Digital Footprint
Welcome
In the digital footprint section you will learn about digital footprints and your digital footprint. The knowledge you gain in this section will help you improve your digital footprint. In this section there may be references to other sections due to information fitting in multiple sections.
Digital Footprints
What is a digital footprint? A digital footprint is the trace you leave behind when you access the Internet of Things. The more you access the Internet of Things. the larger your digital footprint grows. The common ways you leave a digital footprint is browsing websites, online shopping, social media, and accessing the same websites from different devices.
While your digital footprint can benefit you it can also harm you. Your digital footprint benefits you because it makes it so that you don't have to repeatedly log in to accounts or repeatedly fill in your information on websites. However, your digital footprint harms you as it allows you to be tracked easier and makes your information easier to steal. Digital footprints are visible to everyone, so others can access yours and you can access others. Have you ever had an add pop up for something you bought when you were on a website? One of the reasons this occurs is because anyone can access your digital footprint. Companies will access your digital footprint to see what you like and then send you ads for products they believe you will buy.
Are you being tracked? Yes, you are always being tracked. As you access the Internet of Things you are leaving footprints. Companies, networks, and individuals follow your digital footprints and track where you have been, what you were doing, where you are, and what you are doing. They then use this information to develop a profile on you. This profile is then used to cater to you likes and dislikes. Have you ever wondered how the ads that appear on your screen seem to be things you looked at the other day? It is because you are being tracked through your digital footprint.
How much privacy do you really have? Really you have no privacy. Each time you share something on the Internet you give up a little bit of your privacy. However, you are giving up more privacy thing you think when you share your information. Normally, you lose your privacy to explicit acts, actions we take that we know cause us to lose our privacy. Common explicit acts that we all do daily are post on Facebook, send a tweet on Twitter, update our story on Snapchat and send an email. While these contribute to our digital footprint we also grow it through implicit acts. Implicit acts are actions we take, but don't realize that it will cause us to lose our privacy. Common implicit acts that we all do daily are searching Google and connecting to the wi-fi.