Recently, I completed Digital Footprint, a course through Coursera presented by The University of Edinburgh that discusses what your digital footprint is and how to manage it. Though the course is a little outdated (I believe it was published in 2017 or 2018, and it does not seem it was updated for 2024), it still contains valuable information to understand what your digital footprint is.
For those who don't know, your digital footprint, defined by the course, is the following:
"It's what you've said, what others have said about you, it's where you've been and the images you're tagged."
"It's the data you leave behind when you go online."
"It's your personal information, your social media profiles, and much more."
What you do and say stays online."
In honor of completing the course, I thought I would share two things that I learned about digital footprints.
🎓The course Digital Footprint by Dr. Louise Connelly and Nicola Osborne from The University of Edinburgh, is free on Coursera. You can even get a certificate to share on LinkedIn once it's complete. If you are interested in enrolling, here is the link to the catalogue: https://www.coursera.org/learn/digital-footprint.
1.) The "uncontainable self"
An idea that first came up in 2012, it can be defined as "stuff put online about you, rather than stuff that you've chosen to put online and curate yourself." The "uncontainable self" can also include a person who has multiple online identities and someone who doesn't even have an online presence. This all contributes to your footprint, as it's not just you adding to it but others as well, whether it is good or bad. That's why it's important to be aware of the idea, since it all goes back to your footprint.
Though it may be "uncontainable," there are ways you can contain it. Make sure you Google or DuckDuckGo yourself to see what comes up. They are the two search engines that the course recommended to see what comes up, and if there is anything that you don't like or approve of, there are ways that you can remove them.
2.) What happens to your data after you die?
It's not a thought that we generally want to think about, but this point brought up is important. When you die, your data doesn't go with you. It's still floating in the online space somewhere. There might be hundreds of photos, posts, blogs, etc. that are on the internet that will now need to be addressed.
So what can you do to prepare for the inevitable? Well, it's kind of complicated, as it still seems we haven't quite figured it out, but more tools are being created to figure out what to do.
What the course recommends is that you should add any accounts to your will and add what you would wish to be done with them; a literary executor is what they classify this as. They also suggested a tool called Google Inactive Account Manager, which is a way for users to share parts of their accounts and data and notify someone if they've been inactive for a certain period of time. Though that would be a privacy concern, Google does not have a reputation for being privacy-friendly.
Regardless, it's important to consider what you want to happen to your data by the time death comes knocking. Do your research and reach out to a professional in regards to these questions. This course, by no means, is going to provide you with all these answers regarding this tricky question, but it does allow you to start thinking about your data and how it will not go away once you do.
Hopefully, these topics will help you better understand your digital footprint and start taking steps to improve or fix it. With our lives becoming more digital, it’s imperative that you keep an eye on it.
Until Next Time,
Monique 💻
Additional link for further reading:
https://cybernews.com/privacy-tools/what-is-a-digital-footprint/
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