Scanner Strategy Guide

The Four Scanner Categories

Every scanner belongs to one of four categories: Protect, Discover, Grow, and Targeted. Each category has a distinct job. Think of them as four departments inside a personal reputation intelligence firm, each staffed with specialists, each reporting to you.

The categories are intentionally layered. Protect scanners establish your baseline safety. Discover scanners map the territory. Grow scanners reveal where you stand relative to your potential. Targeted scanners let you zoom in when something specific needs attention. Most users benefit from running at least one scanner from each category every quarter.

Certain life events should trigger a full cross-category scan. Starting a new job, launching a business, entering a high-profile industry, going through a public dispute, or preparing for a board appointment all create moments where a complete scan across all four categories is worth the credit investment. The decision framework in Chapter 5 maps those triggers precisely.

How the Credit-Based Access Model Works

Advanced Scanners operate on a credit system that gives every plan tier access to the full scanner marketplace while keeping costs proportional to how much scanning you actually need. Credits are consumed per scan run, not per month and not per account. You buy what you use.

• Standard scans (Discover category) cost 1 credit each.
• Protect and Grow scanners cost 2 credits each due to third-party data source fees.
• Targeted scanners cost 3 credits each. They run deeper, multi-source investigations that take longer to complete.
• Credits roll over within the same calendar month but do not accumulate indefinitely. Unused credits after 90 days are forfeited.
• Bonus credits are awarded when you complete your profile, link social accounts, or respond to AI coaching prompts.

Credit purchases are available in packs of 10, 25, and 100. Packs never expire and are tied to your account, not your subscription tier. If you downgrade your plan, any purchased credits remain usable. The Platinum unlimited tier applies only to the credits included with the plan; purchased packs are always separate and permanent.

What Happens When You Run a Scan

Understanding the scan pipeline helps you set the right expectations and troubleshoot when results look unexpected. Every scan follows the same five-stage process, though the specific data sources differ by category.

1. 1Identity Anchoring: Our system pulls your verified identity data from your KYC card: full name, known aliases, organisation, location, and any social handles you have linked. This anchors the search so results are about you, not someone with a similar name.
2. 2Source Querying: The scanner queries its designated data sources in parallel. A single scan may touch anywhere from 3 to 40+ external sources depending on its category. Protect scanners query breach databases, background records, and data broker registries. Discover scanners crawl the open web, news archives, and social indices.
3. 3Deduplication and Relevance Scoring: Raw results are deduplicated and scored for relevance using your identity anchor. Our AI discards results that clearly refer to a different person, flags ambiguous matches, and surfaces high-confidence matches first.
4. 4Evidence Packaging: Confirmed results are packaged as structured evidence items and sent to your Evidence Hub. Each item includes the source, confidence score, date found, and a plain-English summary of what it means for your reputation.
5. 5Score Impact Calculation: The system recalculates the affected pillar scores and updates your overall Reputation Score. A badge appears in your dashboard showing which pillars were affected by the latest scan run.

Scans are non-destructive and invisible. Running a scan does not notify the people or organisations whose data appears in results. It does not create a record in any external system. It does not affect your credit score, professional licences, or any third-party profile. You are observing information that already exists; our scanners simply surface it faster and more systematically than manual searching would.

Background Check Scanners

Two of the six Protect scanners focus specifically on the types of records that appear in formal background checks, the reports that employers, boards, and investment partners commission when evaluating you. Most people have never seen their own background check. That is a significant blind spot.

The Professional Records Scan is most valuable before career transitions. If you are being considered for a C-suite role, a board seat, a financial services position, or any role requiring regulatory approval, the hiring organisation will run a check similar to this one. Running it yourself first means no surprises and gives you time to prepare explanations or seek corrections for any inaccurate records.

• Run the Professional Records Scan annually as a baseline, and again before any major career event.
• If results surface records you believe are inaccurate, note the source court or agency. That is the entity you will need to contact for a correction.
• The Media Adverse Coverage Scan is especially important for anyone in financial services, law, healthcare, or public-sector roles where historic coverage can affect current-day eligibility.
• Adverse coverage that is old but truthful cannot be removed, but it can be contextualised. Use Narratives Intelligence to build a counter-narrative before an interview process begins.

