How Does Your Digital Footprint Work, and Why Does It Matter?

Understanding and taking control of your digital footprint is important. Using the internet might feel anonymous, but even if you post online “anonymously” or use fake names, your real ID, such as your IP address, is stored and tracked on the various websites you use.

Your digital footprint matters because:

1. It’s a near indelible trace of your activities online.
2. It forms the basis of your online reputation, which can affect your offline reputation.
3. It can include sensitive information.

Here’s a look at how digital footprints work, the different kinds of digital footprints, and how you can curate and protect them to enhance your online and offline reputations.

How Does Your Digital Footprint Work?

Having a digital footprint isn’t inherently bad. That’s a relief, because if you’ve ever been online, and more than 5 billion of us have, you have a digital footprint.

A digital footprint, also known as an electronic footprint, is the digital trail of data you generate — knowingly or unknowingly — while using the internet.

Just like walking through snow or sand, your activities online leave a trace. It can be used to identify you individually, see places you visited, learn what you share online, and examine how you’ve conducted yourself in the past.

Whether reading this made you shrug or you feel like you’ve just had cold water thrown over you from a bucket marked panic, it’s essential to note that:

a) your digital footprint is important because it forms the basis of your digital identity, and

b) you can protect it.

Digital Footprint Examples

Digital footprint examples include:

• Your search history
• Your browsing history
• Your online accounts and subscriptions
• Your photo and video uploads
• Posting on social media
• Your interactions on social media, including likes and shares
• Online comments and reviews
• Buying and selling online
• Photos in which you’re tagged

Some activities that contribute to digital footprints last longer and leave more of an impression than other activities.

Deleting your browser and search history, for example, is a fairly straightforward way to reduce your digital footprint, removing some trails of your activities online. 

Getting content removed from the internet, however, can be extremely difficult. Even when such content is removed, this is no guarantee that it no longer exists because it could already have been copied, archived, and/or shared.

Types of Digital Footprints

Digital footprints can be put into two boxes. You can talk about your active digital footprint, but there are also passive footprints. People’s use of the internet leads to the growth of both active and passive footprints. 

The ratio between active and passive digital footprints depends on what kind of user you are.

Active Digital Footprints

An active digital footprint is created by online actions you take deliberately and knowingly. You increase your active digital footprint when you share data with informed consent.

So, active digital footprint examples include:

• posting comments on blogs
• writing social media posts
• online sharing
• gaming online
• filling out online forms
• emailing

Passive Footprints

A passive digital footprint refers to activities that go on in the background when you’re online. This information about you is collected without your explicit knowledge or involvement, such as a website that tracks your IP address, your browser saving cookies, or search engines that keep track of your search history.

Websites commonly collect user usage details, identifying individual users via their IP addresses and then storing information such as how long they spend on a website, what pages they click on, where they came from, and even where they go when they leave.

Smart home devices may also increase passive digital footprints because they gather data without the users’ explicit knowledge. And Facebook’s tracking pixel is a powerful bit of code that collects user data on numerous websites, not only Facebook.

Why Are Digital Footprints Important?

You go for a job. You’re going on a date. One of the first things HR and potential partners do these days is check you out online.

Banks, government agencies, potential employers, institutions that deal with credit, and even acquaintances may look at your online reputation to help them make decisions about you, such as your temperament, interests, and trustworthiness.

So people can use digital footprints to make assumptions about others based on their past online behavior. With that in mind, note that awareness and deliberate curation of your digital footprint can help you find everything from love to a new job to a deal with a publisher.

For artists and freelancers, enhancing their digital footprint through judicious use of social media interactions, account creation, subscriptions, and content sharing can increase their reach and perceived value.

A strategy of independent authors, for example, is to write and publish books in a series, not only to have more compelling products but also to increase their digital footprint and the likelihood that they’ll appear in search results.

Advertisers love tracking online users because it helps them understand their potential and existing customers. Marketers can use digital footprints to learn how to serve their customers and clients better and to develop campaigns that reach more of the right people.

And influencers, of course, are also a great example of people who understand the power of building, maintaining, and protecting their online reputations through a positive digital footprint.

How to Protect Your Digital Footprint

Now you know why your digital footprint matters, let’s look at how to get more control over it and clean it up.

Delete Those Posts You’re Not Proud Of

If reading this post has made the hairs stand up on your neck, you can take some immediate action to feel better. Go ahead and delete any of those posts and comments that threaten to keep you awake at night.

Do you only ever leave snarky, one-star reviews? Did you get into a murky argument on a Facebook page? Have you overshared holiday photos that could make you look less than your best?

While deleting things you post online might not be 100% effective in terms of removing the content from the internet, you may be able to make them harder to see and thus make your digital footprint a bit less embarrassing or damaging.

