What to do if you suspect a data leak
Last updated 7 August 2026
Most leaks that affect creators come from somewhere other than Hidden: a reused password, a phishing message, or an old account elsewhere. What follows works whatever the source, and the first hour matters most.
Do these first
| 1 | Change your passwords Start with your email account, then Hidden, then anywhere else the same password was used. A password manager makes this bearable and stops it happening again. |
| 2 | Check your email account for forwarding rules Anyone who has been in your inbox may have set up a rule quietly copying your mail elsewhere. Changing the password does not remove it. Check your filters, forwarding settings, and recovery addresses. |
| 3 | Check your payout details Confirm the bank account on your Hidden profile is still yours, and look for any payout you did not request. |
| 4 | Watch your bank and card accounts Report anything you do not recognise to your bank the same day. |
If your identity has been exposed
A leak that connects your legal name, address, or another account to your creator identity is different from a stolen password, and it needs different handling.
Tell us what has been exposed and where. We cannot remove things from sites we do not run, but we can act on anything on Hidden, and we can point you to the right process elsewhere. Do not engage with whoever is doing it.
If anyone is demanding money to keep something quiet, that is blackmail. Do not pay, screenshot everything, and tell us. See Report an account or post.
Phishing aimed at creators
The usual approach is a message that looks like it came from us, saying your account is at risk or a payout is on hold, with a link to a sign-in page that is not ours.
| We never ask for your password. Not by email, not in a message, not ever. |
| Check the address before you sign in. A convincing copy of our sign-in page is easy to make. The domain in the address bar is not. |
| Urgency is the tell. Anything pressing you to act within minutes deserves more suspicion, not less. |
| Go there yourself. If a message says something is wrong with your account, open Hidden directly rather than following the link. |
Reducing the risk from here
Use a separate email address for your creator work, with its own password. It keeps your two lives from sharing a single point of failure.
Use a different password on every account. Reused passwords are how one breach somewhere unimportant turns into a problem everywhere.
Give out as little as you can. Sites asking for details they do not need are the ones that leak them later.
Free services such as Have I Been Pwned will tell you whether an email address has appeared in a known breach. Worth checking every address you use.
If you think Hidden is the source
Contact support and tell us what makes you think so, including what information appeared and where you saw it. We investigate every one of these properly, and we would rather look into ten that turn out to be nothing than miss one that is real.
Common questions
+My content has been copied to another site.
That is a separate problem from a data leak, and there is a process for it. Get in touch with the links and we will explain the route.
+Does Hidden hold my ID documents?
Verification is handled by Yoti. We receive confirmation that the check passed rather than copies of your documents.
+Should I change my username?
It breaks every link you have shared, so it is a large step. Talk to us first, since it is rarely the thing that actually helps.
+Someone is using my photos on a fake profile.
Report it to us with the account details if it is on Hidden. If it is elsewhere, tell us anyway and we will help where we can.
Related
What to do if someone else accessed your account
How to request access to your personal data
Worried about something specific? Contact support and tell us what you have seen.
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