techsupport Every time we go online, we leave behind data. Search history, social media profiles, comments, and even simple mouse clicks can reveal a lot about a person’s identity and lifestyle. Typically, marketers use this information to offer consumers what they need, but the more personal data accumulates online, the higher the risk of becoming a victim of bullying or fraud. How significant are these risks, and can we secure our online space?
What Is a Digital Footprint?
In simple terms, a digital footprint is any data we leave behind while using the internet, such as when communicating on social media, making online purchases, or browsing the web. From browsing history, subscriptions, profiles, and comments, a digital portrait of a person is formed. Thanks to this, apps and services know exactly what content, products, or services to offer a specific user. The list of such platforms includes most sites, like 22casino, Netflix, and Amazon. This makes life much more convenient. No longer do we need to search for new music, a good restaurant, or a convenient route to work—algorithms handle it all.
This is partly why people willingly share their preferences, biographical details, geolocation, and email addresses online. However, this data can be used not only by advertisers but also by fraudsters. For example, seemingly harmless details like a birthdate, mother’s maiden name, or pet’s name often serve as security questions and can grant a criminal access to a bank account.
Types of Digital Footprints
While most information is shared voluntarily, websites can also collect data without users’ knowledge. The most obvious example is cookies, which help identify visitors, “remember” their preferences, and track their actions. As a result, there are two types of digital footprints.
Active
This is information that a person intentionally shares. It includes photos, videos, social media posts, reviews, likes, comments, dating site profiles, fitness app data, and more. The more such data accumulates online, the easier it is to link it to a specific user and learn about their lifestyle, habits, and preferences. Active digital footprints also include phone numbers, email addresses, passport details, and home addresses. While people rarely share these publicly, they often provide them to food delivery apps, taxi services, or courier companies. If a company suffers a data breach, this information can also end up online.
Passive
This refers to data that various companies collect about a person without their knowledge to personalize advertising. Examples include:
- Cookies: They save login credentials, individual settings, interests, and user sessions.
- Session recordings: They track actions on a website (mouse movements, clicks, scrolls) and help the site owner understand how a user interacts with it. A great example is the website clickclickclick, which narrates every visitor’s action.
- Ad trackers: They remember a visitor’s interests to suggest similar products. This is why those boots you once viewed follow you across the internet.
- Fingerprinting: This includes data about the device model, screen resolution, RAM, browser, time zone, language, fonts, and more. It helps identify users and adapt websites to their needs.
While passive digital footprints are useful for making websites and apps more convenient, any information that identifies a person can pose a threat in the hands of criminals.
Risks of a Digital Footprint
It might seem harmless to have a digital footprint, but there are reasons for concern. First, personal details we never intended to share can leak online. Second, the volume of such data is hard to control—we often don’t even know what actions are being tracked or where. Finally, removing unnecessary information from the internet is hard, and its side effects can linger for a long time. Here are a few areas where an excessive digital footprint can be dangerous.
Reputation
The connection between online behavior and real-life consequences is well illustrated by cancel culture. We’ve already discussed how thoughtless actions and statements affect public figures and businesses. The bad news is that nothing online disappears completely. Even if you delete provocative photos or posts, archives can resurrect them. Many of these tools are publicly accessible and can be used by anyone, not just hackers.
Finances
Criminals can use digital footprints to hack into online banking accounts, take out loans, make transactions, or conduct other financial operations. The more personal details are publicly available, the easier it is to impersonate someone.
Professional Relationships
It’s no secret that many HR specialists check candidates’ social media before making hiring decisions. By analyzing hobbies, communication style, and personal information, employers try to predict how responsible and reliable a person is and whether they fit the company’s standards.
Identity Theft
With the rise of neural networks, cases of creating digital clones—deep lakes—have increased. Fraudsters can use these to mimic a person’s voice or appearance in videos, convincing relatives or colleagues to transfer money. The same technology can be used to create compromising material for blackmail. Tools like Deepware can help detect deep fakes.
How to Detect Your Digital Footprint
The simplest way is to Google your name. This surface-level analysis will show what information about you is already online and what a random user can find. Sometimes, this can reveal old blogs or social media pages that should have been deleted long ago. Pay special attention to social networks, as they often contain an excess of personal information. Finally, using services like Have I Been Pwned, you can check which accounts have already been compromised.
Google accounts also collect extensive archives. They know not only your email address but also your phone number, payment information, browser searches, location history, contacts, devices, and more. You can request a data archive or restrict data collection, but some information, like comments, may be stored for several years by law.
Can You Delete Your Digital Footprint?
Partially, yes. You can remove unethical information that was shared without your consent and poses a security risk. This includes copies of documents, compromising photos or videos, and screenshots of private messages. By contacting search engines directly and providing evidence, such materials can be deindexed, meaning they’ll no longer appear in search results.
How to Reduce Your Digital Footprint
While completely erasing your digital footprint is unlikely, there are safety measures to minimize it. Here’s how to protect your online privacy beyond responsible password management.
Use Digital Doubles
These are accounts that are hard to link directly to a real person. For example, those with nicknames, abstract profile pictures, and minimal personal information. If this isn’t an option, adjust privacy settings to limit access to your profiles.
Check Website Security
Reliable websites use the HTTPS protocol. Without it, fraudsters can more easily access data stored on the site. If you must use unsecured sites, be cautious and avoid sharing personal details.
Limit Permissions
Mobile apps may request access to contacts, calls, photo galleries, geolocation, and other data. While often necessary for functionality, some apps collect excessive information. For example, a fitness app doesn’t need access to your photos. Always download software from official stores.
Use Incognito Mode
This prevents your browser from storing information about your online session. Once you close the window, your search history, visited sites, form data, and passwords disappear, reducing concerns about their safety. This method also helps avoid intrusive ads. Using multiple browsers can also help avoid concentrating data in one place.
Create a Separate Email Address
Use this for registering accounts on third-party sites to avoid sharing your personal or work email. Even if this email is compromised, the consequences will be less severe.
Delete Old Accounts
This reduces the risk of data leaks. Also, avoid using the same username and password everywhere. Today, tools exist to track all accounts linked to a specific username or email, exposing users to additional risks.
Assess Risks
Before sharing any information online, ensure it doesn’t threaten your safety. Remember that publicly available data will influence your image and others’ opinions. If a site or service requests personal data, consider whether there’s another way to achieve your goal.
