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Who Am I in The Digital World: Reshaping Digital Footprint

Categories: Digital Era Personal Identity Social Media

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Words: 2185 |

11 min read

Published: Aug 31, 2023

Words: 2185 | Pages: 5 | 11 min read

Introduction, discovering who am i in the digital world, concept of identity in the digital world, the challenge of digital identity, recording a day in the digital life, works cited, design considerations.

Clarke, Roger. 'Dataveillance by Governments: The Technique of Computer Matching.' In Information Systems and Dataveillance, edited by Roger Clarke and Richard Wright, 129-142. Sydney, Australia: Australian Computer Society, 1994.
Parsell, Mitch. 'Identity, Privacy and Accountability in an Information Age.' PhD diss., The University of Queensland, 2008.
Tavani, Herman T. Ethics and Technology: Controversies, Questions, and Strategies for Ethical Computing. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
Toekke, A. 'An Exploratory Study of the Privacy Concerns of Users of Social Networking Sites: An Individual Perspective.' Communications of the IBIMA 2011 (2011): 1-7.
Business Wire. ' Internet Becomes Central Part of Modern Family Life.' July 6, 2010. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100706006056/en/Internet-Central-Part-Modern-Family-Life

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What Is a Digital Footprint and Why Is It Important?

What’s a digital footprint? Everything you do online leaves behind a trail. Each email you send, website you visit, and transaction you complete is part of a growing database of information linked to your identity. This can impact your life and livelihood in various ways, so it’s important to learn how to manage and protect your digital footprint.

What is a digital footprint?

A digital footprint is the data trail created by your online activities and the traces you intentionally or unintentionally leave behind. Over time, these digital footprints form a detailed impression of your identity that is more accessible and permanent than many people realize. Understanding the scope and impact of this long-lasting record helps you make informed decisions about your online behavior and security practices.

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Types of digital footprints

How does a digital footprint work? Whether intentionally or unintentionally, you’re adding to your digital footprint every time you use the internet. Some digital footprints are left behind through anonymous site visits and searches, while others are directly traceable to your name, address, email address, and other personal information. The digital footprint definition can be broken into two general categories:

Active digital footprints: A digital footprint is considered active when you’re aware of the information being shared or collected. This type of footprint is created by activities such as social media posts, filling out forms, or publishing an article. When you log in to an account or website under a registered username, any feedback you share becomes part of your active digital footprint.
Passive digital footprints: Unlike active footprints, passive digital footprints are left behind without your awareness or participation. Much of this information is gathered based on the associated Internet Protocol (IP) address . Your internet browser and any websites you visit continually collect background data based on your activity.

A graphic explaining active vs. passive digital footprints. An active digital footprint is created when information is knowingly shared or collected. A passive digital footprint is created when information is collected without your awareness or permission.

Why are digital footprints important?

Digital footprints are living records that follow us throughout our lives, so it’s important to be aware of their contents and what others see. Things like social media posts , online comments, and uploaded images and files paint a picture that shapes our reputations. Anything we post on social media can also be misjudged or misunderstood, no matter how innocent it seems.

Colleges and employers are among the institutions that review digital footprints regularly as part of their decision-making processes. At the same time, your digital footprint can become a trail of information for hackers to customize phishing attacks or commit identity theft. Leaving too much of a digital footprint makes you more vulnerable to cybercriminals.

Digital footprint examples

The digital footprint meaning is best described through some common examples. These everyday activities create active and passive footprints that we can examine to understand their importance:

Web browsing: Each time you connect to the internet, the websites you visit log the IP address associated with your connection, while search engines like Google or Yahoo store your history. Web browsing in private or Incognito mode offers a bit more privacy since your browsing history and cookies are deleted after each session, although your internet service provider (ISP) will still record the sites you visited. Deleting your browsing history only removes information from your local browser and device. Records of the sites you visit are still maintained by the website owners.
Cookies: What does it mean when you accept cookies? Despite the innocent name, this digital footprint example is actually a small text file stored on your browser by the site you visited. Cookies add convenience by remembering login information and shopping preferences, but they also grant companies permission to use your information as they see fit. Although they are usually harmless, you should always decline cookies from suspicious or unsecured websites.
Online shopping: Your online shopping history, including any items you have purchased or clicked on, is stored by the vendor. This aspect of your digital footprint is useful for marketers creating targeted ads that cater to your history and preferences. In some cases, the vendor will also store your credit card number and other personal information, which can leave you vulnerable if they’re subject to a data breach.
Mobile banking: The shift to digital, online methods for nearly all banking transactions makes financial history another important element of your digital footprint. Payment and account information on the cloud produces a centralized record of financial activity. Many financial institutions also track location information along with transaction history. This helps them detect and prevent fraudulent transactions while creating a more thorough digital footprint.
Downloads: Each time you download a file, the file type, origin, and metadata associated with the file contribute to a profile that becomes more detailed with each subsequent download. Your browsing history includes past downloads that define your interests and activities. The insight that can be gained from this portion of your digital footprint makes it a popular target for cybercriminals. In the event of a data breach.
Social media: Your social media activity establishes much of your active digital footprint. What sets social media apart from other sources is the depth and breadth of information shared. This includes photos, comments, commentary on sensitive topics, and the names of friends, relatives, and colleagues. These details can become a gold mine for hackers attempting to guess user credentials or steal identities.
Sending emails: The emails we send and receive are a digital footprint example that combines high volume with detailed information on habits, history, location, and finances. They also reveal personal and professional contacts and relationships. Email addresses are central to digital footprint security since they double as usernames for many account types and provide a convenient access point for marketers, scammers, and hackers attempting to establish contact.

How is your digital footprint used?

If you’ve ever searched for a familiar name and found volumes of information (or nothing), you have explored digital footprint use. Whether a search is based on innocent curiosity, professional interest, or malicious intent, the availability and content of a digital footprint should not be left to chance. Common uses for digital footprints include:

Employment screening: 92% of recruiters say they use internet searches to gather information on candidates. They might look for positive signs like involvement in professional networks and volunteer organizations, as well as inappropriate or inflammatory information that could be lurking in social media accounts. This underscores the importance of digital footprint maintenance to weed out anything that might be viewed as a negative.
Targeted advertising: The practice of targeted advertising utilizes personalized communication tailored to customer demographics, behaviors, and preferences. Businesses and advertisers assemble customer profiles based on their digital footprints. Cookies, location data, and other data sources are fed into algorithms to determine what ads or campaigns are most likely to be successful.
Hacking: Common hacking tactics, such as brute-force attacks and credential stuffing, rely on weak, reused, or unsecurely shared passwords to gain unauthorized account access. Many weak passwords include information like names, addresses, and other personal information that can be found on social media and other readily available digital footprint sources.
Phishing: The social engineering tactic known as phishing uses personalized emails to trick recipients into providing information or clicking on malicious links. The believability of phishing emails can be enhanced using details from the recipient’s digital footprint, including contact names and interests shared in social media profiles.
Identity theft: A direct connection between digital footprints and identity theft occurs when cybercriminals gain access to personal information through hacking or phishing tactics and use this information to impersonate someone else or open a financial account in their name.
Legal issues: As detailed records of online activity, digital footprints formed by emails, geolocation data, and social media posts are converted into evidence (or alibis) related to whereabouts, criminal intent, fraud, and other activities during criminal investigations and trials. Concerns over privacy, data authenticity, and chain of custody issues have led to more discussions and pushback over what digital evidence should be admissible in criminal proceedings.
Personal searches: Digital footprints are an important source of information for anyone with concerns or questions about their children’s activities, new friends, or potential love interests. Online dating apps have soared in popularity as more people utilize these convenient platforms to meet new partners. These apps contribute to their members’ digital footprints while highlighting the need for users to complete their own digital footprint investigations to weed out dating scams carried out by cybercriminals and imposters.