Data Breach Detection

A data breach does not just mean someone read your email. It means that credentials, personal identifiers, or sensitive account details associated with your email addresses or usernames are available to anyone willing to purchase or download stolen datasets. Breach data is used for credential stuffing, phishing, identity theft, and increasingly, reputational attacks that weaponise personal information against you.

1. 1Run the Credential Breach Scan for every email address you use: personal, professional, and any old addresses you may have abandoned.
2. 2When a breach is identified, note which specific data fields were exposed (password hash, phone number, home address, etc.). Each exposed field requires a different remediation action.
3. 3If the scan confirms a password was exposed, change that password everywhere you have reused it. Use a password manager to generate and store unique passwords going forward.
4. 4Run the Dark Web Exposure Scan if the Credential Breach Scan returns multiple incidents, if you work in a high-profile or high-risk industry, or if you have recently noticed unusual account activity.
5. 5Re-run both breach scans every 90 days. New breach datasets are released constantly, and your exposure changes even when your own behaviour does not.

The Dark Web Exposure Scan is available to Premium and Platinum users only. If you are on a Free plan and the Credential Breach Scan surfaces multiple incidents, upgrading to Premium before running the Dark Web scan is a reasonable next step. The additional intelligence is often worth the investment when active exposure is suspected.

Transparency & Trust Assessment Scans

Data brokers are companies whose entire business model is collecting, aggregating, and selling personal information: addresses, phone numbers, family members, income estimates, employment history, and more. Most people are listed on dozens of broker sites without ever having consented. The Transparency & Trust scanners map your exposure across this landscape.

The Data Broker Exposure Scan is the starting point for anyone concerned about privacy: from executives worried about physical security, to individuals who have experienced stalking or harassment, to professionals who simply prefer to keep personal details off the open web. Results typically surface 20 to 80 listings for the average person, which sounds alarming but is entirely normal. The goal is not zero listings overnight. It is systematic reduction over time.

• After running the Data Broker Exposure Scan, export the full results list from your Evidence Hub. Use it as your opt-out checklist. Most brokers have a removal request form, and the Digital Cleanup Guide walks you through the process.
• Prioritise removals from brokers that display your home address and phone number. These carry the highest physical safety risk.
• The Personal Information Leakage Scan is particularly useful for professionals who registered websites in the early 2000s (WHOIS data was public by default before GDPR), participated in public forums under their real name, or uploaded documents without reviewing metadata.
• Re-run transparency & trust scans quarterly. Brokers re-list removed data. This is not a one-and-done process.

Digital Footprint Scan

The Digital Footprint Scan is the most foundational scanner in the entire library. It crawls the open web for any page that contains your name, known aliases, or linked identifiers, then maps every result into a structured inventory. Think of it as building a personal search index, except filtered to be about you, de-duplicated, and categorised by content type.

The first time you run the Digital Footprint Scan, treat the results as your reputation audit. Go through every category. Look for profile pages you did not know existed: old employer bio pages, directory listings, alumni sites. Look for social accounts you created and forgot. Look for any results where your name is associated with content you would not want a hiring manager or client to find.

1. 1Run the Digital Footprint Scan before starting any other scanner programme. It sets the context for everything that follows.
2. 2Sort results by sentiment. Start with the negative or neutral results that appear on page one of search engines. These have the highest visibility impact.
3. 3Export the full URL list and open each result. Automated classification is accurate but not perfect; a human review catches edge cases.
4. 4Flag any results you want to remove or push down in search results. These become your Digital Cleanup list (see the Digital Cleanup Guide for tactics).
5. 5Run this scan every 6 months, or any time you publish significant new content or change roles.

Media Mentions and Sentiment Analysis

Being mentioned in the press, whether favourably or critically, shapes how others perceive you in ways that no profile page can match. News coverage carries third-party authority. A single well-placed article can transform your reputation more than years of self-published content. The Media Mentions scanner finds all of it: positive features, neutral references, and critical coverage alike.

Sentiment analysis is powerful but imperfect. Sarcasm, irony, and highly technical industry coverage are the most common edge cases where automated classification goes wrong. For any mention that will inform a significant decision, such as preparing for a media interview, responding to a crisis, or assessing reputation risk, read the full article rather than relying solely on the sentiment label.

