What is a digital footprint? It’s also called “shadow footprint”, “cyber footprint”, or “electronic footprint”. This is a trail of your left-over activities on the Internet, through which you build a reputation for yourself. It’s some content that might come from you or people who publish something about us. Your digital footprint spreads in a million ways; it’s your online shopping, music subscriptions, books, movies, podcasts, etc. The digital footprint has two subspecies: active and passive.
Active Digital Footprint:
It is the footprint you leave on purpose when you register on different platforms, where you leave your data and your posts on social networks. You can also add your confirmation of accepting cookies, your proof of geolocation, or your subscription.
Passive digital footprint:
It is content collected about you when you don’t know it – without your knowledge. The browser stores all your online activities, such as the number of logins to sites, which sites you visit, your IP address, and more. An example of a passive trail can also be social networking sites that collect your likes, views, and comments to set the target on your profile, that is, to pick the right content for you, what you are sure to be interested in. So, what does it mean to have a positive digital footprint?
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How to influence or correct your footprint?
Since we figured out the digital footprint definition, let’s move on to the next paragraph. We have made a list of how to maintain your reputation in the online space. Read below:
- Check privacy settings: All apps have privacy settings that help you save your content. Thanks to these settings, you can filter out to whom to show your information, such as your friends and subscribers, and whom to hide it from so that only you can see it because it also affects your online reputation.
- Search yourself online: You should know what is online about you. It is easy to check: enter your name in the search, and you will see information about you to understand what you should remove from prying eyes or leave. If you have any data you don’t want to share with the general public, change your privacy settings.
- Think before you post: Here, the name itself speaks about itself. Think that you are posting; take this question seriously. Do not throw your opinions and multimedia files that will eventually give you a bad reputation. Remember that all your published jokes and funny photos will stay there forever, so be careful what you share on social networks.
- Make a positive footprint: Social networks were created, of course, not to damage someone’s reputation or someone to insult their negative posts. You can use it for your good and the good of society. How do you do that? Publish entertaining and valuable posts on your page, where you tell what you are good at, and run a blog where people can learn and be inspired. If you are an environmentalist, it is time to publish information about helping nature, charity, or running online training. Many options; the choice is yours.
- Deactivate and delete: The theme is quite important. If you don’t want your old social media page, which you haven’t used in a long time, you should delete or deactivate it. It’ll keep you and your data safe.