Only share data for a clear purpose
Personal data is not limited to names and addresses. Photos, telephone numbers, email addresses, precise locations, user identifiers, payment details, messages and information about habits can also make a person identifiable, either directly or when combined.
Before entering or sharing any information, check:
- Is the information necessary for the specific function, enquiry or agreement?
- Who can see it: only suchen.expert, a particular user or the public?
- Would less precise information be sufficient?
- Can the document be limited to the necessary information?
- Would combining it with other publicly available information reveal more about you than intended?
Information entered in a registration, contact or support form does not automatically belong in a public profile or listing. Follow the guidance beside the relevant input field and refer to the suchen.expert Privacy Policy.
Protect information in public profiles and listings
Depending on their visibility, profile information, listings, images and reviews may be publicly accessible and discoverable through search engines. Other people can save public content, capture it in screenshots or share it outside suchen.expert. Changing or deleting it later does not automatically remove such copies.
Therefore, publish only the information needed for the purpose of the listing. In particular, avoid publishing full home addresses, dates of birth, identity and banking documents, signatures, sign-in details, and information about regular routes or extended absences. Publish contact details only when necessary and permitted under the General Terms of Service.
Pay particular attention to the additional risks associated with certain types of listings:
- On tickets, vouchers and booking confirmations, QR codes, barcodes, booking numbers and other redeemable details must be obscured.
- In Lost and Found listings, secret identifying features should not be published in full. Ask anyone claiming the item to describe those features themselves.
- Invoices, shipping labels and other supporting documents may contain names, addresses, and customer or order numbers.
- Business users should not publish data relating to employees, customers or other third parties without sufficient reason.
Review existing profiles and listings from time to time. Remove or update information that is no longer needed, where the relevant function allows you to do so.
Share as little as necessary in messages too
Where possible, use the suchen.expert messaging function to make arrangements. This makes the connection with the listing easier to trace. Although messages are not public, they are not a suitable place for secrets either: the recipient can save them, copy them, take screenshots of them or forward them.
Share a precise delivery or collection address, telephone number or payment information only when it is needed for the specific transaction. If you receive an unusual request for data, ask why it is needed and check whether less extensive information would be sufficient.
Never send passwords, one-time codes, PINs, TANs, recovery codes, session cookies, or complete activation or reset links. Support does not need these secrets either. As a general rule, do not provide another user with copies of your ID or other identity documents merely to establish trust. If, in exceptional circumstances, a trusted organisation requires a copy, clarify the purpose, recipient, method of transmission and required scope in advance.
If you make arrangements through an external messaging service, by telephone or in person, suchen.expert may not have the full context. Confirm important points afterwards in a message on the platform, without repeating unnecessary personal data there.
Check photos and files before uploading them
An image can reveal far more than its intended subject. Check the foreground, background, reflections and edges for faces, children, number plates, house numbers, street signs, keys, name badges, letters, shipping labels, screens, notifications, QR codes and barcodes. Publish images of other people only if you are entitled to do so, and exercise particular restraint when photographing children.
Photos may contain metadata such as the time they were taken, the device model or GPS coordinates. Check this information before uploading and remove unnecessary location data using your device settings or a trusted local tool. Disabling location recording usually protects only new images; older files may still contain location data. Do not rely on a platform to remove all metadata automatically.
PDFs, text documents and spreadsheets may also contain hidden information, such as the author's name, comments, revision histories, file paths or previous content. Create a separate, sanitised copy for publication, then reopen it to check the redactions. Keep an unaltered original separately if the file may be needed as evidence.
Limit location details and movement data
A city, region or approximate meeting point is often sufficient to give an initial indication of the location. Do not publish your exact home address if it is needed only for a specific handover. In that case, share it only with the selected person and, where possible, shortly before the agreed time.
Avoid continuously sharing your live location and disclosing information that could reveal where you live or work, your regular routes, or times when your home is empty. Check the location permissions for your browser, operating system and camera. Grant precise location access only when you deliberately use the relevant function, and revoke the permission when it is no longer needed.
Where possible, choose a suitable, busy place for an in-person handover. If there is an increased risk, tell someone you trust the time and meeting point. Put safety concerns before completing a transaction.
Avoid unnecessary links with social media
Using the same username or profile photo, or publishing the same telephone number or identical descriptions, can make it easier to link multiple accounts. If you do not want these links to be made, check which information and images you reuse across different services.
On social media, pay particular attention to the visibility of profiles, posts, tags, friends lists and location details. Share a suchen.expert listing there only if the audience on that platform is permitted to see all the information it contains. An external profile or a large number of contacts is not reliable proof of identity or trustworthiness.
