What Are Different Types Of Digital Footprints?
There are generally four types of digital footprints that a user generates while using the internet. They are as follows:
1. Active footprints
Active footprints are those footprints that users leave when they submit online information on third-party platforms. It could be filling out forms, providing personal information or logging into Facebook to access a particular website, and uploading information on your social media accounts. So, these are active footprints that a user leaves on the internet.
2. Passive Footprints
Passive footprints are those digital footprints that a user leaves on the internet unintentionally. They get created when you do online activities. They come into being when you visit a website, write something on social media accounts, make a comment, search for something online, or download a media file from the internet. Every act you do online is recorded somewhere you don’t know. Tracking this information is really a nerve-racking task for the user.
3. Private Footprint
The third type is called a private digital footprint. These online traces are called private because they are accessible to a limited number of people and groups. It consists of private chat, group messages, and information shared with the people who are members of a private group. This data is restricted from public viewers and outsiders.
4. Commercial Footprints
The fourth type is called commercial digital footprints. It is called commercial because this data is collected by businesses and online enterprises using cookies and subscriptions. Businesses use this data to promote their products, digital marketing and analyze consumer behavior regarding a product. All the activities revolve around commercial activities, thus they are called commercial digital footprints.
Who Traces Your Digital Footprints?
There are websites, apps, and companies that collect your internet data using a variety of methods. Websites send you cookies which are small pieces of data to track your internet habits, preferences, browsing habits, and online interactions. Apps you use on your device often collect your browsing activities, location, and usage patterns to send you more personalized material and targeted ads. Different companies and organizations may also trace your digital footprints on your device network when you submit personal information online to them. These companies work like a data brokerage and sell your data to third pirates. It could be done with or without your consent or knowledge.
Now comes the question of why a digital footprint is so important: how you can monitor who can see what you do online and what safety measures you should practice while navigating online. Let’s address each topic one by one, starting with the first one. Here we go!
Why is Digital Footprint So Important?
Since we live in a world of the internet where everything we do is directly connected to our daily lives, digital footprint becomes highly important for every individual connected to the internet. It is a matter of privacy, preferences, political views, and choices about different things you like to do, buy, promote, and aspire to in your daily life. These footprints are permanent in most of the cases and controlling them is highly complicated. It shows what kind of content you search online and how you do your financial transactions.
In this situation, If someone is getting clues about everything you do or plan to do through your Internet devices, then there is a serious risk of losing privacy and Internet security. You are always under threat of compromising personal data, unauthorized access to sensitive information stored in your devices, identity theft, financial fraud, and a variety of other harms. Hackers can commit data breaches and hack your critical accounts, such as social media accounts, online monetary accounts, and email accounts, using your personal information. Your company’s employers can trace everything about their employees if they get their hands on your digital footprint.
Hence, digital footprints become highly important for you in terms of security and privacy. If you want to prevent online scams and data breaches then you have to be careful with your online internet activities. You have to make sure that your data is safe and that your searches are fully encrypted and protected from cyberpunks.
What Are Some Examples Of Digital Footprints?
Digital footprints include a variety of data and activities that are generated when a user goes online and visits a website. Here are some examples:
Browsing History
It is the record of browsing history that comes into existence during your online searches and website visits.
Online Purchase
These are commercial activities that include purchases, sales, banking transactions, and online shopping on different e-commerce sites. These traces are recorded and maintained constantly in your browser and third-party apps for the purpose of analyzing consumer behavior.
Social Media Activity
These activities consist of comments, posts, shares, stories, likes, shares, and chats that you do using your social media accounts. This information is recorded spontaneously within the internet databases.
Virtual Communication
It covers emails, voice calls, video calls, online meetings, sharing documents, attachments, and other types of metadata that you send and receive to and from third-party platforms. These online traces are used for various purposes such as performance tracking, compliance, and security and facilitate collaboration and sharing of knowledge.
Location Data
This is related to the location history, check-ins and outs, GPS coordinates, and moving from one place to another. It is recorded by your device and apps for the purpose of geotagging, logistics tracking, emergency services, urban planning, and disaster management.