How to minimize your digital footprint

Is there a way to erase your digital footprint entirely? Data retention policies for ISPs, browsers, and retailers make it nearly impossible to delete your digital footprint, but there are some proactive steps you can take to scale it back:

Delete cookies regularly to prevent online businesses from tracking your activities.
Deactivate old social media accounts to remove readily available personal information.
Delete any other accounts, memberships, or services that you’re no longer using.
Don’t provide your name or email address when you complete online surveys or reviews.
Delete email accounts you’re no longer actively using and unsubscribe from any newsletters associated with the email address.
Delete passwords stored on web browsers where they’re vulnerable to hacking and data breaches. Then, migrate them to a stand-alone password manager protected by encryption.

How to protect your digital footprint

While eliminating all accounts might not be practical, there are some additional steps you can take to increase your digital footprint awareness, control the viewable data, and prevent information from falling into the wrong hands. Digital footprint maintenance improves when you:

Use search engines to review your online presence. If others are searching your name to verify your credibility, it’s a good idea for you to do the same. Searching for your own name can reveal how your profile appears to outsiders and whether there is incorrect or unflattering information posted that you need to resolve. Most importantly, searching for your own name might reveal warning signs of identity theft.
Limit your data sharing. You’re in control of your active digital profile. Anything you post might eventually be seen by friends, colleagues, or a prospective employer, so err on the side of caution when it comes to sharing personal details online. This approach also helps to elevate your security profile if an organization you’ve shared data with is impacted by a data breach.
Check your privacy settings. Laws and regulations for online data privacy include rules for collecting, storing, and sharing customer information. These laws help you manage your digital footprint by limiting the ways information can be distributed without your consent. Each social media platform also includes customizable privacy settings that let you decide who can view images and posts. Setting your profiles to private gives you more control over who can access the personal information and photos you share.
Use a VPN on public WiFi. Malls, airports, cafés, and other public settings can be subject to hacking tactics like man-in-the-middle attacks designed to intercept your personal information. A virtual private network (VPN) should always be used on public networks to protect your privacy and accounts. The VPN encrypts all data going into or out of your device and routes it through a secure portal while masking your IP address so you can browse the internet privately.

Graphic of icons representing safe internet usage with the protection of a VPN vs. the unprotected use of the internet without a VPN.

Use 2-factor authentication (2FA). The security practice known as 2-factor authentication (2FA) typically uses a second identifier, such as a code sent through an app or text, to provide an added layer of security during the login process. Since a hacker is unlikely to have both your credentials and device available, the additional time required to log in is balanced by enhanced account and privacy protection.
Use a password manager. The automatic generation and autofill of strong, encrypted passwords improves security and convenience by eliminating the need to manually create and store passwords. A password manager safeguards important aspects of your digital footprint by storing your information in a secure vault and enabling 2FA for an additional layer of security. Dashlane also provides Dark Web Monitoring, a secure password-sharing portal, and a Password Health score to continually track your weak, reused, and compromised passwords.

Maintaining data privacy means managing sensitive data responsibly to protect yourself and those around you. Learn how to improve your data security literacy and keep personal and company data separate in our Guide to Data Privacy .

Dataprot, “ What is a Digital Footprint: Everything You Need To Know ,” May 2023.
Reputation X, “ What is a digital footprint? ” March 2023.
Network World, “ What is an IP address? And what is your IP address? ” May 2022.
DMN, “ Social Media Footprint Facts: What You Should Know ,” December 2021.
Dashlane, “ Are Private Browsers Really Private + Tips for Secure Browsing ,” March 2023.
Reader’s Digest, “ 3 Times You Shouldn’t “Accept Cookies” on a Site ,” November 2021.
Dashlane, “ One of the Most Common Data Breaches Your Organization Can Prevent with One Step ,” November 2021.
Dashlane, “ Are Digital Wallets Safe? ” June 2023.
Backblaze, “ Metadata: Your File’s Hidden DNA and You ,” February 2020.
Bitdefender, “ What goes online, stays online: How a negative digital footprint can affect your life ,” March 2022.
Dashlane, “ How to Erase Saved Browser Passwords: Step-by-Step Guide ,” November 2022.
Dashlane, “ What To Do If a Scammer Has Access To Your Email Address ,” March 2023.
Dashlane, “ 6 Things a Safe Username Should Always Do ,” February 2023.
Zippia, “ What Percentage of Employers Check Social Media? ” December 2022.
Forbes, “ The Truth In User Privacy And Targeted Ads ,“ February 2022.
Dashlane, “ 11 Cyber Threats To Be Aware of & Defend Against ,” April 2023.
Dashlane, “ Data Breach or Hack? Know the Difference ,” June 2021.
Dashlane, “ What the Hack Is Phishing? ” March 2020.
Bipartisan Policy Center, “ What Your Digital Footprint Reveals and Who is Watching ,” December 2022.
Digitalfootprintcheck, “ Protecting Yourself from Online Dating Scams with Digital Footprint Check ,” 2023.
Dashlane, “ What Is Data Privacy & Why Is It Important? ” April 2023.
Dashlane, “ A Beginner’s Guide to Two-Factor Authentication ,” August 2022.
Dashlane, “ Our Guide to Data Privacy ,” 2023.

