What not to show on screen

Almost nobody is identified by a dramatic mistake. They are identified by an accumulation of ordinary details: the view from a window, a parcel on a desk, a notification sliding across the corner of the screen, the sound of a specific tram.

The good news is that this is a checklist problem, and a checklist fixes it.

The things on your screen

Go through these once, then again after any setup change:

• Notifications. Turn them off entirely on the streaming machine. Not "important only" — off. A single message preview can contain a full name, an address, or a booking reference.
• Browser windows. Tabs, bookmarks bar, autofill dropdowns, the profile picture in the corner. Use a separate browser profile with no bookmarks and no logins for anything you show on stream.
• Alt-tabbing. The most common single cause of an accidental reveal. Use a second monitor that is not captured, or capture a specific window rather than the whole display, so that switching away shows your audience nothing.
• File paths. C:\Users\YourRealName\ appears in title bars, in file dialogs, in game screenshots and in crash logs.
• Anything with an account name. Launcher overlays, email clients, cloud storage, a spreadsheet, a map application centred on your house.

Capture a window, not a screen, wherever you can. It is the single setting that prevents the most accidents.

The things in your room

• Windows. A recognisable building, a street sign, a distinctive skyline. Curtains are not only for acoustics.
• Reflections. Glasses, a monitor, a picture frame, a glossy poster, a switched-off second screen. Look at your own camera feed at full size occasionally and actually inspect the shiny things.
• Post and parcels. The classic. Do not open post on camera, and do not leave a delivery label facing the room.
• Documents and keys. A letter on the desk, a keyring with a fob, a prescription, a bank card used as a prop.
• Anything with a logo you did not choose. School, workplace, club, local team. Each one narrows a search.

The things you can hear

Underestimated, and in an ASMR or high-gain setup, much more revealing than usual.

• Church bells, trams, a station announcement, a specific siren pattern. These place a person geographically with surprising precision.
• Other people in the house, who did not agree to be on your stream.
• Doorbells and intercoms. Some intercoms announce the flat number.

You cannot eliminate ambient sound. You can avoid narrating it: "there goes the 7:40 from the station again" is the detail that turns background noise into information.

The things you say

The hardest category, because it is the one that makes you likeable.

You do not have to be secretive, but be aware that specifics accumulate across streams. A university, a first name, a nearby landmark, a birthday, a job sector, a holiday date, the school your sibling attends — any two of these are harmless, and five of them together are a search.

Two habits that keep it natural:

• Round things off. "Near Cologne" rather than the district. "Later this month" rather than the date. "I work in logistics" rather than the employer.
• Never announce absence in advance. "I'm away all next week" tells everyone your home is empty, which is a physical-security issue rather than a privacy one. Say it afterwards.

The things attached to your files

• Photo metadata. Images from a phone can carry GPS coordinates. Strip metadata before posting a picture of your setup — most platforms do, but Discord attachments and direct file uploads often do not.
• Screenshots of anything with a QR code, including tickets and boarding passes.
• Your own emote and overlay files, if a designer's project file contains your correspondence.

The five-minute audit

Once a quarter:

1. Open your own stream in an incognito window and look at it as a stranger would, at full size.
2. Search your handle on a search engine. See what is already public.
3. Check what your alt-tab shows, on purpose, off stream.
4. Look at three of your recent clips for reflections and windows.

Write down anything you find, fix the easiest one immediately, and put the rest on a list. This is not paranoia; it is the same category of chore as backing up your files.

Next: where a legal name legitimately has to exist — and how to keep it from appearing anywhere else.