Why does your digital footprint matter?

When you walk across a plush carpet, you leave footprints which can be vacuumed over to be removed. When you are online doing your normal activities, you leave a different kind of footprint, and the internet collects that information to show everywhere you’ve gone. There is no giant online vacuum to erase your digital steps. They are there forever. Little crumbs in the form of cookies, posts, comments, clicks, and even pictures or apps on your phone can give a very good look into your personal life. Being connected online is one-way advertisers, retailers, and employers can find out more about you. Your digital footprints are everywhere. Why does that matter?

Companies will use those crumbs to target you for ads. You’ve been on social media commenting on something only to see an advertisement for that very thing pop up on your feed. They used your digital footprint to learn about you and your habits in order to send you an ad which is more likely to get your attention. You can leave a trail across websites, too, depending on your browser settings. That trail could be used to link up more of your information to form an even broader look into your life.

This sounds relatively harmless. Many of us just ignore the ads when they pop up. However, some use the information for less than honorable things like social engineering attacks, bullying, harassment, or even blackmail. You may be giving away information which could lead someone to figure out passwords just by doing some of those social media quizzes which are very popular. Online quizzes collect information

You can be in more control of your online presence by doing just a few things. Internet Society has a great set of tutorials to help you understand and keep your digital footprint to a minimum, or, at the very least, as guarded by you as possible. Your Digital Footprint Matters

Be aware of what you are putting out there online. Take steps to keep yourself safe. And, remember…

It’s your phone number. It’s your email address. It’s none of their business.