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What Is a Digital Footprint?

There’s no such thing as online privacy. But here's how you can limit your exposure.

While the internet sometimes feels like an ephemeral place where you can anonymously hop from website to website, the truth is that everything you do creates a trail of data, or digital footprint, that can reveal a lot about you.

A digital footprint, also called a digital shadow, is the personal data you leave behind while using the internet, like where you live, what products you buy, your email address and more. It includes information you actively share through social media posts, blog profiles and online forms, as well as data companies collect on you through cookies and tracking scripts.

“People often overlook the impact of their online life and how their online experiences contribute to a digital footprint,” said Stephanie Benoit-Kurtz, a principal security consultant for the IT services firm Trace3 and professor of IT for the University of Phoenix . “Even as you as an individual are super careful with your online social media presence, your digital footprint could be contributed to through almost no action of your own.”

Online privacy doesn’t really exist, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do about the size of your digital footprint.

A digital footprint is the trail of personal data you leave behind on the internet, whether you’re visiting websites, posting on social media, clicking on ads or sending emails.

“Some of that trail you leave knowingly. You choose to tell someone something and some of it you disclose implicitly through the websites you visit or the places you authenticate,” said Robin Wilton, director of internet trust for the nonprofit Internet Society . “And some of it, you’re not conscious you’re doing it, and it doesn’t occur to you that you’re leaving these traces.”

Active Digital Footprint

The information you leave knowingly on the web is called your active digital footprint. It’s composed of any data you choose to share online . This includes things like posting on social media, registering for a subscription service or newsletter and accepting cookies on a website.

Passive Digital Footprint

The data companies collect on you without your knowledge or approval is your passive digital footprint. This information is usually gathered through the use of third-party cookies and tracking scripts. These follow you around the web, collecting information on other sites you visit, how long you linger on a page and your personal information as you log in to other accounts.

Some of your information is also collected by data vendors who then sell it to other companies for advertising purposes. They may even broadcast your email, name and phone number online.

Why Does a Digital Footprint Matter?

Data protection hasn’t kept up with data collection, Benoit-Kurtz said. Unless a company receives a request to delete your personal information, it will likely sit in their databases long after you’ve moved on. And it’s likely not being protected as it should.

“Organizations keep data about individuals for an extraordinarily long period of time, and the challenge with that data is the more you have — especially the more obsolete data you have — the easier it is to lose control of that information,” Benoit-Kurtz said.

While more recent data receives more attention and security, data that’s several years old is more likely to slip through the cracks and become exposed, she added. As a result, there are some notable risks to ignoring your digital footprint that are important to pay attention to.

Cybercriminals Can Find Your Personal Information

It doesn’t take much for hackers to piece together your identity from online fragments, said Jim Van Dyke, senior vice president of digital innovation at Sontiq , a TransUnion company. Van Dyke has first-hand experience examining the impact of data breaches serving as an expert witness during the trials on Equifax , Facebook , Yahoo and Anthem breaches.

While those major breaches draw most of the headlines, more often than not, it’s the under-the-radar ones from your pharmacist or local government that pose the greatest risk, Van Dyke said. Those places can include your phone, email, ID number and social security number, making them ripe targets to steal identities .

