Managing Your Digital Footprint to Reduce Your Online Exposure

In the online world, a digital footprint is the trail and amount of data a person leaves behind on the internet. But unlike in the real world, where a footprint or shoe print doesn’t identify you, a digital footprint does. You need to be aware of the following: Here’s a helpful infographic that puts it into perspective…visually. If you saw muddy shoe prints outside your front door, it would tell you someone was there. (Also, that they’d walked in the mud!) Physical footprints leave a trail of where a person has been. Every time you visit a website, you leave a calling card that says, “I’ve been here.” In short, you may think you’re not leaving behind any traces of your identity when you do all you do online, but the opposite is true. Bit by bit, you’re telling the world all about yourself and risk exposing your identity online. And that isn’t necessarily a good thing to do. The real issue is most of us don’t think about leaving traces of our lives, digital “breadcrumbs,” all over the internet. Worst of all, most of us aren’t even aware of what we’re doing or have done. We’ve exposed too much of our identities and personal information online. We also don’t realize that sometimes we actively share information with others; other times, information is gathered about us behind the scenes. Some websites see these as active and passive digital footprints. However, you don’t have to be “active” to share information about yourself and leave a footprint. That’s where passive digital footprints come in. If anything, the infographic and this article are getting you to think about all the online information about you. Here are a few more thoughts to consider: Your online decisions impact your world and your life. Most of us want to believe the internet is a safe place where bad things only happen to bad people and where websites protect our privacy. However, we all know that isn’t the case. Unfortunately, innocently or not, we often put too much information about ourselves online. For more information about your privacy, personal data, and scammers, follow the Easy Prey podcast and visit EasyPrey.com.