Nobody is identified by a face alone. They are identified by a thousand small details that add up to a postcode, most of them in the background of a photo you thought was about something else.
Work through this once, before your first upload. It takes ten minutes.
The nine
- Kitchen worktops. A distinctive counter, tile or splashback. Anyone who has been in your kitchen knows it instantly.
- Front doors. Colour, number, letterbox, house name. Never shoot a doorway with the number visible.
- Window views. A spire, a hill, a supermarket sign. Curtains help; shooting at night helps more.
- Local packaging. A regional bakery bag, a supermarket own-brand, a takeaway box with the name on it.
- Car registrations. Obvious, and still the most common slip.
- School uniforms. Badge shape and colour are enough for anyone local.
- Reflections. Kettles, taps, screens, gloss worktops. Check every frame at 100% zoom.
- Pet tags and leads. A name, a breed and a park is a match.
- Weather and light. Not identifying alone, but snow while the caption says "this morning" places you in a region.
What is safe
Plain walls, plain floors, sheets, towels, an empty corner. The duller the background the safer it is — and duller backgrounds also look more expensive, so the privacy choice and the aesthetic choice agree for once.
Metadata
Most phones strip GPS on upload, most of the time. Do not rely on "most of the time". Either shoot inside the platform's app or strip metadata yourself first. A free exif viewer tells you what is still attached.
If you have already posted something identifying
Do not panic and do not delete everything. Delete the specific frame, note what it showed, re-shoot it. A single slip is rarely enough on its own.