Digital Footprint Protection: How to Secure Your Online Identity

Your online activity says a lot about who you are. The people, websites, and applications you interact with may reveal your location, your profession, and even your religious or political affiliations.

If someone knows your name, they can look up these records using search engines, social media, and people search sites. That information is valuable for advertisers and marketers, but it’s worth even more to hackers and scammers.

It should come as no surprise that 47% of internet users report looking up information about themselves online. Over three-fourths of those users report finding negative results about themselves on the internet.

At the same time, employers and university admissions staff are increasingly using search engines and social media to qualify applicants. Successfully managing your digital footprint lets you control what people can learn about you online.

What does your digital footprint look like?

Not all digital footprint data is the same. There are two broad categories of digital footprints:

• Active footprint consists of information you intentionally publish to the internet, such as social media posts, product reviews, and public comments.
• Passive footprint includes a wide range of information collected without your knowledge. Your browsing history, device data, and IP address are good examples of this kind of footprint. You can find even more examples in this article by Onerep.

In many cases, this data supports useful website functionalities. For example, most websites use browser cookies to keep track of users who are signed in even if they close their browser or open new windows.

However, some website owners push that functionality too far. Third-party tracking cookies can potentially tell website owners about your activities on other websites. They may even sell this information to a data broker who will bundle it with your personal info found on other platforms and sell to the highest bidder.

7 ways to reduce your digital footprint starting today

• Remove sensitive personal data from search results. Send a content removal request to Google for any information you want the search engine giant to take down.
• Delete old accounts you no longer use. Don’t leave inactive accounts connected to your email, social media, or other profiles. Deactivate accounts you don’t use and remove any data associated with them.
• Adjust your privacy settings on social media. Most social media platforms let you enable data privacy settings retroactively. TikTok lets you adjust the privacy of all your published videos in one click, for example.
• Check for and update leaked passwords. The online password checker HaveIBeenPwned will tell you if your password has been included in a reported data breach. Immediately change any passwords that leaked onto the Dark Web.
• Disable ad-tracking and location services. Most web browsers include options for disabling tracking features online. Review your browser settings and make sure it denies ad-tracking requests.
• Opt-out of data brokers and people search sites. Most data brokers will remove your data if you send a formal request, but the process can be complicated.
• Set up a secondary email address (or use email aliases). You shouldn’t have to expose your main email address every time you want to sign up for a new service or app. Consider using email masking or aliases to keep your primary email private.

Don’t let people use your digital footprint data against you

The more advertisers, data brokers, and scammers know about you, the harder it is to identify genuine content online. Keeping your data private makes it harder for marketers to target you with ads and prevents hackers from creating spoofed websites that trick you into giving up your personal information.