Gaurav Rathore
His write-ups blend creativity, personal experience, and tailored technical advice, meeting reader needs effectively.
What if one day you woke up and found that your every action was being recorded? Sounds like a thriller movie, but it isn’t!
Whenever you are online, scrolling TikTok, and planning for the holidays, you are leaving some trails behind. These traces are called digital footprints that tell a lot about what you like, what you watch, and even some personal information.
But what if it accidentally ends up in the wrong hands? (Your privacy is going to be racked!)
So, to make sure it doesn’t happen, go through this guide and learn what is a digital footprint and how to keep it safe from hackers.
According to the definitions on the internet, “a digital footprint, also known as a digital shadow, is the trace you leave behind while using the internet.”
Every activity you do on the internet is bound to leave some traces. Whether you are just browsing online, visiting some websites, or submitting some information.
So, what’s the catch here for you?
The thing is that anybody can use these digital footprints to track your activities, devices, or even your personal information.
The catch is that these footprints are permanent, and once they are made public, you won’t have any say in how others use them. They can sell your data to advertisers or, worse, cause data leaks or wireless security threats.
So, your question would be, “How are digital footprints made?” The answer is whenever you:
Now that we’ve covered what is a digital footprint, let’s move on to its types.
There are two types of digital trails: active and passive. You can tell them apart based on whether you have shared the information willingly or not.
These footprints are made when you share the information on purpose. For example, when you deliberately take part in social forums, make public comments on SNS, or agree to install cookies. All in all, you are aware that you have shared information of your own will.
On the other hand, passive footprints are the traces you leave behind unintentionally. This data includes the websites you visit, the actions you take, your search history, and online purchases.
Websites collect this data without your knowledge, which is why these trails are harder to track and manage.
If you are still confused as to what an example of digital footprints may look like, scroll through this section.
In a nutshell, your every online activity, be it on a certain site or app, leaves traces and creates some sort of digital footprint. Other than that, here are some activities you must pay special attention to:
Digital footprints make up a big part of your online privacy and safety. Once hackers get access to this data, your privacy can be at huge risk.
Other than that, here are some reasons why it concerns your online safety.
These were some realistic reasons why a digital footprint can be so important for your online well-being.
If you don’t want to risk your privacy because of digital footprints, you gotta step up your game. Here are some things you can do to protect your online traces!
Go to search engines and enter your name, including the last name, and try any possible variations. The results will show you whether any information about you has been made public. If yes, then contact the site administrator and ask them to take it down.
Additionally, you can also use digital footprint checkers like PrivacyBee or Have I Been Pwned? to check what the internet says about you.
When you give your personal information to many websites, you unintentionally increase the chances of falling victim to scams and breaches. So, you must only share your data where it is necessary.
Websites like real estate, hiring consultancies, etc., store pretty much every piece of information about you. So, to stop that, you can contact them and request to delete your information.
Visit the privacy settings on every app or site you use and opt out of any settings that seem to share your data with the public or store too much of your personal data.
Oversharing on SNS has long been a huge problem that has caused many serious incidents. So, make sure you are not disclosing any personal information or any upcoming plans that might put your safety at risk.
Do not visit any fishy-looking website whose URL starts with http:// instead of https://. The ‘s’ in the https shows that the site you are visiting is safe to use.
If you are using public Wi-Fi, do not visit any banking sites or share personal information. It can be pretty risky since you don’t know who is managing the public network.
If you have a ton of forgotten accounts on social media, I’m sure your digital trails will be piling up by now. So, the wise thing to do is to delete those accounts.
Even though I’ve said this many times, I’ll say it again: always set strong passwords. The stronger the password you have, the harder it’ll be for hackers to crack it.
Quick Tip: If you have a goldfish memory like me, make sure to use a password manager.
Medical records can tell a lot about the patient. So, make sure to always clean and back up your data so it doesn’t land in the wrong hands.
With outdated software, it becomes pretty easy for cybercriminals to access your online traces and use them for phishing attempts and loading ransomware. Hence, always remember to keep your devices and software up to date.
I agree, it’s pretty easy to use social media accounts to log in to third-party websites, but it can also be risky. When you log in using your SNS accounts, you end up sharing your credentials with the website and letting it use the data for its benefit.
While protecting your PC’s footprint, don’t forget to care about your mobile. Make sure to review your apps often, and if you are no longer using them, it would be better to just delete them since they are just collecting data from your phone.
A VPN for safe browsing is the sole solution to many problems. It masks your IP address and makes it impossible for hackers to track you and your online activities.
Digital footprints are slowly becoming a huge part of our and our kids’ online safety. Thus, you can’t possibly ignore it (since ignorance is not always bliss).
So, to make sure your kids can browse safely on the internet, you’ll have to learn what is a digital footprint and reduce your digital traces using the tips I’ve mentioned above.
Additionally, learn cyber hygiene and also teach it to your kids so they can use the internet without worrying about falling victim to a hacker’s trap.
Since a digital footprint is public, anyone with access can see your digital footprint.
It’s not possible to delete your digital footprint, though you can try to reduce it.
You can enter your name into the search engine to track how much of your personal information is public, or you can use footprint lookup tools.