Internet of Things
It includes different types of digital devices such as mobiles, tablets, PCs, and wearables. When you connect these devices to the web or one to the other it also creates digital footprints. You generate them indirectly and it gets stored on your device database.
Online Forms and Registrations
This includes activating data that you provide to different accounts to do the registration, filling out forms, and allowing permissions. This information is used to provide you with services and allow you to utilize certain services hassle-free.
Cookies and Tracking Data
These are data packets that sites and online platforms send to the users directly in their devices to track and learn more deeply about user preferences and activities.
App Usage
This data is used by app developers to learn more about the user experience, interactions, and patterns of operations. It helps app vendors and developers to upgrade their programs and make them user-friendly.
How To Protect Your Digital Footprint?
If you lack the knowledge of how to protect your web activities and digital footprints from falling into bad hands, then don’t worry. This write-up offers you simple and effective tips to prevent black hats from infiltrating your system, accessing your accounts, and stealing your data. Here are the tips to protect your digital footprint:
Use a VPN
A virtual private network is a smart move that you can use to protect digital footprints. It encrypts your device network, hides IP addresses, and renders your location untraceable. Keeping this situation in view, when you connect to the internet, it becomes impossible for cybercriminals to trace what you do on the internet. Additionally, it protects your device networks by creating a separate connection that prevents internet service providers and government organizations from intercepting your online traffic. You can easily connect to the web without any geographical restrictions from a safe distance. During this process, your digital footprints remain fully encrypted from harmful entities. As a result, you get complete cybersecurity and privacy protection.
Search Online About You
You should use search engines to search about you online. Type your full name in the Google search bar and hit the click. Explore all the different pages that appear on the search engine result pages. Try variations of your name by changing spellings, first name, and last name to find out everything about you. Check all the search engine result pages to trace the clues about you. If you find anything that matches your personal information that shows it in a negative light then contact the relevant platform and request them to remove the information from the website.
Avoid Sharing Too Much
It is highly recommended to limit the sharing of too much information online. Doing so would widen your digital footprint and increase your online vulnerabilities. The companies you are sharing your information with can sell your data to other companies or data brokers. Cybercriminals can hack your accounts or illegally access your official accounts. In this way, you are exposing yourself to more dangers and cyber attacks. Hence, you must avoid sharing too much information online. Doing so will help you contain malicious attacks and prevent them from entering your system.
Don't Visit Unsafe Websites
Avoiding malicious and unsafe websites is essential for you to protect your privacy and security while browsing the internet. It will minimize the digital footprint of malicious websites. If these websites ask you to provide permission to send cookies before they provide access to the main pages then make sure to not allow the permissions at once. Deny them permission as far as possible. Malicious sites often use cookies to trace your online activities and information you share on different platforms. Therefore, if you avoid visiting unsafe websites, you can avoid potential dangers that are lying down the line.
Activate Security Settings
It is highly essential that whenever you are browsing the internet or using social media apps your security settings are active all the time. Do not allow strangers to visit your profile and see your friend list and other information that is related to your account. Keep your profile locked and allow only those people you are familiar with. Do not accept friend requests from strangers. All the more, customize a list of people who can see what you share on your social media accounts. You have to keep all your security alerts so that you get instant notifications if there is any suspicious activity with your accounts.
Do Not Use Public WiFi
Using public wifi can be highly risky when it comes to security and privacy. Free-to-use internet services are often tampered with by malicious programs, the sole purpose of which is to spy on the person who is connected to the internet. As soon as you connect to the public wifi, you are exposed to the potential cybersecurity risks. These programs are used to track your online activities and website visits you do using your device. Wifi networks are also tampered with by the keyloggers that collect your typing patterns and keywords you search on the internet. With the use of this, all your passwords and login details can be hacked easily. So, you must avoid using public wifi while connecting to the internet.
