Managing Your Digital Footprint - What To Know
Frankie • May 12, 2020
Reputation management consultants would tell you that in today’s world, your public image lives and dies upon the contents of your digital footprint. This is comprised of the data you leave online due to various online activities. This can be anything from simple browsing to the publication of content.
There are two types of digital footprints. There are active footprints, or intentional data trails, and passive ones, which users leave online without realizing what they are doing.
Active footprints include sending an e-mail, publishing anything on a social media platform like Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn, and publishing a blog post on a content management system like WordPress. Filling out forms for subscriptions to bloggers or YouTubers also contribute to your active footprint.
In contrast, passive footprints are things arise from activity online but are not necessarily left there by users on purpose. This includes geolocation data recorded by apps and websites, as well as products and activities browsed on websites.
Why manage your digital footprint
Data you leave online, whether actively or passively, is there forever. It is possible to scrub your footprints online, but these are time-consuming and require special knowledge. You can also hire a company that removes your information on the Internet.
Data you leave on the Internet makes you vulnerable to internet fraud such as identity theft. You can also be targeted by unwanted advertisements from organizations, or by personal vendettas by any disgruntled person with a social media account.
What’s more, potential employers, company valuation attorneys, and insurance agents can search for your name online and examine if anything in your digital footprint implies that associating with you is a liability. Drug and alcohol consumption, weapon use, profanity, and mugshots are among the things that can turn people off.
Managing your digital footprint
With all of these reasons, it becomes clear why you should manage your digital footprint. One way to begin is by searching for your name on search engines and setting up an alert that notifies you when something is uploaded online that contains your name. You must be aware of what information there is about you before protecting your reputation.
For instance, some people would be surprised to know that their birthday, current home address, landline number, and mobile number might be online. If this is something that does not sit well with you, you can take steps to remove these from the Internet. Talkwalker or Google Alerts can help you keep tabs on keywords that you think reveal too much about you. Alternatively, you can hire someone to remove negative information on the Internet for you.
Be small and compartmentalized online
Get different e-mail addresses for work and for personal use. Having a contact number for work and for personal use is a norm among professionals; the same should be true for information online. Using a separate business or work e-mail ensures that you keep your personal life separate from your professional one.
Furthermore, you should set up your social media platforms so that you can regulate who has access to updates about your personal life. This puts an extra layer of boundaries, especially on social media, where people’s various social circles blur into each other.
Conclusion
Being prudent in online activities means refraining from oversharing and keeping separate work and personal digital identities. The internet is a repository that stores data for a long time, so you should only post things that you’re comfortable showing to the public.
If you want to make use of services to remove your information from the internet
, get in touch with our experts at Content Removal today.
