Your Digital Footprint Is Your Identity
The internet is like a city full of cameras. Imagine a city where cameras record you even into the toilet. Why do I mention the toilet? Because you take your phones there. Our microphones stay on in the toilet as well. If a company wanted to suggest a medicine based on sounds from the toilet, the chance of seeing that medicine as an advert on your phone exists in the digital world. Every step you take while you are connected to the internet is recorded in large data stores. The places where big companies keep their large data-storage computers are called data centres.
In this digital world, the places where you are recorded are called databases. And the records made there are never truly deleted unless the companies delete them, even if you delete them on your side.
A digital footprint is the information a person leaves in a database on the internet, whether they mean to or not. The traces we leave on purpose are active, and the ones we leave without meaning to are passive footprints. Active digital footprint is the name given to all data we send on purpose in online spaces. Examples of an active digital footprint include social media posts, emails, blog content, image shares and similar items.
A passive digital footprint is the traces left without intent in online spaces. Examples include search history, IP addresses, clicked adverts, information collected by hidden software, and similar items. A passive digital footprint is a system that records the background of every step a user takes on digital platforms.
For this reason I recommend that you watch what you write, what you say and what you do while you are connected to the internet. Every phone, every internet-connected television and every computer has a microphone. You are listened to at any moment. For now these records turn you into a product sold for advertising fees. But if you reach an important place in the future, they can hold you captive.
How can a digital footprint be protected?
Anyone who wishes can apply all of these measures, or only some of them;
- Search your name in search engines to check your digital footprint
- Reduce the number of sources that mention you
- Limit the amount of data you share
- Check your privacy settings twice
- Avoid oversharing on social media
- Stay away from unsafe websites
- Make sure you are dealing with a secure website; the URL should start with https:// instead of http://. The letter "s" here means "secure" and shows that the site has a security certificate.
- Avoid revealing private data on public Wi-Fi networks
- Delete your old accounts
- Create strong passwords and use a password manager
- Do not sign in with Facebook
- Review how you use your mobile devices
- Think before you share a post
- If there is a breach, act quickly
