Digital Footprint

  In this day and age, we are two. We all need to manage our physical footprint, as well as our digital footprint. One could even argue that our digital footprint is more important than our physical footprint.  Whether you are applying for university, looking for a job, or even trying to buy something online, your digital footprint comes into play. Managing your digital footprint means managing what a future employer sees when they look you up, as well as what Expedia sees when you try to book that flight that you desperately need to take. Most employers now do a google search for your name, before even considering an interview. Having a good digital footprint (e.g.  volunteering, sports, company pages, etc.) will reflect positively on your application, while having a negative footprint (e.g. an Instagram page with nothing but parties, racism, strong political content, or a generally “unprofessional” presence) could get your application thrown out completely. There have been many stories of people with otherwise perfect applications (to a job, or a university), who ended up getting denied over their digital footprint.

Your digital footprint isn’t only limited to what you or other people can see, but also what clever bots can see Another less obvious impact of your digital footprint has to do with how much you will pay for certain goods. You may have noticed that almost every website, upon first being opened will say “We use cookies to improve the user experience”. These cookies track how often you visit the website, as well as other actions you make online (such as searches, and overall browsing trends). Companies then use this data to calculate how much you will pay for certain products. One notorious example is the travel industry. If you spend all day looking for a flight to London next week in business class, most algorithms will come to the conclusion that you are a business class traveler, who is having their flight paid for by the company, and increase the price by 20% for you specifically, because it knows that you are willing to pay for it. As you can see, your digital footprint can impact your day to day life in many ways, but how can you help protect your digital footprint?

There are many ways to maintain a good digital footprint, such as:

• Managing what you post. This is the simplest way to maintain a good digital footprint. Make sure you keep all of your social media accounts on private, don’t friend random people, and try not to post anything that could be considered very offensive.
• Use an open source password manager. If someone hacks into one of your accounts, it is typically to cause damage to your digital footprint. Using an open source password manager will allow you to easily keep different passwords for different websites, reducing the risk of them all being compromised. Using a password manager which works offline is the best for security, however without some technical knowledge, it can be difficult to recover your passwords, in case of a hardware failure. Another tip is to check your email on Have I Been Pwned, to see if your passwords have been compromised in any data breaches.
  
• Run an up to date OS, and make sure to use an antivirus on your computer. Making sure that you have the latest software updates is important, because along with new features, come security patches, which help keep you safe from viruses and hackers. Running an antivirus is also important, because it helps protect you from viruses that may end up stealing your passwords, or impacting your digital footprint in other ways. 

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• Use a VPN. A VPN (Virtual Private Network), is like a tunnel between you, and the rest of the internet. VPNs allow your internet traffic to be hidden from anyone with prying eyes (Internet Service Providers, Network Administrators, Hackers, etc). They also hide your real IP, keeping your location private (assuming you also manage location services). Overall, using a VPN is a great way to keep your digital footprint secure from hackers, they help keep your location hidden from the rest of the internet, and help keep your internet traffic secure from anyone on your network.
• Use common sense. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Never give your passwords to ANYONE, regardless of how much you trust them. Don’t give out personal information to anyone online, keep cookies to the minimum, etc. As long as you use common sense online, you should be able to keep your digital footprint safe and appropriate.

Digital Permanence

Everything done on the internet is permanent. When you delete a page, it doesn’t delete it, it simply hides it from public view. There are websites which log the history of certain webpages over time. This is important to understand, because while you might want to say or post something now, you may regret it 10 years in the future. We need to be very careful about what we put online under our name, because once it is out there, we can never take it back. Another side effect of digital permanence, is that the longer/more you use the internet, the more someone can find about you with a google search.  Your digital footprint tomorrow, is just an extension of your current digital footprint. Overall,  understanding your digital footprint is an important step towards becoming a better citizen of the internet.