In a time when people’s data is constantly being exploited, in order to gain profits and/or defame some person in positions of authority and people, how might someone, especially someone who is thinking about taking on a higher position in a company or government, go about erasing their digital trail? Do they hire someone to do that, and what kind of professional would they hire? Nowadays, people who aspire to climb up the ladder find their reputations under threat just because he/she did something randomly questionable(not harmful; ie:porn, buying sex toys, being a bit politically incorrect etc) online.
Just the fact that we have a literal computer in our pockets almost 24/7 means we will eventually do some questionable stuff online.
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It’s only possible in theory, not realistically. So much data is collected by so many sources and stored so many places all over the world that nobody can simply “erase” all of it. The Facebook post made by some teenager in Iowa may already be stored on servers in China, Russia, and Madagascar. And even if you could, somehow, miraculously track down all the places where that post is, you couldn’t necessarily convince ever single person with access to that post to delete it. In sum, if you put something on the internet, there’s an extremely good chance that it will exist forever, somewhere.
You don’t. It’s impossible to get rid of everything. Because all it takes is for one random person to have one random screenshot on a personal device and you can never make that go away and there is always a chance it will bounce back up.
The only way to avoid a digital footprint is to actively work on not making one.
I echo the others, except I’ll say you can “confound” the trail by creating digital noise. Either create a ton of look-a-like trails (people with similar handles, names, pictures, etc) online that do the same “deviant” thing you want to hide, so you can pretend you were the victim of some attack or smear campaign or spoof or whatever. Or you can post a lot of jibberish from your main account, then report it hacked/ stolen and start over again, then blaim whatever deviance found on the hackers.
You don’t. It’s impossible to get rid of everything. Because all it takes is for one random person to have one random screenshot on a personal device and you can never make that go away and there is always a chance it will bounce back up.
The only way to avoid a digital footprint is to actively work on not making one.
It’s only possible in theory, not realistically. So much data is collected by so many sources and stored so many places all over the world that nobody can simply “erase” all of it. The Facebook post made by some teenager in Iowa may already be stored on servers in China, Russia, and Madagascar. And even if you could, somehow, miraculously track down all the places where that post is, you couldn’t necessarily convince ever single person with access to that post to delete it. In sum, if you put something on the internet, there’s an extremely good chance that it will exist forever, somewhere.
You don’t. It’s impossible to get rid of everything. Because all it takes is for one random person to have one random screenshot on a personal device and you can never make that go away and there is always a chance it will bounce back up.
The only way to avoid a digital footprint is to actively work on not making one.
It’s only possible in theory, not realistically. So much data is collected by so many sources and stored so many places all over the world that nobody can simply “erase” all of it. The Facebook post made by some teenager in Iowa may already be stored on servers in China, Russia, and Madagascar. And even if you could, somehow, miraculously track down all the places where that post is, you couldn’t necessarily convince ever single person with access to that post to delete it. In sum, if you put something on the internet, there’s an extremely good chance that it will exist forever, somewhere.
I echo the others, except I’ll say you can “confound” the trail by creating digital noise. Either create a ton of look-a-like trails (people with similar handles, names, pictures, etc) online that do the same “deviant” thing you want to hide, so you can pretend you were the victim of some attack or smear campaign or spoof or whatever. Or you can post a lot of jibberish from your main account, then report it hacked/ stolen and start over again, then blaim whatever deviance found on the hackers.
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I echo the others, except I’ll say you can “confound” the trail by creating digital noise. Either create a ton of look-a-like trails (people with similar handles, names, pictures, etc) online that do the same “deviant” thing you want to hide, so you can pretend you were the victim of some attack or smear campaign or spoof or whatever. Or you can post a lot of jibberish from your main account, then report it hacked/ stolen and start over again, then blaim whatever deviance found on the hackers.
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