• Positive mentions are evidence. Export and save them. They belong in your Evidence Hub as authority signals and can be referenced directly in your Reputation Report.
• Negative mentions need context. One critical article from seven years ago is very different from a pattern of recent controversy. Look at both the volume and the recency of negative coverage.
• Neutral mentions (name appears but you are not the focus) are still useful. They confirm that journalists and editors know who you are.
• Set up Live Alerts (Premium/Platinum) to be notified of new media mentions in real time. Respond to positive coverage quickly; manage negative coverage before it gains momentum.
• Run the Media Mentions Scan quarterly, and immediately following any public-facing event: a keynote, a product launch, a media appearance, or any incident that generated public discussion.

Professional Network and Connection Analysis

Who you are connected to professionally is itself a reputation signal. A dense, high-quality professional network indicates industry standing, trustworthiness, and access. Sparse or low-quality connections can undermine an otherwise strong profile. The Professional Network Analysis scanner maps the strength, diversity, and visibility of your professional connections across linked platforms.

The most actionable output from this scanner is the gap analysis. Based on your stated role, industry, and goals (from your profile and SAQ), the system identifies categories of connections that would most improve your network quality. For example: "You have strong peer connections but very few senior decision-makers in your target industry." That is a precise, actionable finding, not a vague recommendation to "grow your network".

• Run this scanner after completing your full profile. The gap analysis improves dramatically with more complete goal and career data.
• Treat the connection opportunity list as a prospecting queue, not a cold outreach mandate. The scanner identifies who would be valuable to know; your judgement determines how to approach the relationship.
• Endorsement patterns matter. If you are endorsed heavily for skills that are not central to your current positioning, that misalignment shows up in how others perceive your expertise.
• Re-run annually, or after a major career pivot, to see whether your network composition has shifted to match your new direction.

Authority Building Scanners

Authority is the hardest element of reputation to build and the easiest to underestimate. People with genuine expertise often register as low-authority online simply because they have not structured their output in the ways that search engines, media outlets, and professional networks reward. The four Grow scanners measure your current authority signals and identify precisely where the gaps are.

The Thought Leadership Scan is most revealing when run on its full multi-year window rather than a recent-only filter. Seeing the arc of your published output, which topics you have covered, how engagement has changed, and where your credibility clusters, often clarifying what your genuine area of authority is. Many professionals discover that their actual recognised expertise differs from the expertise they think they are known for.

• Run all four Grow scanners as a set at least once. The combined picture is more valuable than any single scanner in isolation.
• Low Thought Leadership scores with high Citation scores suggest that others value your ideas more than your personal publishing output. This often indicates you are an ideas source who should be publishing more under your own name.
• High Speaking scores with low Citation scores means you are visible at events but your ideas are not spreading in written form. Consider turning your talks into articles.
• Expert Credentials scan results feed directly into your Trust Passport, which is a shareable proof-of-credentials document available to all plan tiers.

Brand Consistency Checks

Inconsistency is a silent reputation killer. When your job title on LinkedIn says one thing, your company bio says another, and your Twitter profile has not been updated since 2019, every version is diluting the clarity of who you are. Recruiters, journalists, and potential partners often encounter multiple versions of your profile and draw negative conclusions, not because the information is wrong, but because it is contradictory.

1. 1Run this scan before any major professional event: a job search, a fundraising round, a public speaking engagement, or a media opportunity.
2. 2Start corrections with the highest-visibility fields: name format, current title, and profile photo consistency. These are the fields people check first.
3. 3Amber inconsistencies (minor variations) matter more than they appear to. "Managing Director" vs "MD" vs "Managing Dir." reads as sloppiness to detail-oriented decision-makers.
4. 4After correcting profiles, allow 48 to 72 hours for search engine caches to update, then re-run the scan to confirm corrections have propagated.
5. 5Include your professional email address in the consistency check. Using different email domains across platforms, such as personal Gmail versus company email, creates an impression of disorganisation.

Targeted Investigation Scanners

The three Targeted scanners are not routine tools. They are deployed in response to specific concerns. You would not run a Deepfake Detection scan every month any more than you would call a lawyer every month. But when the concern arises, the Targeted scanners provide intelligence you cannot get from any other scanner in the library. They cost more credits and take longer because they go significantly deeper.

