A digital footprint is all the stuff that is left behind when you use the internet. Every single, like, comment, follow and post leaves a footprint behind. People may think that their digital footprint isn’t a big deal because they have nothing to hide but they don’t realize that every footprint you leave behind could make an impact towards your future opportunities in a negative way. Most colleges and universities do read your online profiles and make decisions based on what information they find whether its good or bad. Anything that you might’ve posted randomly on social media not really thinking about it could come off in the wrong way in someone else’s perspective and you could loose your opportunities to getting into a university or college. The same thing applies when your trying to get a job. Depending on what job you are applying for they will most likely do a background check and the things that they might find about you may be unflattering to them even if it doesn’t seem like it to yourself. Often background checks fail due to stupid things posted on the internet. There is also a lot that you can loose by just signing up for something or creating a social media account because of private information that you have given. Maybe you’ll get an email saying you have removed 1 thousand dollars from your bank account by someone unknown. If somebody wanted to steal your identity they could almost get anything they needed from your Facebook profile like your full name, date of birth, where you live and many other things based on how cautious you’ve been.

Although it may seem almost impossible to take control over something that you can barely even keep track of or see, you can. There are many ways to ensure that you keep your digital footprint appropriate and safe. When making profiles avoid putting your full name, address, card numbers and any other private information that you don’t need everyone to know.  Always think before you post or upload things. Act as if you are a future company looking at your profile and deciding whether it would be a good idea to hire you or not. It’s also important that you are not sharing everything you do, every hour of every day because overtime that all adds up and if someone were to look at that profile they could easily get tons of information about you. Your location and whereabouts are one of the most important things. You might not even know but almost every app tracks where you’ve been. The geotag on a post could tell someone exactly where you were when you posted that photo. You can control this by looking in your settings and controlling which apps are using your location and thinking whether it’s really necessary to have that app using your location.

There is a lot that I learned about my digital footprint and how it makes an impact in my life but if I had to pass on one thing I learned to someone I would tell them that it is possible to control your digital footprint and the earlier you start acting the better.  Every thing you tweet or post is going to leave a footprint even if you delete it, it is still somewhere hidden but still possible to find. Make sure to keep your private things private and always think before you press post or send.