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The digital shadow ā€“ how not to leave a footprint online?

As a rule, advertisers as well as developers use data about human behavior in virtual space and their cyber-experience to improve

IT

-products. But all that data is also available to attackers. How not to leave a digital footprint behind?

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Letā€™s be honest ā€“ it is impossible these days to be completely ā€œinvisibleā€ and leave no digital footprints at all. Today if thereā€™s no information about you on Google or social networks, itā€™s suspicious, to say the least. The digital shadow leaves its mark everywhere you go. So keep an eye on it, walk it only in good places, and feed it quality information.

Big business quickly got to grips with information acquisition, storage and processing technologies to use them for commercial purposes back in the early 2000s. Google, Yandex, Facebook, Amazon, VKontakte intelligently process digital footprints and get information about the needs of users and customers.

According to the DIGITAL 2022 Global Survey, at the beginning of 2022, there will be 4.95 billion Internet users worldwide. In terms of coverage, itā€™s 62.5% of the worldā€™s population. There were 129.8 million Internet users in America as of January 2022. Thatā€™s 89.0% of the countryā€™s population. Can you imagine how much information gets into the hands of corporations? Including some of the information falls into the hands of not very honest citizens.

How digital footprints stay?

Your steps are constantly being recorded. Whether you use a smartphone or a computer, the ā€œinvisible eyeā€ is watching you. Any IoT device knows important data about you, and Yandex.Station with Alice, and even a public transportation pass.

For example, once posted on social networks, photos, comments, and public correspondence will remain on the Internet forever. If someone wants, he will find the information he needs about you: address, place of work, salary level, where you go and where you vacation, what you buy, your preferences in music, clothes and food ā€“ in general, everything your virtual profile was exposed to. Why does he need this data??

Sergey Kuzmenko, senior digital product testing specialist at Roskachestvo:

ā€œAny data about a person can be figured out to be used for a variety of purposes. Information is already being collected when you just move your mouse on the site. If itā€™s an online store, your preferences will be revealed by the items you clicked on, or that you spent a long time moving your mouse over but never added to your cart to buy. And lo and behold, your tastes are already known, which means it will be easier for data brokers and advertisers to create content ads for you with persuasion to buy or do something.ā€.

Roskatchestvo recommends digital hygiene

It is possible to reduce the probability of negative scenarios, but only partially. The principle is simple ā€“ the less the better. Reduce information noise, so youā€™re more secure. Here are our tips so you can keep your privacy and data private:

  • Get a special email address and a virtual number for registering with websites, online stores and social networks

  • Do not make publicly available the e-mail addresses to which your social networks accounts are connected

  • Close your profiles and hide your friends lists

  • Periodically clean the cache of your browsers

  • Set your cookies to not save you can use them to track your browsing history

  • Keep the correspondence only through messengers with constant end-to-end encryption

  • Install antivirus protects against viruses and keylogger, which can ā€œreadā€ your passwords and even connect to the webcam

  • Use a paid VPN with a good rating and level of trust. This service does not save any histories or keys to the sites you visit.

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John Techno

Greetings, everyone! I am John Techno, and my expedition in the realm of household appliances has been a thrilling adventure spanning over 30 years. What began as a curiosity about the mechanics of these everyday marvels transformed into a fulfilling career journey.

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Comments: 3
  1. Cambria

    How can we ensure our online activities donā€™t leave a digital trail? What steps can be taken to minimize our digital footprint and protect our privacy in the digital world?

    Reply
  2. Ella Sanchez

    How can we protect our online privacy and avoid leaving a digital footprint? What are some effective strategies or tools that can help us maintain anonymity and keep our personal information secure?

    Reply
    1. Clementine

      Protecting our online privacy and avoiding leaving a digital footprint is essential in todayā€™s digital age. One effective strategy is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to encrypt our internet connection and mask our IP address. This can prevent third parties from tracking our online activities. Additionally, using strong, unique passwords for each online account, enabling two-factor authentication, and regularly updating our privacy settings on social media platforms can help maintain our anonymity.

      Other tools like password managers, encrypted messaging apps, and browser extensions that block tracking cookies can also aid in keeping our personal information secure. Being cautious about the information we share online, avoiding public Wi-Fi networks, and regularly deleting cookies and browsing history are additional steps we can take to minimize our digital footprint. Ultimately, vigilance and awareness of the risks associated with our online activities are crucial in protecting our privacy.

      Reply
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