The Deepfake and Impersonation Detection Scan has become increasingly important as AI-generated content has become indistinguishable from genuine photography. Public figures, executives, and anyone with a meaningful social following are now realistic targets for synthetic media attacks. Running this scan once per year, and immediately if you receive reports of suspicious content, is a minimum precaution for anyone with public-facing responsibilities.

• Deploy the Reverse Image Search Scan when you want to protect your personal brand photography, or when you notice images appearing in unexpected places.
• Use the Single Platform Deep Scan when you know a specific platform is a reputation risk. For example, if colleagues mention that someone is discussing you on a specific forum, or if reviews on a particular site are affecting business.
• If the Deepfake Detection Scan returns positive results, document everything immediately (screenshots with timestamps) and consult the Crisis Management module in your AI Reputation Coach before taking public action.
• Targeted scans are available to Premium and Platinum users. Free users who need targeted scanning can purchase a one-time credit pack.

Priority Matrix: Role and Risk Profile

Different professionals have different vulnerability profiles. A C-suite executive faces background check scrutiny and media coverage risk. A freelance professional faces visibility and authority gaps. A public-sector professional faces regulatory compliance risks. The priority matrix below maps your role to the scanners that deliver the highest return per credit for your specific situation.

Risk events override the standard priority matrix. Whenever a triggering event occurs, such as a public dispute, a job transition, a significant public appearance, or a data breach notification from any service, re-prioritise using the event-based scan list below, regardless of your role category.

The Scan, Interpret, Act Loop

Running a scanner is step one. The value is in what you do with the results. The Scan, Interpret, Act loop is a three-step process for turning raw scanner output into concrete reputation improvement. Skipping any step reduces the return on every credit you spend.

1. 1Scan: Run the scanner. Wait for results. Do not pre-empt or assume. Let the data come back before forming any conclusions. If results take longer than expected, do not re-run. Check your notification settings instead.
2. 2Interpret: Open your Evidence Hub and filter to the most recent scan results. Read every item in the high-confidence category. For low-confidence items, click through to the source and verify manually. Classify each result as: (a) confirms something positive to amplify, (b) reveals something neutral to monitor, (c) identifies something negative to address, or (d) is irrelevant or a false positive to dismiss.
3. 3Act: For each result you classified as (a): add it to your Narratives Intelligence as supporting evidence. For (b): set a monitor alert if it is from a high-visibility source. For (c): open a Mission in the AI Coaching module. The coach will generate a specific action plan for the finding. For (d): dismiss the item in the Evidence Hub to keep your workspace clean. Do not skip the dismiss step; cluttered Evidence Hubs make future interpretation harder.

The Act phase does not need to be completed in the same session as the scan. Complex findings, particularly in the Protect category, may require research, professional advice, or time-sensitive platform actions. Use the Evidence Hub's "action queue" tag to mark items you intend to address, so they remain visible in your next session without cluttering the main results view.

Credit Budgeting Strategies by Plan

Getting maximum value from your credits requires intentional allocation, not just running whichever scanner catches your attention. Below are recommended quarterly budgets for each plan tier, designed to deliver comprehensive coverage without exhausting credits before the replenishment cycle.

• Credits earned through profile completion (up to 8 bonus credits) count toward your monthly allocation and should be claimed before running paid scans.
• If you are approaching the end of a billing month with unused credits, prioritise running the higher-cost scanners (Protect and Grow at 2 credits) rather than cheaper Discover scans. The per-credit value is higher for the more expensive scanners.
• On any plan, buying a 10-credit top-up pack is more economical than upgrading to the next tier just to run one or two additional scans. Reserve tier upgrades for when you need sustained access, not occasional extra capacity.
• Track your credit usage in the Account section of your dashboard. A clear view of what you have spent and on what scanners helps you refine your quarterly budget each cycle.

Credit budgeting is not a set-and-forget exercise. Revisit your allocation each quarter in light of what you found the previous quarter. If the Protect scanners returned clean results two quarters in a row, you can safely reduce their frequency. If the Thought Leadership Scan keeps surfacing gaps, increase its allocation until those gaps close. The framework is a starting point; your results data should refine it over time.