- Launch Identity Finder.
- Enter your Identity Finder password to sign in to Identity
Finder.
- Click Start to begin a search of your computer. By
default, Identity Finder searches for Social Security Numbers,
credit card numbers and passwords.
- Your scan will run, and Identity Finder will tally the number
of locations searched on your computer, locations with a match and
total matches. On the main Identity Finder screen, the location of
each match will be identified, its date, file size, the information
identified as Personal Identifiable Information, number of
instances in the item and a preview of the content with the match
highlighted.
- Scan the items that were identified. The Preview Pane to the
right contains the text of the item, with the Personally
Identifiable Information highlighted. Check the box next to an
item, review the item, then choose from the following options:
- Check items you do not want to retain on your computer and
click Shred to destroy them. Shredded documents cannot be
recovered, and are destroyed to Department of Defense deletion
standards.
- Check items and select Scrub (if available) to remove
the identified term and retain the other information. The removed
information cannot be recovered.
- Check items and select Secure (if available) to secure
the file using features of the application that created it, such as
a password. The information is still contained in the file, but
cannot be accessed without a password.
- Check items and select Quarantine (if available) to move
an item to a special quarantined location and shred the version in
the original location.
- Check items you want to remove and select Recycle to put
it in your computer's recycle bin. Files in the recycle bin may be
able to be restored; this is not a good way to remove documents
that contain Personal Identifiable Information and doesn't actually
delete them.
- Check items that were misidentified as containing Personal
Identifiable Information (false positives) and select Ignore
to ignore either the match itself, the area it was located in, or
to manage what files are ignored in future searches.
Sometimes information is misidentified as being PII. Check the
box next to these and click Ignore for the match.
If you are on UBmail Powered by Exchange, you can use options
within Identity Finder to destroy or secure PII. If you are on
Central UBmail or UBmail Powered by Google, delete the messages
from your email client, such as Thunderbird, Eudora or Outlook,
rather than through Identity Finder.