3: I am quite content with my own digital footprint because I couldn’t find any results from googling myself and my social media reveals only the the most basic information. In fact I think it’s so secure you’ll need to launch a small investigation just to figure out my location as it can’t be done unless you meet my old classmates in person. For example, my instagram account (the only social media I have (it also have been deprived of any use for ~6 month)) is registered using my old school email (now disabled) and only some old classmates are following me. I do not believe anyone have any pictures of me either. Although I have been ranting about how secure my real identity is there is one flaw that I must admit. The flaw is that I have my real name registered on my instagram account, But the seriousness of this is lowered as I have been offline for ~6 months, and I haven’t ever stirred up a serous controversy
4(a): Although I seem to be against the idea of digital footprints and I do not think my digital footprint could effect my personal brand. I am still very much aware of how serious the situation is. I personally think there is two types of digital footprints. One that can be easily controlled and the other which is much harder to control. First, I will be giving my view on the digital footprint that can be easily controlled, which is the type of footprint that you actively post. For example, social media posts, messaging and internet forums. These types of digital footprints can be damaging to your future as you might send something you didn’t mean and many years later your employer might be brought upon the post and you might lose your job, it also makes for excellent blackmail material, so it is very important to keep track of digital footprint and make sure that no one can harm you. The second type of digital footprint(The one that is harder to control) is your internet history and personal information that the government have gathered on you. This type of information will affect you the most if you work in a government agency (eg: CIA, FBI, FDA, IRS) or in court.
4(b) Strategies that you can use to keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe
Solution 1: Stay anonymous As long as you are anonymous online, no one could identify that your digital footprint is yours. You could do this by creating alt accounts which doesn’t have your name, face, email address, or just any clue that might lead to your real identity in general. It is especially important to do this on social media as that is where most of the digital footprints happen
Solution 2: Keep your accounts private It is rather obvious why you need to keep your account private. as it stops strangers from viewing your account. Sadly this option isn’t perfect because you may become enemies with your current friends and then they have a few years of blackmailing material, so be careful on your posts even when the account is private. Someone might take a screenshot and it could damage your future
Solution 3: log out of all accounts and hide your IP address This solution is the solution for the type of digital data like internet history which is harder to control. This is because companies are required by law to log all traffic data which includes history.In order to get around this you’ll have to tor, a very useful tool which has a bad name. It is the same program that you can use to access the deep web, it is also perfectly legal as t’was created by the US government. In conclusion you can use tor to work around digital permanence. Here are some steps to use Tor
https://www.wikihow.com/Setup-and-Use-the-Tor-Network
4(c) What is digital permanence . Digital permanence is the idea of how everything you do on the internet is logged so anything you do will be permanent and can never be removed from the internet (there are work0- arounds and they are explained in answer 4(b-3)). I would explain it to a kid by saying that it’s a permanent record, and there is some robot in every website writing down everything you do. I would explain it to my grandmother by saying that it is a list of everything you do on the internet and it’s made by the government. I would explain it to my teacher by saying that it’s a log which each website is required to make and it is essentially your internet history, but logged by the government.