“I’ve heard criminal testimony where they talk about what I call ‘trading up,’” Van Dyke said. “Somebody gets your phone number, they get your email address and then they go to a third-party site and get other information. They piece together a profile on you.” Then they can take that information and call your bank pretending to be you to access your accounts.

Doors Can Close Based on Your Digital Reputation

The average person likely isn’t going to be haunted by their past posts, but the information you share online can still have an impact on your reputation.

Hiring managers rely heavily on a person’s social media posts. For better or worse, 71 percent of hiring managers believe a person’s social media profile can help them determine whether a candidate is the right fit for the company, according to a survey of 1,005 “hiring decision-makers” from employee provider Express Employment Professionals.

It doesn’t matter how old some of those posts are either. While they may not reflect who you are today, they can still resurface thanks to algorithms on some social media websites that drum up old content and how easy it is to search someone’s profile, Wilton said.

Ads Can Target You Based on Your Online Activity

Companies can collect information about you based on your browsing history both on their site and the web via third-party cookies and then send you targeted ads based on that behavior.

Major browsers like Safari, Firefox and now Google Chrome have banned third-party cookies (though it may still have a limited impact on targeted ads ). Still, the best way to avoid ads like that is to go to your browser settings and turn “send a do-not-track signal” on to limit some of the exposure other companies have on your web activity and block pop-up ads.

Accessible Data Can Compromise Your Privacy

These days the proliferation of IoT devices and apps mean almost every aspect of people’s lives are recorded somewhere on the web. If companies don’t encrypt or protect that information to the highest standards, that can pose serious personal risk. For starters, it can reveal where you live, when you’re home and give them access to those devices.

There can be legal ramifications, too. Wilson offers the example of women who use period tracking apps in a post-Roe v. Wade America. Data on these apps can reveal whether a user is pregnant or not, while other phone apps can track a user’s location and pinpoint them to an abortion clinic. As a result, this can increase the user’s exposure and risk.

How Do I Protect My Digital Footprint?

While you can’t erase your digital footprint, you can focus on its size and exposure. Start by doing a quick search on yourself using your name and current city. This will show you just how public and accessible your personal information might be.

“For the average person, I believe it will change your behavior in terms of what you’re sharing,” Van Dyke said. “You’ll see what’s out there and if you take a few minutes to think about how some of that data got out there, you’ll realize that it was something you shared.”

Below are a few steps you can take to protect your personal data and limit your exposure.

5 Steps You Can Take to Protect Your Digital Footprint

Practice good digital hygiene.
Adjust your browser settings.
Maintain separate accounts.
Muddle your digital profile.
Request third-party websites to remove your personal information.

1. Practice Good Digital Hygiene

A quick and simple way to protect your digital footprint is to take basic precautions. The most obvious ones include creating unique passwords, using two-factor authentication and avoiding banking on unsecured networks like at a coffee shop or a hotel. Van Dyke recommends using different passwords , so not all your private accounts are exposed in the event of a data leak.

As you use social media, consider turning your account private and limiting what information you share like your car, hometown or other identifiable information . A simple question to ask yourself is, ‘Would you put that information on a sign outside your home?’ If the answer is no, then don’t post it, Van Dyke said.

2. Adjust Your Browser Settings

When using an internet browser, Wilton suggests going into the settings and blocking third-party cookies and disabling pop-up ads. He also discourages saving passwords and other personal information like your address or credit card number. Blocking third-party cookies can go a long way in preventing some websites from tracking your data after leaving their page.

To take your browser protection to the next level, Wilton recommends using separate browsers for different activities. For activity he isn’t worried about privacy, he’ll use a general browser like Safari. For more private information like banking, he’ll use a browser with more advanced security features like Firefox or Brave. This prevents companies from tailing him across the web and collecting information he doesn’t want to share.

