What is Digital Footprint? & How to Protect Ourselves From Hackers?
There are different ways through which people can know about the activity that you are conducting online and on the internet. Your entire activity on the internet has a specific term associated with it and here, we are going to tell you all about it.
Digital Footprint, also known as an electrical footprint or a digital shadow, refers to the data that is left by a person after using the internet. This simply refers to all the different websites you access, emails you send, and the information you look up and submit online.
A digital footprint is a very important thing as it can easily assist anyone to know all about your online activity on different devices. There are two different ways through which a user can leave their digital footprint - passively or actively.
This guide is going to make sure that you have all the information that you need to know about digital footprint starting with what is a digital footprint.
Digital Footprint - An Introduction
You need to understand that you are not always contributing towards your digital footprint, rather sometimes, this activity happens passively. A website can easily track your activities with the help of cookies on your device and even an application can collect your data without you knowing about the same.
Once any organization has access to your data, they can share and sell this information to third parties. The worst case scenario is your information being accessed as a part of data infringement which is why a digital footprint checker can be a useful option for people who want to preserve their information and data from being misused.
Exploring the Different Types of Digital Footprints
As we have already mentioned, a digital footprint can be shared in two different ways - actively and passively. It is important for you to understand the meaning of these two methods.
Active Digital Footprint
Active digital footprint refers to the method where a user voluntarily shares their information on the internet through different means. It can either happen by participating in online reviews and forums or by uploading content on social media applications.
Passive Digital Footprint
A passive digital footprint is established when data regarding a user is gathered without their knowledge. This situation arises, for instance, when websites track the frequency of user visits, their origin, and their IP address. This process is usually hidden and users are not able to determine if it is happening or not.
This is the basic information that users need to know about their digital footprint. It is always recommended to keep a careful check on your online activity and take the help of a digital footprint checker to see whether your data is being sought out by websites and other sources.
Comments
Post a Comment