In this unit, we learned that in today’s digital age, our online presence is becoming increasingly important. From social media to online shopping, we leave a digital footprint everywhere we go. While this can be convenient, it can also be risky if we don’t take steps to protect our personal information.
Your task is to apply what you have learned in this unit and recommend five steps to protect our digital footprint.
Five Steps to Protect Your Digital Footprint
Five steps to protect our digital footprint are:
Digital footprints are beneficial. They can enhance our time online by providing a more personalized, convenient experience—such as remembering our last food order or enabling us to receive targeted, exclusive offers that align with our interests. However, our digital footprint can also lead to various negatives, such as unwanted solicitations, decreased privacy, and identity theft. Cybercriminals can use our footprint to unleash more targeted, effective social engineering schemes, such as phishing attacks and other scams against us. These are my five steps to protect our digital footprint
1. Think Before We Click
Everything we post online will stay online. Avoid sharing personally identifiable information (PII) like our email address, phone number, IDs, and bank information on social media.
2. Adjust Our Privacy Settings
Most platforms’ default settings make our online presence public. Adjust our privacy settings, especially on social media platforms, to control what we can share to collect, use, and disclose our information. Some websites also harvest our personal information by gathering publicly available data from government records. Thankfully, there are several ways to remove or at least minimize our records on the internet.
3. Create A Google Alert for Our Name
Google Alerts sends email notifications to subscribers that compile information on search activity related to subscribed terms. Although this option will increase our footprint with Google, we can use this platform to alert ourselves whenever our name appears online so that we can delete unwanted ones made by other people.
4. Avoid Using Public Wi-Fi
Cybercriminals can steal sensitive information from unsecured networks like public Wi-Fi. Use a VPN (virtual private network) to secure our connection and location and block different malware and phishing attacks.
5. Limit the Amount of Data We Share
The best way to manage and secure our digital footprint is to become more vigilant about how much data we share online. Take a more critical look at any website we consider sharing our information with and determine whether the payoff is worth it.
In today’s digital world, protecting your digital footprint is crucial to protecting your identity, data, and privacy. Here are five steps to help you protect your digital footprint:
1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Make strong, one-of-a-kind passwords that combine letters, numbers, and symbols to safeguard your accounts. To safely store passwords, use a password manager. To provide an additional degree of security to critical accounts, including email or bank accounts, enable two-factor authentication (2FA).
Example: Google and other platforms offer 2FA alternatives, while apps like LastPass or Dashlane assist in creating and storing safe passwords.
2. Limit Personal Information Shared Online. Sharing critical information like your social security number or private information like your home location or phone number should be done with caution. Refrain from sharing private information online or adding unnecessary stuff to online forms or profiles.
Example: Refrain from sharing excessively in open forums or on websites like Twitter. If you are requested for personal information, consider if you really need to give it.
3. Adjust Privacy Settings. Check and change your email, social media, and other online account privacy settings. You can usually manage who can view your activities, personal information, and postings on most platforms. If at all possible, make your accounts private and limit who can see them to people you can trust.
Example: You can control who can view your posts and profile on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
4. Regularly Audit and Clean Up Your Online Presence. Make routine reviews of your internet accounts to find and eliminate stuff that is no longer relevant or essential. Remove personal information from accounts that are no longer needed, delete outdated postings, and deactivate accounts that you are no longer using.
Example: To look over and remove previous activity logs or search histories, use Google’s “My Activity” feature.
5. Be Cautious of Public Wi-Fi and Phishing Scams. Remain clear of public Wi-Fi while accessing sensitive accounts or sharing personal information, as these networks are not as safe. You can encrypt your internet traffic by using a virtual private network, or VPN. Furthermore, keep an eye out for phishing emails and schemes that try to obtain your personal information by using fake web links or files.
Example: Prior to opening attachments or accessing links, always confirm the sender’s email address. Services like NordVPN or ExpressVPN allow secure browsing on public Wi-Fi.
By following these steps, you can significantly reduce the risks associated with your digital footprint and maintain greater control over your online presence.
To protect your digital footprint and practice responsible online behavior, follow these five steps:
To protect your digital footprint, use strong, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication for added security. Regularly review privacy settings on social media, avoid using public Wi-Fi for sensitive activities, and monitor your online presence to manage personal information visibility. These steps help safeguard your personal data in today’s digital world.
To protect our digital footprint we should:
to protect our digital footprint:
5 Steps to Protect Our Digital Footprint
5-Step Plan for Digital Footprint
Step 1– Be cautious when using the internet and giving personal information about yourself.
