uses your Surface Scan responses to refine its searches and identify additional potentially relevant information.
Before proceeding, you must review and categorize any outstanding findings (called fragments) directly on the Dark Web Exposure Scan page. These are not the potential exposures shown on your Dashboard or the items you review in your Identity Vault.
Level 3: Deep Scan
Available exclusively to Signature Services members.
The Deep Scan uses advanced analysis to identify potentially relevant dark web information that earlier scanning levels may not have detected.
Starting Your Dark Web Exposure Scan
- Open Dark Web Exposure Scan in your Privacy Bee account.
- Select Start the Surface Scan.
- Review the instructions explaining how the scanner works.
- Select Show my scan to view your results.
Your Surface Scan will display information discovered during the search, along with the sources and records associated with each finding.
Reviewing and Categorizing Your Results
Under What the sweep pulled back, you’ll see information that may be associated with you. Findings that still need your review are called fragments.
Review each finding and select the appropriate category:
- That’s Me: The information belongs to you. It can be saved to your Identity Vault when supported.
- Family: The information belongs to a family member.
- Familiar: You recognize the information, but it doesn’t belong to you.
- Not Me: The information doesn’t belong to you and will be excluded from the next scan.
If you make a selection by mistake, you can change it during your review.
The Already in your vault section displays information discovered during the scan that is already stored in your Identity Vault.
Continuing to the Thorough Scan
To unlock Level 2, categorize every outstanding fragment in the What the sweep pulled back section on your Dark Web Exposure Scan page. You do not need to resolve separate potential exposures on your Dashboard or in your Identity Vault to complete this step.
Once you’ve categorized all outstanding findings, you’ll see:
Nothing at Surface is waiting on you.
Select Continue to Level 2 to start the Thorough Scan.
The Thorough Scan uses your responses to search for additional information. Previously reviewed findings may remain visible, and you’ll have an opportunity to categorize any new results.
If you’re eligible for the Deep Scan, you can continue to Level 3 after completing the Thorough Scan.
Understanding Your Privacy Risk Score Impact
The Privacy Risk Impact section shows how detected dark web exposures contribute to your Privacy Risk Score.
It may display the number of identified breaches, exposed personal information data points, and associated risk points.
The number of results returned during a scan does not necessarily equal the number of confirmed exposures.
What Happens When an Exposed Password Is Found?
If your scan identifies an exposed password or credential, it will be highlighted as an Exposed credential.
If the password belongs to you, take steps to secure the affected account:
- Change the password associated with the account.
- Change it on any other accounts where you’ve reused the same password.
- Enable multifactor authentication when available.
Categorizing an exposed credential does not change your password or eliminate the security risk.
Important to Know
Dark web scan results may contain incomplete, outdated, or incorrectly associated information. Reviewing and categorizing your findings helps Privacy Bee distinguish relevant results from unrelated data.
While Privacy Bee works to identify dark web exposures and limit further distribution, information posted on the dark web generally cannot be deleted or recalled.