Digital Us — Demystifying Digital Identity and Digital Footprint

In today’s world, everyone is hooked on devices. Spending hours each day surfing the web, we all post countless comments, photos, videos, etc. If we do not use any disguising tools — and usually we do not, everything we create on the Internet is by default signed with our name, and our reputation. This is our digital footprint. TechTerms dictionary defines digital footprint as “a trail of data you create while using the internet”. It includes the websites you visit, emails you send, information you submit to online services and more. There are comments on news articles, posts on social media, even records of our online purchases and more. Simply, digital footprint is the traces we leave on the Internet.

All of these traces make up our digital identity. As highlighted on Forbes: “a person’s digital identity is amalgamation of any and all attributes and information available online that can bind a persona to a physical person. It’s similar to the way that your name and an ID card make up your identity in the physical world, but your online footprint goes beyond this to include behaviors, social profiles, device information, location, search history, etc., to make up your identity in the digital world”. In other words, our digital identity is a full reflection of our physical being in the digital world.

Why we should care about our digital identity

There’s no doubt that we care about physical beings — if we are sick we go to a doctor, if we are aware of family diseases we do regular check-ups. Yet, there hasn’t been a lot of awareness to protecting our digital being while we live in a world that imposes a lot of threats for our digital identity.

Theft of personal data

Imagine the following — you’ve registered on some website, created a password — in some cases you even reuse a password from other accounts — and submitted your email. If it’s an e-commerce website, it also has your name, credit card data and shipping address. Suddenly, the website is hacked and all your personal data, part of your digital identity, is now in criminals’ hands. The consequences can be huge:

• They have your password. If you use this password elsewhere, all of your accounts with the same password are now endangered.
• They have your credit card data. You need to act fast to block it.
• They have the address you live, email you use to confirm financial transactions, your full name indicated on ID. Just conceive how they can use it!

And how much data can criminals pull from your social media account? Well, a lot. For hackers we are all targets. According to Varonis Research, 7 million data records are compromised each day and 56 data records are compromised each second! We need to take care of our personal data and protect it, as hackers are everyone.

Impersonators

In 2017 Robert Downey Jr has warned fans “not to fall for “scam artists” who claim to be him on social media and ask for money”. In 2019 Bill & Ted co-star Alex Winter underlined that Keanu Reeves has no social media accounts while imposters flooded social networks hoping to cash in on his popularity. And so on, and on and on. Impersonating celebrities to retrieve money from their fans and partners-advertisers is a rapidly developing “industry”.

If you are not a celebrity at all, you are also a target. Scammers can lurk behind your digital identity. Your relatives or friends may get a message from “you” saying that you are in trouble and desperately need funds to solve the issues. Not real you, just someone who stole your identity but how much money your friends and relatives will lose before getting to know the truth? We need to stay on alert to prevent our nearest and dearest from being deceived and not to be deceived ourselves.

Reputational risks

According to Career Builder, 70 percent of employers use social networking platforms to research job candidates during the hiring process, while 48 percent of employers check on current employees using social media.

Our social media image is almost never perfect. One day we may be in a bad mood commenting something on Facebook, while another day we can be tagged at a party when we’re not looking as professional. We leave online traces that become part of our digital identity. Needless to say, our potential employer can and will discover these. We need to protect our digital identity before it gets too late.

How to stay aware and protect our digital identity

Digital identity is an integral part of our lives and we need to make sure it’s protected at all times. Here are several tips on how to do it:

1. Use an antivirus software to protect your devices.
2. Use password managers. You will not have to remember all of your passwords and you will stop recycling them on different websites.
3. Mind your tone and words while posting on social networks. Remember that each word is counted and saved.
4. From time to time, google your name for social media accounts created with your name or photo. If you find a doppelganger, immediately report the situation to customer support.
5. Create google alerts of cyber security news sites, to stay aware of recent data leaks and stay ahead of the game.
6. Check out dip— dip is a special security software that performs all of the tracking for you so you’re notified about recent breaches of your accounts, your personal data exposure, accounts created under your name, etc.

Most importantly — don’t underestimate the importance of your digital self!