Risk level: low. Can you change it: yes. Found in 16 breaches in this directory.
What this data is
The free text about me section you wrote for a profile on a dating app, forum, social network, gaming platform or professional site.
The risk on its own
Most bios were visible to other users already, so the breach usually republishes something semi-public. The catch is that people write bios casually and include more than they would tell a stranger: a hometown, an employer, a child's name, a school or a handle from another site. Those details make an anonymous account easy to connect to a real person.
The risk combined with other data
Once the bio sits beside your email address, it hands a scammer ready-made conversation openers and likely answers to security questions. A romance or phishing message that mentions your dog, your football team and your job reads as genuine interest rather than a script. A bio from a pseudonymous community linked to your real email can also out you to people you never told.
How criminals use it
A romance scammer builds a fake profile that mirrors every hobby in your bio, then moves the chat off the app.
Security question answers such as your first school, your pet or your hometown are lifted straight from the text.
A handle mentioned in your bio links a private dating or forum account to your public social media.
A spear phishing email references your listed job and interests so it looks like a real contact reaching out.
What to do now
Reread the bio on every active profile and remove your employer, suburb, children's names, school and any other usernames.
Change any security question answer that appears in a bio, or replace it with a random phrase kept in your password manager.
Delete profiles on services you no longer use, especially dating apps and niche community sites.
Change the password on the breached account and check whether private messages from the same service leaked too.
Be cautious with new contacts who happen to share an unusual number of your listed interests.
Frequently asked questions
My bio was public anyway. Why does the leak matter?
Because the breach attaches it to your email address and account details, which turns a public blurb into a verified profile of a specific person who can be contacted.
What should never go in a bio?
Your employer, exact location, children's names, school, birthday and links to other accounts. Those are the details used for security questions and for linking identities.
Can I get an old bio removed from the leaked copy?
No. You can edit or delete the live profile, which limits the next scrape or breach, but the copy already taken stays in circulation.
Breaches that exposed this data
Wattpad: 2020-06-29, 269M accounts, Bios, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Genders, Geographic locations, IP addresses
Breach data sourced from Have I Been Pwned, used under CC BY 4.0. Additional breach metadata provided by XposedOrNot. DataExposed is an independent service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.