Be Seen. Not Found.

I start at the bottom

When I'm doing an investigation... the first place I look is your newsletter footer

The footer is the first thing I read

When we do a Scout investigation for a client, the goal is to find them, the same way a stalker would. And we don't just try to find them one way, the goal is actually to figure out ALL the available ways someone could potentially find them. Which sounds impressive, right?

And yes, the end report is pretty comprehensive. But... the reality is that, for most folks with an email newsletter, the easiest way to find them is just to join their list.

When I'm working on an investigation for anyone who runs an email newsletter, I don't start with anything clever or technical. I subscribe, I open the latest email, and a scroll to the bottom.

Because there's this law (CAN-SPAM) that says every newsletter has to carry a real physical address, and a surprising number of people (including ones who are careful about everything else) just put their home address down there and then forget it exists.

So... instead of me having to do anything complicated to find them, they're just emailing their home address to everyone on their list every week. Honestly, it's almost disappointing how often it works.

The pattern we keep seeing You probably set up this stuff a LONG time ago, checked it off the to-do list, and then... forgot. But the people looking for you didn't forget about it.

It feels like compliance, not exposure

This can catch even the sharpest folks... because it's mostly a one-and-done kinda thing.

You set the footer address up that one time - probably the day you created your email account. It took you about 10 seconds and it happened way before you were thinking about audience growth or weirdos on the internet. You were just psyched at the prospect of getting your ideas out into the world, and trying to get through the damn setup checklist.

And it's been riding along at the bottom of every email send ever since, just hanging out on autopilot. Because you're not reading your own footer... it's legal plumbing... the boring crap next to the unsubscribe link. You're not thinking about it as you telling the entire internet where you sleep.

Except... it kinda is.

• It's public and permanent. Kit, Substack, beehiiv... they all publish web archives of your past issues, so that address gets indexed by Google and sits there, searchable, long after the email itself is forgotten.
• It's self-service. Your list isn't a guest list... anyone can subscribe (including that one person you don't want to) and then, there it is, delivered to their inbox.
• It catches even the careful ones. You'd never put your home address on your About page... but the footer slipped through because it didn't really feel like publishing. It just felt like a rule you were following.

Honestly... happens to the best of us.

USe a different address

This one is super easy to fix.

• Get an address that isn't where you live. The FTC says a PO Box or a private mailbox through a commercial mail-receiving service fills the requirement. So, if you've already got an address (for something like your LLC registration), just use that in the footer. If you're a Kit subscriber, they'll even let you use their address. Just make sure that, if you do use a PO Box, that it's not in your same city (again... easy to find you that way).
• Swap out your address. Every email platform keeps the footer address in a settings box somewhere. Just change it once and it'll update the bottom of every email you send from here on out.
• Check your archive. If your home address has been riding your footer for a while, it's in your public issue archive and in all the old emails. You can't unsend them, but you can stop the issue going forward and, if your platform will let you, clean up your public archive too.

Just a note... this isn't free (unless you're a Kit subscriber and you use their address), that commercial mail service does cost a little (but you need this for other privacy stuff too). It's well worth the money though, because having an address that isn't yours to use everywhere can go a LONG way in actually protecting you, at a pretty good ROI.

For what it's worth... if you scroll to the bottom of this email, you'll see there's a Seattle address in the footer... that's actually Kit's address. Same fix I'm handing you.

Your move · This week Read your own footer Open the last email you sent and scroll to the bottom. What address is there? If it's your home, just make the swap. 10 min and you've closed the easiest path to your home.

On the Radar

What we're watching

01	Altered photos being farmed for money on X. Accounts on X are taking photos of real people and editing them with AI to expose more and then posting for engagement
02	Twitch turned on Amazon AI by default. It's on by default for everyone, so go to Security & Privacy > "Training for generative AI" and switch it off.
03	Chinese YT competitor goes global (and might have your content there). Bilibili just relaunched their international app - some creators are already seeing their videos on the site - without them posting them.

★ Worth your time Are you stuck? You know what to do, but you're just not doing it? My brilliant friend, Cat Mulvihill, is putting on a workshop that can help you get unstuck. I've done this workshop with Cat and it re-wired my brain! So go check it out! Register for the workshop →

Stay safe, Susan @ Unpublic

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