Digital footprint is the digital trace that we leave behind when we go online. The internet never forgets, and what you do can have a huge impact on your life. There are many different types of footprints that you need to be aware of: web footprint, social media footprint, app usage history, location history, search engine activity.
You might think some of these don’t concern you – but they do! For example: if someone sees an embarrassing photo from your past on social media or in a news article they shared on Facebook about something else entirely – it could affect your future job prospects. This blog post will teach how to protect yourself by cleaning up your digital footprints so no one can use them against you!
Simple Definition of a Digital Footprint
A digital footprint is the amount of information that we leave behind when we go online – which includes web history, social media activity, app usage histories, location history and search engine activity. A lot of this information might not seem like a big deal, but it’s your digital history that someone can use against you.
What Causes a Digital Footprint?
A lot of the information in our footprint is unavoidable – like cookies and location data from Google Maps or blog posts we’ve commented on. These are usually passive footprints because they’re not something you actively give out to others. But when it comes to social media and apps, that’s where a lot of the footprints you should be worried about come from because they’re active.
Is Leaving Digital Footprint Bad?
No, digital footprint is not necessarily bad. It’s an unavoidable part of the internet and there are many positive aspects to it as well – such as saving time, learning more about yourself by seeing your habits online, connecting with people you might have never met in person before or turning off notifications when they’re distracting.
The problem is the data collected and how it can be used against you.
How Can I Protect Myself?
An easy way to protect yourself is by cleaning up your digital footprint – meaning deleting unnecessary data or limiting the amount of information in your profile so no one can find it and use it against you.
The first thing to do is delete old social media posts – especially on Instagram where the default setting is public but not everyone realizes that this means other people can see your post too.
You should also check all of your apps for any previous activity like logging in, sending messages or taking photos so someone else could find them later if they had a way to get access to your phone.
When something pops up with an alert about tracks left by location history being deleted, don’t worry! It’s just removing data from Google Maps so no one knows where you’ve been before which will be saved only as long as necessary until you have another app open using GPS.
Finally, make sure everything looks clean by deleting cookies and history from your browser.
As we go further into the internet age, it’s more important than ever to be aware of our digital footprint so no one can use that information against us!
