How To Manage Digital Footprint

How To Manage Digital Footprint

What is a Digital Footprint?

Your digital footprint is a little like the online version of your actual footprint and fingerprint. It shows where you’ve been, like a footprint, and identifies you to others, like a fingerprint. Basically, it’s the sum total of all your online activity, from blog posts and “likes” or comments on social media to online purchases and email activity. It also includes anything posted about you and anything gathered by “cookies” websites place on your phone or computer when you visit them. All of these things make up the digital trail that you leave when you go online. It includes your IP address (Internet Protocol address, used to facilitate communication between devices connected to the internet), login information, and anything you reveal online like your birthday, address, or hobbies.

Because your online trail includes a vast amount of information, it may help to break it down into the categories active and passive. Your active digital footprint includes anything you actively choose to do, like signing up for discounts, posting on social media, or joining a group. The passive side of digital footprints is everything you didn’t choose and may not even be aware has been recorded-- those cookies placed on your device by a web site, information about you gathered by advertisers, geolocation data collected when you use maps and location-powered apps, and your IP and email addresses logged when you do pretty much anything online. (If you consent to cookies, which many websites now ask you to do, that may make them more active than passive. Regardless, they are part of the digital footprint conversation.) Both the active and passive components make up your digital footprint and help others – prospective employers, in-laws, volunteer opportunities, marketers, fraudsters, and scammers -- form an impression of you. Since your digital footprint tells the world a lot about you, it makes sense to understand what it is and how your online reputation can affect you, in good and bad ways.

Why Your Digital Footprint Matters

The internet is riddled with tales of people whose reputations were shattered over a post or picture, sometimes decades old, that seemed innocuous at the time. Aside from embarrassment, there is a host of reasons to be aware of and do your best to manage your online trail. Here are some of the types of information in your digital footprint and ways it might be used.

Type of information found in digital footprints:

• • • Personal details like religion, political affiliation, hobbies, and interests
    • Online shopping cart items and store preferences
    • Follows, likes, comments, and posts on articles, blogs, and social media
    • Searches, especially for items of interest to advertisers
    • Anything you put in an online form – name, address, date of birth, phone number, etc.
    • Content of emails and text messages
    • Websites you visit
    • Your location, if your phone’s location function is enabled

How digital footprint information might be used:

• • • Targeted ads, online and even offline
    • Background checks for jobs, volunteer positions, group membership.
    • Robbery – If criminals know where you are, where you’ll be, and where you bank that could be enough information to rob you.
    • Fraud – If there’s enough information about you online, criminals can pose as you to trick friends and family into falling for phishing scams or other types of fraud.
    • Identity theft – With enough sensitive and personal details about you, a criminal can steal your identity and wreak havoc on your credit score, drain your bank accounts, ruin your reputation, and interfere with your tax return.

While it’s next to impossible to completely control the trail you leave online, being mindful of your digital footprint by thinking of it as an extension of your reputation can help. Words and photos can be misinterpreted, especially years later by people who don’t know you. Something you post to a private group can easily escape the bounds and damage your relationships. One of the best ways to manage your digital footprint is to be a good digital citizen. Stop and think before posting, commenting, liking, or entering your personal information. Read on for more ways to minimize the trail you might leave.

Five Ways to Manage Your Digital Footprint

There are companies that specialize in cleaning up people’s online presence, for a fee. However, unless you plan to run for office, or there’s something really embarrassing about you out there, digital footprint management is probably something you can tackle yourself using the following list.

1. Find out what's there. The first step to controlling, or attempting to control, what’s online about you is to find out what it is. It’s important to browse privately or in incognito mode so you see what a stranger would see if they searched for you. Once you’ve opened a private browsing tab, type in your name and scroll through the results. If there’s something you don’t like, delete it, if it’s something you posted. Otherwise, contact the site or blog owner and ask them to remove it. Finally, set up Google Alerts on yourself so you’ll be notified about new posts or stories with your name.
2. Practice good digital hygiene. This idea covers a lot of ground, from using good, strong passwords to keeping all your software up to date. It’s also wise to regularly go through your phone and delete any apps you no longer use. Not only do they take up valuable space but apps are like sponges gathering up all kinds of info about your non-app-related activities. For apps you keep, double check the privacy settings and adjust them if needed. Consider making your social media accounts private, too. Turn off your phone’s location function unless you or your family need it. Finally, check and delete cookies regularly and, of course, keep login and password information private and secure.
3. Split your footprint. Email addresses are free so set up one for personal use and one that you use when signing up for shopping accounts, social media, etc. You may even want to add a third for work-related matters or for mailing lists you want to join.
4. Use a VPN. One great way to protect yourself from prying eyes is to use a virtual private network or VPN. It can be extremely useful when connecting to public Wi-Fi, like in a coffee shop or airport, but it also stops your home internet service provider (ISP) from harvesting and selling your (anonymized) data. VPNs fully encrypt all web traffic on their network so your identity, location, shopping habits, and other private info stays private. VPNs are not free but some anti-virus software providers include them.
5. Opt out. Opt out. Think twice before signing up for that mailing list, creating a shopping account instead of checking out as a guest, downloading another app, or other activities that expose your information to the world. When possible, choose not to accept cookies on websites. You can also tell Google to stop personalizing your ads, unless you prefer them.