What the question actually asks
Gravatar gives you two different kinds of hiding, and they do not do the same thing. A section toggle changes what visitors see on your profile page. It does not necessarily change what a program can pull from your profile record. If your goal is “this field should not be publicly available,” the page toggle is the wrong control.
This is a settings-and-boundaries question, not a takedown question. Below is an audit you can run yourself, followed by a before/after checklist and the limits you should expect.
Three-column audit: page display, public data, avatar
Treat these as three separate surfaces and check each one on its own.
| Surface | What the setting controls | What it does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Profile page display | Whether a section is shown to someone viewing your public profile page | Does not by itself remove the underlying field from public profile data |
| Public profile data (including the profile API) | What is returned when your profile information is requested publicly | Removing a field here is a change to the profile itself, not a display toggle |
| Avatar visibility | Whether your public avatar is shown | Separate from the Public profile control; turning one off does not imply the other |
Gravatar section visibility controls hide content on the public profile page but that information can remain available through the public profile API. Source
That single sentence is the core of the confusion. A hidden section can look “gone” on the page while the same value is still served as data.
How the owner checks their own settings
You can only audit a profile you control. Do not try to query other people’s data or build scripts against profiles that are not yours.
- Sign in to the account that owns the Gravatar profile.
- Open the profile editor and list every field you consider sensitive: display name, about text, location, links, and any other entries you filled in.
- For each field, decide the outcome you want: shown on the page, available as public data, or neither.
- Where the answer is “neither,” remove the field rather than only hiding its section.
To keep a field out of that public data, remove it from the profile rather than only hide the section. Source
- If you want the profile information unavailable publicly at all, use the privacy settings and turn off Public profile.
Turning off Public profile in privacy settings makes profile information unavailable publicly, including through the profile API; public-avatar visibility is a separate control. Source
- Check the avatar setting separately, since it is its own control.
- Re-check your own public profile page and your own public profile data after saving, so you are confirming the result rather than assuming it.
Step 7 is where most people stop too early. Saving a setting is not the same as observing the outcome.
Before/after checklist
Use this as a record of what you changed and what you expect.
Before you change anything
- I have listed every profile field and marked it keep, hide from page, remove from data, or remove entirely.
- I know which fields are only hidden by a section toggle today.
- I have decided whether I want the public profile on at all.
- I have noted my current avatar visibility choice.
- I understand that other websites may have copied information in the past.
After you save
- Fields I wanted gone from public data have been removed, not just hidden.
- If I turned off Public profile, I have confirmed the profile information is no longer publicly available.
- I have checked the avatar control on its own.
- I have looked at my own profile page and my own public data and seen the expected result.
- I have kept a note of what I changed and when.
Failure boundaries
Be clear about what this work cannot promise.
- No retroactive erasure elsewhere. Changing your Gravatar settings does not reach into other sites, caches, archives or copies that already hold your information. Those need to be handled with each site on its own terms.
- Hidden is not removed. If a field is only hidden as a section, treat it as still public until you have removed it or disabled the public profile.
- Avatar is a separate switch. Do not assume that turning off the public profile also settles your avatar visibility.
- No verification of other people. This audit is for your own account. A public username match found anywhere is a lead, not proof of who owns an account, and it is not a way to inspect someone’s private data.
- No guarantee of completeness. You are checking the surfaces described here, not every possible copy of your information on the internet.
Where TraceSeek fits, and where it does not
TraceSeek is a username search app covering 3,000+ platforms, with a free first scan that takes 20-30 seconds. It can help you see where a known public username appears, which is useful context when you are mapping your own public footprint before deciding what to remove.
It cannot operate Gravatar settings for you. Hiding, removing or disabling profile data is done in your Gravatar account, and the checks above are the reliable way to confirm the result. A username search also does not prove that two accounts belong to the same person, and it does not erase anything.
A short recap
If your goal is that a field should not be publicly available, remove it from the profile. If your goal is that the profile information should not be public at all, turn off Public profile. Check the avatar separately, and do not expect any of this to remove copies that other websites already hold.