19th Sep 2017

Your digital footprint includes all activities that you perform online. Right from posting comments/ photos/ videos on social media to online subscriptions and blog post updates, the internet tends to keep a record of everything that you do online.  In order to keep your data safe from cyber criminals as well as to prevent ID thefts, you must be cautious of what you post online.

Here are some tips can assist you in efficiently handling your digital footprint:

  • Utilize Privacy Settings:  Keep a check on privacy settings on all your social media accounts to manage who all can view your information. Facebook for instance, provides you an option to either display your posts to specific friends, to entire friend list or to public. It is strongly recommended to not make all your posts visible to everyone. Similarly check the privacy setting on other platforms too.
  • Don’t Overshare Information: In order to avoid any issue pertaining to your digital footprint at a later stage, it is best not to overshare information. This is applicable to all networking sites and tools because sharing everything with everyone may land you in trouble. Always keep your usernames, passwords, photographs, addresses and other sensitive information up to you only.
  • Manage Cookies: If you check your browser cookies, you will be surprised to note that multiple cookies have been sent by sites that you are not even aware of visiting. You can control this by blocking third-party cookies or enable plug-ins that help to prevent such cookies.
  • Understand That Online Content Is For Eternity: Anything that you post or upload online is likely to be there forever. Although it is out of the public view, your content can still be viewed through other means. Even deleting your account does not ensure all the information is wiped out as it can be found in archives and databases. Thus, always think before putting up anything online so that it does not impact you negatively later on.
  • Know What Others Are Posting About You Online: For this, adjust the settings on your social media profiles to get notifications when someone tags you in a post or picture. Whenever someone comments on your posts or shares content, you should instantly get to know about it. Enable the setting to first approve the posts before they are available for public viewing. Reviewing the posts ensures that no irrelevant or harmful content is posted with your name in it.

To maintain a positive digital footprint, it is important to be selective about who all are authorized to view your information. For more tips, contact Centex Technologies at (855) 375 – 9654.