External messaging services, social media platforms and file-sharing services are subject to their own privacy and security rules. Moving to an external channel may also break the traceable connection with the listing.
Secure your account, email address and Google access
Your email address can play a central role in activation, sign-in and account recovery. Protect your email account with a long, unique password and, where available, multi-factor authentication or a passkey. Do not use the same password for different services. For further guidance, see Create a secure password and Protect your email address.
When you use Google to sign in to a personal account, the security of this access depends largely on your Google Account. Check the consent dialogue to see which data is transmitted. According to the suchen.expert privacy policy, this may include your name, email address, an external identifier and, where applicable, the profile picture you have shared. You can review this access using the official Google Security Checkup.
Removing a Google connection does not automatically delete your suchen.expert account or the content stored there. Enter your Google password only during the official Google sign-in process and never in a message or support form.
Only authorised people should have access to a business account. Do not pass shared passwords on to others. When employees or responsibilities change, check which access rights and contact details need to be updated.
Protect devices, browsers and local data
Keep your operating system, browser and security software up to date, and protect your devices with a screen lock. Regularly check the permissions granted to apps and browsers for the camera, microphone, photos, files and location. The BSI basic IT security tips provide further guidance on securing devices and accounts.
Log out after using a shared or public device, close the browser and do not save any sign-in details there. If necessary, remove saved sign-in details and website data from that browser. Note that a private browsing window mainly limits local traces; it does not make you anonymous to websites, network operators or recipients.
Check screenshots before sending them. The address bar, open tabs, notifications, email addresses or other account information may be visible unintentionally. Never send screenshots showing passwords, codes, complete security links, cookies or session tokens.
Recognise phishing and fake requests
Be wary of unexpected requests to confirm data immediately, ‘unlock’ an account, pay a fee, or open an external link, attachment or QR code. Fake requests may arrive by email, SMS, messaging service, platform message, social media or telephone.
Check the sender's full address and the actual link destination. If in doubt, go to suchen.expert yourself using the known address. An HTTPS connection protects data in transit to the domain you visit, but it does not prove that the site actually belongs to suchen.expert or to a named payment service.
Detailed guidance is available in How do I recognise phishing attempts and fake messages? and How can I verify an email or SMS from suchen.expert? You can have a suspicious message checked through the official contact form without submitting passwords, codes, complete security links or session cookies.
Exercise your data protection rights effectively
The Privacy Policy explains which data suchen.expert processes and for what purposes, which recipients or service providers may be involved, and how you can contact the controller.
Subject to the applicable legal requirements, the GDPR provides the following rights, among others:
- access to information about the processing of personal data,
- rectification of inaccurate data,
- erasure or restriction of processing,
- data portability in the cases covered by law,
- objection to certain processing activities,
- withdrawal of consent with future effect where processing is based on consent.
These rights do not apply without restriction in every situation. Statutory retention obligations, overriding legitimate grounds, or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims may prevent immediate erasure or restriction. An appropriate identity check may be required to prevent information being disclosed to an unauthorised person. Do not provide a copy of your identity document or additional data for this purpose unless you receive a justified request for them.
The General Data Protection Regulation provides the binding legal framework. If you suspect unlawful processing, you can also contact a competent data protection supervisory authority. The Data Protection Conference lists the federal and state supervisory authorities. In cases of fraud, threats or other possible criminal offences, a data protection complaint does not replace any necessary report to the police.
Take action if your data is published, lost or misused
First, preserve the necessary evidence before any content is changed or deleted: the URL, user or listing identifier, date, time, message history and relevant screenshots. Keep the original files unchanged. Do not publish the evidence yourself, and redact information about uninvolved people in copies.
Then restrict or remove the visibility of the content where this is possible and safe, and report the incident through the contact form. If the data has also been published on another website or social media platform, report the content there as well. suchen.expert cannot itself remove external copies or content hosted on third-party services.
If you suspect unauthorised access to your account, follow the steps in What should I do if I suspect unauthorised access to my account? For misuse involving identity, contracts or data, see What should I do if my personal data has been misused? If payment details may be affected, contact your bank or the relevant payment service provider immediately through an official channel.
Act immediately in the event of a threat or imminent danger
In the event of threats, blackmail, stalking, publication of your address or other specific security risks, do not wait for a response from the platform's support team. Preserve evidence, avoid a personal confrontation and inform someone you trust.
In Germany, call the police emergency number 110 in the event of imminent danger. Non-urgent incidents can be reported at a police station or through the German police online reporting portal. If you are outside Germany, contact the appropriate local emergency or police services.
