I spend an unholy amount of time on TikTok and with every trend I keep seeing people stress “digital footprints” and the importance of keeping it clean. I feel like I have an understanding of it all, but I feel like I don’t at the same time.
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Your Digital Footprint represents all the information and trails that you have left on the internet.
This is information of all kinds. Name, dob, ssn, what sites you visited, where you live, where you work, who your friends are, your hobbies, what you have bought online, what browser you use, what devices you use, etc.
Everywhere you go and what you do online potentially leaves a trail that leads back to you.
Your digital footprint is all of the data you leave when you use the internet or app and all the information that websites and apps collect about you when you use them. Some of this might be intentional on your part. For example, posting a picture on Instagram, but most of it you are unaware of, for example, cookies, your IP address, location, what type of device you’re using, what browser you’re using, and more. It’s data that reveals information about you that is quietly collected when you go online.
All of this information creates a very personal profile about you. What apps you use and how long you use them for, what websites you visit, what you search on those sites, how often you go on them, internet purchase you’ve made, and even where you are.
Companies can put all of this together and figure out your interests, who you associate with, your political beliefs, what medical conditions you have, your education level, and they can connect you to all of your various apps and accounts you use on different websites and social media platforms. Presumably, this is deeply personal stuff that you wouldn’t want strangers to have access to, but they do.
All of this information can be used to target advertisements to you, target you for political mailings and unsolicited marketing emails, potential employers can screen you and find out about you, and it can even put you at risk for identity theft.
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