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Introduction and reducing your footprint
How much time do you spend connected to the internet? If you're a message junkie, YouTube addict, or use the web for business, you are leaving tracks that can be followed. We all have what has been dubbed a 'digital footprint' with some being larger than others.
The question being asked today is how is this footprint affecting our privacy? And when we want to remove content, why is this so difficult, as many celebrities have discovered over the last few years?
In 1995 the EU introduced privacy legislation that defined 'personal data' as any information that could identify a person, directly or indirectly. Since then the use of digital devices, and the data they allow us all to use, has increased the complexity of that definition.
And the amounts of data are huge. IDC states that the amount of data created in 2011 had reached 1.8 zettabytes or 1.8 trillion gigabytes (which is enough data to fill 57.5 billion 32GB Apple iPads). By 2020 this is expected to reach a server-straining 44 zettabytes.
Data peddlers
And if you thought these numbers only relate to big business, think again. We have all become massive creators of data: a typical office worker in the US produces about 5,000 megabytes of data a day, which includes downloading movies, sending emails, uploading photos – the list goes on. In every minute of every day:
- 4 million searches on Google are performed
- 240 million emails are sent
- 72 hours of video are uploaded
- 2.5 million pieces of content are shared on Facebook
- 277,000 tweets are sent
What is worrying is that all this data isn't anonymous. The opposite is true, as each piece of data within your digital footprint can be analysed to understand who you are, what you like and, of course, what you might want to buy in the future. And the future will become even more data-rich, as wearable technologies become commonplace – each collecting data about your health and buying habits.
As the Internet Society points out: "If a service provider holds account information for you, such as your email address, payment details, purchase history or other personal information, the cookie links everything you do with this information. The concept of linkability is a key one in any analysis of online privacy, because linkability does more than almost anything else to erode users' ability to keep personal data within a single context, and thus to manage their own privacy."
We are now living in the era of big data. With masses of personal information about us all swimming around the internet, big data can pull all this information together to form a surprisingly accurate profile of any given person. The more you use online services the more data is available, and therefore there are more opportunities to make your digital profile more accurate. Ubisoft's recent ad campaign for the game Watch Dogs made for unsettling viewing when users found an uncanny accuracy when the app interrogated their Facebook profiles.
Reduce your footprint
So, what can be done to reduce your digital footprint, or at least make the data we all create more anonymous? And do we really need to worry that much about all this?
It's really a double-edged sword: on the one hand if you tweet you are in a specific location, this tells everyone you tweeted that your home is potentially empty. On the other hand, to make use of fast checkout on your favourite websites, the site needs to know it's you returning so it can retrieve your address and payment details.
Before you can reduce your digital footprint, understanding how far this extends is a good idea. Me & My Shadow offers just this service. They also offer a number of applications to improve your overall digital security.
Minimising the size of your digital footprint can be achieved easily if you take the time to do some housekeeping. There are a variety of techniques you can use to reduce the digital trail that you leave:
1. Check all your privacy settings
Go to each of the websites you use most often and see what level of privacy you have set. This is especially important for social networks. And if you have included personal information on your profiles, consider removing, reducing or hiding this.
2. Remove old accounts
Search for your name on Google's image search. The image search you do may reveal some old accounts you had forgotten about. You may not use them, but the internet never forgets. If you can't delete these old accounts update them with a false name, email address and blank image. Google will eventually index these changes, which should mean they are removed from your digital footprint.
3. Unsubscribe from mailing lists
We all sign up for hundreds of newsfeeds and email newsletters, but often only read a fraction of these. Unsubscribe from the ones you don't read will reduce the data available for personal profiling.
4. Register with a different email address
If you have to give an email address to a site for registration, have a secondary email address that you use for just this purpose. This will keep your personal inbox clean, but also misdirect anyone that is using this data for profiling. You could use a disposable email address from services such as Mailinator or AirMail.
5. Use stealth mode when browsing
The browser you use can also have its security and privacy settings tweaked to make your use of the internet more anonymous. The Chrome browser has Incognito Mode. Internet Explorer includes InPrivate Browsing. Firefox users have Private Window. And Safari users can also switch on private browsing from their browser's security settings.
6. Think before you post
A great deal of the personal information that is now collected comes from social media. Being a little more restrained with your use of these networks will reduce the quantity of data that can be collected about you.
7. Tor browsing
The Tor internet browser offers high levels of anonymity, as it bounces all of your browser usage across several servers around the world making it impossible for anyone to track your internet sessions.
8. Use anti-tracking tools
There are a number of additional tools you can use to mask your internet browsing including Disconnect, Ghostery and DoNotTrackMe.
Removal difficulties
Leave no trace
Even after a thorough cleaning of your digital life and an overhaul of the security and privacy settings you use, there will inevitably be materials that you want to completely remove from the internet. Stories abound about how difficult this can be.
A ruling by the European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) now gives everyone the right to have any information about them removed from the world's search engines. The so called 'right to be forgotten' is now available to anyone who makes a complaint about any data they see online that is inaccurate or out of date.
If you make a request and state that your information is "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant", search engines must remove this information or face a fine. However, you can't simply ask for any information online that you don't like to be removed if it is still in the public interest to find it.
"We need to take into account individuals' right to privacy but if search engines are forced to remove links to legitimate content that is already in the public domain but not the content itself, it could lead to online censorship," said Javier Ruiz, policy director at Open Rights Group. The jury is still out on whether this EU proposal will be workable and also enforceable.
Search yourself
Search for yourself. To gain an insight into how widespread your digital footprint actually is, try searching your name with various spellings. And don't forget to search images as well to see what turns up. If you find any material you want to remove from accounts you have access to this is pretty straightforward. Other materials like blog posts or images will mean asking the site's administrator. Take a look at your digital life with MyLife – you might be very surprised at what you see.
Check your digital footprint regularly. Over time you should see your name and content show up less regularly, as time passes. This usually means Google or the Internet Archive have updated their indexes. However, removing all traces of your digital footprint is very difficult so concentrate on the materials you feel are a priority first. Try JustDeleteMe to see how easy or difficult it is to delete an account from hundreds of services.
You ultimately have to make a choice, as the accounts you close could have an impact on other areas of your digital life. For instance, if you abandon Google+ you then won't be able to comment on YouTube. And if you close your Facebook account you won't be able to use these details to quickly log on to many sites that offer this convenient facility.
Your digital footprint could be large and widespread, but some level of digital exposure is needed to live in today's online environments. It's your choice how much personal information you want to reveal to make that digital life more convenient.
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