Step 2– Be alert while visiting sites, and connecting to public wi-fi.
Step 3– Be aware of scams and any information you share with websites.
Step 4– Be responsible for what you share about yourself and others online, and run security checks for web and other digital tools.
Step 5– Be proactive and learn to monitor your online life. Once in a while, you can search for yourself online and see what comes up. This will help you monitor and reflect on your online history.
1. Be cautious of what you put online.
2. Check your privacy settings and make changes to be tighter
3. Make alerts for when your name is used online
4. Clean up your online accounts
5. Don’t share passwords with anyone and make the ones you have stronger.
Five steps to protect your digital footprint:
I would recommend following these steps to protect our digital footprint. Also, I recently found this website to check how secure your password is https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/
Five steps to protect our digital footprint.
Five steps you can take to protect your digital footprint:
Monitor Your Digital Footprint: Regularly search for your name online to see what information is publicly available. You can also use online tools to monitor your digital footprint and alert you to any potential privacy issues
Digital Footprint Protection in 5 Steps
1. Create passwords that are hard to guess and avoid using the same password for different accounts.
2.Be Cautious with Personal Information:Avoid sharing sensitive details like your address or phone number online.
3.Check Privacy Settings:Regularly review and adjust privacy settings on social media and other accounts to control who can see your information.
4.Stay Safe Online:Avoid clicking on suspicious links or downloading unknown files to protect against cyber threats.
5.Always ask an adult for help if you are unsure.
5 steps to Protect Our Digital Footsteps
1. Do not share your private information or save it anywhere online.
2. Add an extra layer of security to your online accounts by enabling two-factor authentication.
3. Regularly review and adjust the privacy settings on your social media and other online accounts to control who can see your information.
4. Do not overuse your passwords.
5. Be mindful of any links you press.
A digital footprint is an accumulation of all your activities online. Routine things you do each day such as posting on social media, making a purchase, activating an account, completing a survey or sharing an article. All these actions leave a digital trail, which can include your IP address as well as any personal details of your life that you’ve shared online. This data can be tracked and analyzed by marketers, credit card issuers, advertisers, law enforcement agencies and other organizations to learn about your habits and create a customized profile.
Therefore to limit and/or manage your digital footprint, one can implement the following steps:
1. Searching for yourself – use multiple search engines to see what information about you is available.
2. Set alerts – After performing your search, consider setting up alerts to more keep track of your online mentions in the future. With an alert, you’ll receive a notification whenever your name appears online.
3. Use tighter privacy settings – Using more restrictive settings can help reduce your digital footprint.
4. Restrict mobile app permissions – Whenever you grant a mobile app access to your photos, location, camera, contacts and other information, it makes your data available to the app owner. Be selective before giving an app permission.
5. Use a password manager – a password manager tool can securely create, encrypt and store unique passwords for you. Enable Two-Factor Authentication for any accounts where it’s offered.
Link: https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/digital-footprint-protection-strategies
I am not sure what happened. However I am posting the 5 Steps to Protect your Digital Footprint.
I have added a poster noting 5 steps to protect your Digital Footprint.
1. Think about the people and sites you interact with
2. Do not overshare private information
3. Think about pictures, comments, vlog posts you share, are they appropriate ?
4. Be mindful of your email subscriptions
5. Ensure your network and settings are secure.
I like reading others responses. It sparks thoughts with new information. My 5 Steps are different from your list., which means that there are many ways for one to protect their Digital Footprint.
1. We should not overshare. Meaning we shouldn’t put to much of our personal information out there.
2. We should be conscious of what we post on social media.
3. Not everything we feel that we should post
4. Keep our information private
5. We should check the privacy of the website.
6. Anything posted it’s there forever, it’s not deleted.
5 ways to protect our digital footprint
1.think before you share, ( once it’s posted on the internet you can’t take it down )
2. Reflect on when you google yourself( how much information was on the web about you)
3. Social media is not private ( what you post on social media future employers can find and see it)
4.beware of scammers (once your bank accounts and credit is on the web, it’s easier to clean out your account by a scammer)
5.keep your life private ( every detail doesn’t need to be shared with the world keep some information to yourself)
1.) Be Aware of what you are going to share!
2.) Look at the privacy setting
3.) What do you see when you Google yourself
4.) Is your password protected?
5.) Pause and Ponder, Is this something everyone should know?