3. Maintain Separate Accounts

Wilton suggests using separate accounts for different activities like having a work and personal email, which helps curate the information you receive. Wilton even maintains separate phones — one for calls and another for WhatsApp — and keeps both on pay-as-you-go SIM cards to limit how much data is collected on him. If you have one device, he recommends using WhatsApp in one context (say, work-related conversations) and Signal (perhaps for friends and family) in another. The same goes for browsing, too.

The goal is to prevent any one company from getting a complete picture of his social graph , which allows companies to build your digital footprint without collecting any information directly about you, thanks to your connections. With this method, they get a curated view of his personal information and who he associates with. As a result, Wilton can control what information he allows them to collect.

4. Muddle Your Digital Profile

Whenever you sign up for new accounts or subscriptions, they typically ask you for your name, email, birthday and even where you live. In some cases — like health insurance or on government documents — it’s vital that your information is accurate.

If you’re creating a blog profile or signing up for a retail website where that information isn’t necessary, Van Dyke suggests entering a fake birthday or city location. You can even sign up under different variations of your name. This can muddle your digital footprint , creating false leads that make it more difficult for hackers to get a complete picture of your identity.

5. Request Third-Party Websites to Remove Your Personal Information

If you come across websites sharing your email or personal information, you can request that they remove it, Van Dyke said. You can either do this manually by messaging them or signing up for a service like DeleteMe , Kanary or OneRep . That said, if your information is out of date, you may want to consider leaving it up there in the spirit of subterfuge, Van Dyke added.

“You end up with a healthy pollution profile, where you leave the outdated information out there and ask providers to take down your current information,” Van Dyke said.

It’s impossible to avoid leaving a digital trail behind you as you use the internet, but you can at least leave some false tracks to make it harder for companies and hackers to follow you.

What’s Being Done to Protect My Digital Footprint?

In many cases, the answer is not enough, Benoit-Kurtz said. Few companies encrypt or tokenize user data to prevent bad actors from doing anything with it once they get a hold of it. Still, there are some positive developments.

For starters, cybersecurity insurance firms are putting companies on notice that they have to do a better job protecting customer data or they could be charged with negligence , Benoit-Kurtz said.

In addition, data regulations — like the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, and the California Consumer Privacy Act and Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act in the U.S. — give consumers the right to request companies delete personal information about them. The CCPA also gives consumers in California the right to opt out of their data being collected by third parties and fines companies if there’s been a breach.

Colorado, Connecticut and Utah have also signed similar privacy regulations, while other states are considering their own bills.

“So, there is an active awareness and even maybe an awakening of organizations that they need to do more to secure their data,” Wilton said.

When there is a breach, companies also have to send a notice to consumers. The problem is, those can be riddled with jargon and often downplay the risk associated with the breach, Van Dyke said. His advice: Assume a bad actor has your information, change your passwords and monitor your private accounts for fraudulent activity.

Can I Erase My Digital Footprint?

The short answer is no. Even if you were to cut the cord on all internet services, your data is still on profiles with local government agencies, medical facilities and so on.

And you might not want to fully remove your footprint. A curated profile that emphasizes your professional achievements, for instance, can help you elevate your reputation. Data that contributes to your digital footprint also drives a more personal browsing experience and powers apps that can help monitor health conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a digital footprint.

A digital footprint is the trail of data one leaves behind while using the internet. This can include intentional online activity like sending emails, sharing social media posts and entering personal information in a job application. However, it can also include data collected by third parties on a user’s online behavior without that person being aware of it.

Who can see my digital footprint?

Anyone with an internet connection can look up major parts of your digital footprint. When you submit personal details in a college or job application, employers and schools can use information like your name and email to easily find social media accounts, online forum posts and your activity in other digital spaces.

How do I delete my digital footprint?

It’s impossible to delete your digital footprint, but you can take steps to reduce the amount of personal information available online. Updating old passwords, adjusting your privacy settings on social media and websites and deleting inactive accounts are a few ways to limit your digital footprint and protect your identity.

How can your digital footprint affect you?

Your digital footprint can expose personal details that cybercriminals can use to compromise your identity and privacy. Posts tied to your social media accounts could also influence your reputation. And because colleges and employers check applicants’ online presence, your online activity could even impact your educational and career opportunities.