Delete Old Accounts
If you have any old social media accounts on your device, then you should delete them. These unused accounts pave the way for viruses and malware to enter your device and steal data from it. These dormant accounts expose your digital footprints to the wider public. Dormant accounts become vulnerable with time as they develop a variety of vulnerabilities, security patches, and pending updates. Injecting viruses in such a situation becomes quite efficient for cybercriminals. They crack the code and infiltrate the malware into the apps and programs. Hence, deleting dormant accounts is highly essential to protect your devices from malware and secure your privacy.
Avoid Facebook to Login Websites
Some various online platforms or websites ask for your Facebook account to provide access to the main pages. When you add your Facebook details to third-party websites to access the content, you grant them access to your sensitive data on your social media account. Third-party sites can easily know about your personal details. The data broker sites can steal your data and sell it to anyone. This activity raises the risk of losing your personal information and important credentials at the hands of cybercriminals. So, avoiding Facebook login websites would be a smart move to protect your privacy and digital security.
Monitor Your Medical Records
You should maintain good data hygiene by regularly checking your medical records. Cybercriminals also steal your medical data and use it to seek medical treatment in your name. They merge similar details with others to get approval for the treatment. You can avoid these scams simply by monitoring and reviewing your medical records from time to time. It will help you protect your privacy and prevent misuse of the information from the hands of black hats. In addition to this, you will be able to detect and correct the errors in your medical records. It will help you further prevent misunderstandings and misuse of the information. So, following these tips, you can mitigate the potential risks that are associated with your healthcare reports.
Keep Your Programs Up To Date
Programs and software running in your system become outdated over time. They become vulnerable to new threats and malware attacks. Software vendors and service providers often release new and upgraded versions of the software from time to time to make them capable of dealing with the new threats. These versions are made available in the form of pending updates on the relevant sites or platforms where programs are made available. Downloading them is highly essential to patch up security vulnerabilities and potential breaches. Along with this, you also get new features and configurations with the latest versions that offer better services and work efficiencies. Therefore, make sure you always keep your programs, apps, and operating systems up to date.
Manage Your Passwords
It is highly essential for you to manage your passwords to secure your critical accounts. In this situation, you have to create strong and unique passwords for your important accounts. You need to create strong and unique passwords to access every account. For creating unique and strong passwords you should use perfect combinations of letters, numbers, and special signs. Make sure you do not use your name, home or office address, phone number, or any similar thing as your password. Instead, use random mixes of letters, numbers, and special signs. Also, your password length should be at least eight to sixteen characters. If you follow these tactics for creating your passwords it will make them more secure and impossible to break. Along with this, you can use a password vault to secure them. It encrypts your credentials and keeps them safe from black hats and harmful entities.
Set Passwords on Your Mobile
Mobile phones are one of the most used internet devices these days. It carries all your contact numbers, emails, social media accounts, and other other media files. Protecting your mobile is one of the most important things to safeguard your privacy and personal details. Therefore, it is highly important that you always set a passcode to protect your smartphones against illegal or unauthorized access. It will block black hats or bad actors from entering your smartphones without you knowing. If anyone tries to enter your system forcefully it will lock down the whole portal and secure your data from any theft.
Do not Share Everything Randomly
Sharing everything about you online with the public is not a good idea. Doing this will increase your footprint to a wider level, and everyone will know about you. People with malicious intentions will exploit this information to scam you and manipulate you to do acts that will harm you down the line. So, always double-check the information you are sharing with the people. Make sure the information you are sharing does not affect your privacy and online security.
Response Quickly to a Data Breach
Quickly respond if you see your data has been compromised. Delaying the action could increase the risk of financial loss, sensitive data breach, and hijack of important accounts. Report the issue to the relevant authority as soon as possible. Immediately change your important credentials like credit card PIN, bank passkeys, email, and social media passwords. Update passwords across all the key accounts to make sure no one can access them using the previous details. Enable multi-factor authentication programs to enable multi-level security walls to protect your accounts. Taking the appropriate action in the aftermath of any security breach will enable proactive security against you from potential dangers.
