Risk level: low. Can you change it: no. Found in 561 breaches in this directory.
What this data is
Your first name, surname and sometimes middle name or initials, as you gave them when you signed up. It appears in almost every breach because nearly every account asks for it.
The risk on its own
A name on its own is close to public information and it cannot open anything. Plenty of people share yours, so a leaked name without other fields rarely points to one person. The honest summary is that this field is never the emergency in a breach.
The risk combined with other data
Its real role is as the join key. A name is what lets a data broker or a fraudster merge an email address from one leak with a home address and a date of birth from others into a single profile. Addressed to you by name, phishing emails and scam texts also look far more like genuine company messages.
How criminals use it
A phishing email greets you by your full name and names the breached company, so it passes the quick glance test.
A broker matches your name across several leaks and publishes a people search listing with your address and relatives.
A fake social media profile is created in your name with a photo taken from elsewhere, then used to message your friends.
A fake invoice is addressed to you personally, using the name and email address pair from the leak.
What to do now
Check which other fields leaked with your name, because those decide how serious this breach really is.
Search your name on the major people search sites and submit opt out requests for any listing showing your address or phone number.
Treat emails that use your full name as unverified. A correct greeting is no longer proof a message is genuine.
Set up a Google Alert for your name in quotes so new public listings about you show up in your inbox.
Where a site has no legal need for your full name, give a first name only.
Frequently asked questions
Someone has my name. Can they steal my identity?
Not with a name alone. Identity theft needs details like a date of birth, an address and an ID number. The name is what ties those together when they leak too.
Why is my name in so many breaches?
Almost every account asks for it, so it sits beside your email address in nearly every customer table that gets stolen.
Can I get my name removed from breach data?
Not from copies already circulating. You can remove it from people search sites and ask companies you no longer use to delete your account.
Breaches that exposed this data
Verifications.io: 2019-02-25, 763M accounts, Dates of birth, Email addresses, Employers, 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.