Every activity you perform online, whether it is commenting on a news article, sharing something on social media or your shopping preferences leaves a digital footprint. This digital trail helps organizations find more about you. And while it does offer a certain degree of convenience, it can be a real hazard to your online privacy. Fortunately, there are several ways you can use to reduce your digital footprint and help ensure your privacy.
Understanding Your Digital Footprint
A digital footprint is a trail of data a person leaves online while using the internet. This data includes your search history, photos and videos you might have uploaded, newsletter subscriptions and more.
Also known as the 'digital shadow,' your footprint data can help paint a picture of who you are. Therefore, most apps, websites and online marketers use your digital footprint to personalize your browsing experience. However, your online footprint can also wreck your online privacy in several ways and is one of the common causes of data breaches.
Since almost every action is recorded online, the record that forms a footprint is unique to every user. The type of footprint depends on how it is left or collected. There are two main types of digital footprints:
- Active Digital Footprint
An active digital footprint is the data you intentionally leave online or rather the things you actively do online. This includes your online posts, comments, online shopping or even signing up for a newsletter. All these things are parts of your active digital footprint.
- Passive Digital Footprint
A passive digital footprint is the data you share unintentionally. This data usually depends on the cookies that a website is using whenever you visit it. Using cookies, a website may track how many times you have visited it, your biometric and geolocation data and even your IP address.
Both active and passive digital footprints can be tracked and stored by multiple sources. If you are curious about how to check your digital footprint, consider these four main methods: search your name on popular search engines like Google and Yahoo, use digital footprint checkers, check your public accounts and also look for data breaches through breach detection services.
Does My Digital Footprint Disrupt My Online Privacy? Can I Delete It?
A digital footprint is permanent, and deleting it is next to impossible. Once your data is public, you have little control over how others use it. All the information left behind due to your online activities is used and stored by third-party services, your services providers or the government.
However, one of the most dangerous aspects of an online footprint is that you never know how big it is. Since every app and site collects, stores and shares bits of your information, there is no way to completely track and eliminate all that information. This means that even the parts of your life you would want to keep private such as your medical information can be revealed online through your online orders or search history. Here are some ways your online footprint disrupts your privacy:
- Information is valuable to cybercriminals, who can exploit your digital footprint. They can gather enough relevant information to commit identity theft, phishing, cyberbullying and bank scams.
- You receive more spam emails and phone calls. Since your information is shared publicly and with third parties, it is one of the reasons you receive spam emails.
- Potential employers may gain access to outdated and unwanted information and reject you on that basis. According to a study, seven out of ten employers run an employee background check on social media platforms and have rejected 57% of people based on information found on social media platforms.
- Your footprint can also reveal your religious and political affiliations. While this may not seem like a dire issue, for someone who travels frequently or is suddenly under authoritarian rules, this could often lead to unforeseen arrests or biases made in workplaces.
The availability of your digital footprint for anyone to exploit is a dangerous matter, specifically in a world that relies significantly on digitization and the internet. And while there is no way to completely erase it, there are ways to minimize and protect it.
Best Ways to Reduce Your Digital Footprint
There are several ways you can reduce and protect your digital footprint, depending on how safe you want to be. However, with most of your information available out there, here is the damage control you can do:
Check Your Privacy Settings
Your privacy settings allow you to control who can see your posts and who can’t. Make sure to go through your privacy settings on all of your social media platforms and adjust them accordingly. This can help you ensure that you are sharing your personal data with the people you trust. For sites that don't have the option to change your privacy settings you can always contact them to have the information you want removed.
Try to Gain Back Control of Your Data
Data brokers are one of the largest collectors of your digital footprint. They collect your information and later sell it to scammers, the government or even insurance companies. However, data brokers are required by law to remove the user’s data from their databases if the owner issues a request. Most users seek the help of data broker removal services who contact data brokers on their behalf and issue requests to have their data removed. While this method is costly, if chosen the right service, it can effectively help reduce your digital footprint significantly.
Delete Old Accounts
Deleting old accounts that are no longer in use is an effective way to minimize your digital footprint. It gives you more control over the data you share with third parties. By deleting old accounts, you can effectively remove outdated and unwanted information, preventing third-parties from prying into your childhood or personal life.
Stay Cautious on Public Wi-Fi
Public Wi-Fi is a cybercriminal’s playground and you can never be sure how secure it is and who might have access to the data you are sending over it. Therefore, it is crucial to stay particularly mindful of public Wi-Fis and avoid sharing personal information over them, or logging into your banks, email accounts or social media accounts.
Use a VPN
VPNs are online privacy and security tools that hide your data by encrypting and further transport it from your computer to your destination in encrypted packets within an encrypted tunnel. Additionally, it also routes your data traffic through remote servers which helps mask your IP address. This prevents websites from tracking you or collecting your IP address and your geo-location.
Final Words
Reducing your digital footprint is important for protecting your privacy and security. However, to completely avoid it you will have to stop using the internet completely which is next to impossible. Therefore, the next best thing is to remember why it is crucial to hide it and look for effective methods to reduce it. If you search for yourself online, will you be satisfied with the information you find? This is a question you need to answer yourself and try to secure your personal information as much as you can.