5 Ways to Protect Our Digital Footprint:
5 Steps to Protect Your Digital Footprint
5 Steps to Protect Your Digital Footprint
5 steps to protect your digital footprint
I also included the two step authentication in mine because i feel it secures your identity the most. It stops hackers from getting ahold of accounts and personal information. many social media websites are not adding that to the privacy settings .
5 Steps to Protect Your Digital Footprint:
This list is great for adults and high school/ middle schoolers. Passwords and two factor authentication are such hard things for many people, it is great reminder of what we should all be doing.
5 Steps to Digital Footprint Protection
I think this list is straight forward for trying to protect your digital footprint. People just have to realize it is important to protect their digital footprint.
I liked how you incorporated checking your digital footprint fro time to time. I feel like we never check and that is why information is always able to be accessed if we do not delete it. Also, that helps with finding fake accounts as well.
5 steps to protect your digital footprint:
1.) STOP and Think! Before posting or sharing any content on the internet or social media platform, think about what you are posting, think about the message you are sending out there, and ask yourself if you want this bookmarked for life.
2.) Review the privacy and share setting on all platforms to protect your content and information.
3.) Google yourself and unsubscribe to certain sites that have your personal information posted to the public.
4.) Do not share your location or other personal information
5.) Use a strong password
5 Steps to Digital Footprint Protection
5 steps to protect our digital footprint:
Number 1) Never share personal information, like your home address or cell phone number.
Number 2) When on a public chat don’t assume the person chatting with you is also a kid. There are adults that are online predators looking for a young victim.
Number 3) Never post pictures that your Mom, Dad or grandma will approve.
Number 4) Setup your privacy settings on social media to private, only people you know and trust like family and friends should have access to your posts, not for the general public.
Number 5) Be careful what you post online. Mind your words and what you post. Remember whatever you post online stay forever online.
I created a word document on 5 steps to protect your digital footprint.
https://cuny907 my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/yanilda_hernandez17_login_cuny_edu/Documents/edu227%20digital%20footprint.docx?d=w5cc3961c6c9d4fbba14e4d7f78de69c4&csf=1&web=1&e=aSBfT1
5 steps on how you can protect your digital footprint.
I. Limit what you share online.
II. Do not log in to your personal accounts on public Wi-Fi.
III. Always use privacy settings.
IV. Don’t subscribe to mailing lists.
I like how you added how they should not subscribe to mailing lists. That is important because then your address is on lots of lists!
Mailing lists are the worst!
5 Ways to Protect Your Digital Footprint
Use strong passwords: Use unique, strong passwords for each of your online accounts. Avoid using easily guessable information like your name, birthdate, or common words, and consider using a password manager to help you generate and store strong passwords securely. A strong password would contain at least 8 characters with a combination of capital and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols (i.e. Tr@v3lTim34Me)
Be cautious about what you share: Be mindful of the personal information you share online. Consider the potential consequences of making certain information public, and be cautious about sharing sensitive information like your home address, phone number, or financial information.
Adjust privacy settings: Review and adjust the privacy settings on your social media and other online accounts to control who can see your content and personal information.
Monitor your digital footprint: Regularly search for your name and other personal information online to see what information is available about you. Consider setting up alerts to notify you of any new mentions or updates.
Think before you post: Before posting anything online, think about the potential impact it may have on your reputation, future opportunities and impact on others. Consider the long-term consequences of your online activity, and be mindful of how your digital footprint may be interpreted by others.
I decided to create an infographic on Canva about five steps to maintaining a healthy digital footprint.
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFbU4RK5ko/XEW_dNcbFB7sSZyQl1M2Aw/view?utm_content=DAFbU4RK5ko&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=publishsharelink
My steps are think before you post so that my students think of the consequences that will happen if they post.
Then, don’t share your location. This way my students can keep themselves safe. People knowing their location can lead to dangerous consequences.
After, I talk about how they should keep their profiles, like Facebook, Instagram private. This way they are in control of who sees what they post.
Next, beware of the cookies settings. This way their data is not always shared.
Finally, I like the step of not posting just to post which was mentioned in one of the videos. Many people are posting just to get attention. Unfortunately, the attention they receive may not be kind. Students need to find other outlets that don’t lead to dangerous consequences.
Here are 5 ways I believe that you can protect yourself online-
Don’t post everything you do.
Don’t put your personal information online.
Don’t post things about your family or friends without their permission.
Don’t write things that you wouldn’t want to say in person
Don’t forget that things online, stays online forever.