Avoid Oversharing to Avoid Identity Theft

If you overshare online, you’re more at risk of identity theft. Therefore, make it a habit not to share sensitive information, including personally identifiable information.

Sensitive information that could help someone steal your identity might include:

• your bank details
• your full name
• your address — street or email
• your national insurance number
• your phone number

Some of this information might seem innocuous. In the wrong hands, however, it could be used for identity theft and perpetrating fraudulent transactions. 

Whether you’re posting on social media, messaging in “private,” emailing, or filling out a form, you need to beware of sharing this kind of information if you want to protect your digital footprint.

Protect Your Passwords

If someone can crack your password, they can use the internet as if they are you, spoiling your online reputation and even committing crimes.

To prevent this, prioritize strong passwords. These are typically longer passwords that don’t include dictionary words but do include a combination of alphanumeric characters and symbols.

It’s challenging to remember complex passwords for multiple websites. Using a password manager can help. A password manager helps you create strong passwords, facilitates using them in the right places, and stores them securely with strong security.

Understand Cookies

Since the early 2000s, privacy laws requiring websites to tell you when they want to store cookies on your machine and track you have become more stringent.

Lou Montulli, a well-known American computer programmer and web developer, borrowed the programmers’ term “magic cookie”, using the idea of browser code that could be stored on browsers to help websites remember information about users’ activities and preferences.

When you go to a website and it says: “Hi Dave, welcome back!” That’s the tip of the iceberg of the power of cookies. Websites and marketers use them to provide a personalized service to users, which can result in a better user experience and more sales.

Some websites also share this kind of data, which can sometimes lead to increased spam and scams, including communications that could increase your risk of identity theft.

These days, when you visit a site that uses cookies, you’ll get a pop-up notifying you of your options regarding the website’s use of tracking code and software and to what extent you accept this. It’s worth taking the time to review a site’s privacy settings if you want to protect your digital footprint.

Don’t Use Public Wi-Fi

Public wi-fi is a convenience that can put your device and personal information at risk. Hackers sit on unsecured public wifi, waiting for unsuspecting users to connect, and then they can commit various crimes, including intercepting and modifying messages.

Use Anti-Tracking Software

Yes, software exists to prevent websites from tracking your every move. A virtual private network masks your IP address and encrypts traffic so that websites will find it far more difficult to track you.

Dedicated anti-tracking software doesn’t necessarily hide your IP address, but it can prevent websites from gathering personal data about you.

While its search capacity is not as efficient and effective as the mighty Google, DuckDuckGo is an excellent browser and search engine to use if you want to avoid being tracked online.

Check Your Social Media Privacy Settings

Social media companies tend to want you to share as much as possible to attract more users and keep the platform active. From time to time, it’s worth checking your privacy settings so you know who can see your posts.

You can make posting public, for example, for everyone on the internet, even if they don’t use the social media platform in question, or you can restrict your posts to friends, close friends, or family.

Tightening up privacy can prevent identity theft and may limit unwanted data collection.

Delete Your Old Accounts

What’s the harm in keeping an old account around? Well, that increases your attack surface. An unused account is a place where someone could get in and pose as you, damaging your digital footprint. Generally, it’s better to tie up those loose ends and keep your digital footprint neat, tidy, and secure.

Beware When Logging In With Google or Facebook

If you use the same login for many sites, an identity thief only needs access to crack one login to access multiple sites. Logging in with your Google or Facebook credentials makes your life easy, but it can also make you more vulnerable to having some toy around with your digital footprint.

Keep a Positive Online Presence

Good digital housekeeping can help you maintain a good online reputation if your credentials are compromised during a data breach or cyber attack, such as identity theft. Digital footprints are important to marketers and institutions that wish to check out people’s behaviors. And they need to be important to you, too.

Fortunately, good habits can help you maintain a positive reputation online and protect your online privacy.

FAQ

What is meant by a digital footprint?

Your digital footprint is the digital trail created due to your activities online.

Who can see my digital footprint?

Anyone can see your digital footprint. A lot of it is public, including things you post on social media and online reviews.

How can my digital footprint affect my career?

Employers often check candidates’ online presence before hiring. A negative digital footprint can harm your job prospects, while a positive one can enhance your career opportunities.

What are the risks of a large digital footprint?

A large digital footprint can make you more vulnerable to identity theft, cyberstalking, and targeted advertising. It can also expose more of your personal information to unwanted parties.

How do I remove my digital footprint?

You can reduce your personal information on the net by deleting unused apps, email accounts, shopping accounts, and social media profiles.

Delete social media posts, remove unnecessary personal information from websites, and routinely reset your browsing history. Many devices and apps have security features to protect your privacy. Use them.

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