What Is A Digital Footprint?

Date First Published: 3rd June 2023

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Identifiers

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 5/10

Learn more about what a digital footprint is in this article.

A digital footprint is the traces, trails, and records of activity and data an individual or organisation leaves behind whilst using the internet. It is basically an individual's or organisation's online reputation, which can create a detailed picture of who they are. Everyone that uses the internet has a digital footprint, which can be positive or harmful and they might not be aware of the digital footprint they are creating.

Since it is almost impossible not to have any form of digital footprint, building a positive digital footprint is a priority. Building a positive one can help establish a good reputation and build a good online presence. However, digital footprints also come with privacy concerns. For example, some users feel like companies targeting people with personalised ads based on their private information and browsing history is a violation of their privacy. Also, anyone can bring information together about someone just by using search engines. This could lead to it being targeted by cybercriminals as they can use publicly available data to better understand their targets to maximise their chances for success.

What Does A Digital Footprint Include?

Any data associated with someone's identity and online activities can make up their digital footprint. A digital footprint can include the following data below.

• Cookies
• Social media posts
• Search history
• IP addresses
• Geographical location data
• Biometric data
• Purchase history
• Email addresses
• Photos
• Payment details
• Phone numbers
• Credit card numbers
• Websites visited
• Usernames
• Passwords
• Reviews
• Download history
• Screen resolution
• Subscriptions
• Health information
• Social security number
• Tax records
• Browser version and type (also known as a browser fingerprint)

Types Of Digital Footprints

There are four types of digital footprints, including:

• Passive digital footprint - The traces and trails of data unintentionally left behind without the individual's knowledge. Users do not directly share these online and are automatically collected and recorded without them being aware of this data collection taking place. IP addresses, website visits, online purchases, and online searches add passive traces to a digital footprint. Although passive digital footprints are inevitable, deleting old, unneeded accounts and adjusting the privacy settings to opt out of settings that share more information than needed can help reduce a passive digital footprint.
• Active digital footprint - The traces and trails of data intentionally left behind when submitting information on the internet. Social media posts, video or image uploads, email messages, blog posts, comments, text messages, phone calls, and filling out web forms that involve subscriptions add active traces to a digital footprint. The more active actions taken, the more a digital footprint grows. An example of an active digital footprint is making changes to a page on a collaborative wiki. When a user logs in and makes changes to a page, their edit is recorded in their registered username, which can be traced back to their IP address.
• Private digital footprint - The traces and trails of data only accessible to a certain group of people and not the public, like a record of group chat messages.
• Commercial digital footprint - The digital trail left behind when performing commercial tasks, like online purchases. A commercial digital footprint is a collection of data as a result of commercial tasks that can be traced back to the user.

Importance

Being concerned about your digital footprint and understanding the data you leave behind as a result of your online activities is important for so many reasons. At first, your digital footprint can greatly affect your reputation and form a detailed image of you as it is often publicly accessible. This means that anyone can find it out without any special skills or tools. For example, people can easily search the internet for messages on social media sites. Schools, governments, and security companies often look up people's digital footprint before issuing visas or certificates. It can also have an impact on whether an employer will hire people as they often look up applicant's names online to see what comes up. If any inappropriate content comes up, that will reduce the likelihood of an employer hiring them.

Before posting anything online or sending a private message to someone else, you should be aware that messages and posts can be easily screenshotted and shared online. Even though social media and blog posts can be deleted, once it has been shared with a larger audience, there is no guarantee that you will be able to remove them and they could even stay there forever. Understanding your digital footprint may make you more selective about what you post or send and avoid oversharing because it can be easily searched and shared with others. The actions you take online and the data collected can say a lot about you, which is why you should pay attention to it.

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