Digital footprints

Digital technology has changed how we bank, travel, shop and communicate. Talking to a cousin in another country now takes a moment and costs almost nothing. But the same technology can also be misused, so we need to use it wisely.

Whenever we use the Internet, we leave a trail of data behind us: our digital footprint. It includes the websites we visit, the emails we send, the information we submit in forms, and details such as our IP address, location and device.

There are two kinds:

• An active digital footprint is the data we submit on purpose: emails, social media posts, comments, replies to online forms.
• A passive digital footprint is data left behind without our intending it: the record created when we visit a website, use an app, or search for something in a search engine.

Our browser stores some of this on our own device: history, cookies, saved passwords and auto-fill data. But most of our footprint is stored on the servers of the websites and apps we use, where we cannot erase it.

Digital footprints can be used to show us targeted advertisements, can be misused by others, and can even be used to trace a person. Once created, a footprint may never be fully removed. So be careful about what you write, upload and browse.