The UNREMOVABLE FOOTPRINTS INTRODUCTION Do you know what footprints of you are unremovable? No idea? Think again for some times. Again no idea? Ok , let me give you one clue, and clue is that this is a technical blog. Wait! wait! Are you thinking that this blog is not for you, because you aren’t a technical guy? If your answer is ‘yes’ then believe me this blog is going to be very important for you.
One more thing I want to say that for me this is not a blog , this is only a collection of information, that peoples should have if they use internet. And obviously this is also very important for technical guy. Ok! Ok! So, I think that now you are very close to answer of the question. Yes you are right. Obviously these footprints are not by our foot, causally I can say these are our finger’s footprints. But, technically we call it “Digital Footprints”.
Actually these are the all our online activities like log in to any service, buy something online, online transactions, watch something online, play game online etc. All these online activity i.e. our digital footprints are unremovable. So what? what will I do by knowing all these stuffs? Ok, tell me one thing that what will happen if your footprint would remain visible and non removable with your identity. Your privacy will vanish and you may become mad. Don’t think that privacy is the only problem due to our Digital footprints, will discuss later after some line. Actually your digital footprints affects our society also. How? I think you are slightly confused. Don’t worry, I am going to clear.
WHAT IS DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS?
According to www.socialmediatoday.com, over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day, and it’s only going to grow from there. By 2020, it’s estimated that 1.7MB of data will be created every second for every person on earth. Actually, when we go to online and do something on internet, then a digital data (information) is created and saved somewhere. Ex. when you post something in social media, like a post, comment or share a post, chat with somebody, book tickets and any internet activity.
You may now think that you know all about this, I will say, please keep patience. So, even if you surfing web pages through chrome or any browser then also a data is created. Obviously yes, if you are using incognito mode or private browsing, then also a data is created. I want to tell you a fact that when we use private browsing, we generally think that no one can know what I am surfing on web, this is our foolishness. What content you are watching or what page you are reading if website starts with https://, then only you and owner of website can know, but on what website you are watching or reading using private browsing, are known to your service provide, wi-fi provider, all systems between your device and server of website in the network and any body who have basic computer networking knowledge connected to same wifi or around you. And this is, how internet service provider or wi-fi owner able to block websites which they want. In simple language everything you do on internet is saved somewhere in the world and you can’t delete it like your browser history. This is called your digital footprint. When you post or like something on social media and after some time post is deleted, then only post content is deleted but your digital footprint created due to this post is not deleted. Here your digital footprint refers to what type of post you had posted or liked.
WHY OUR DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS ARE UNREMOVABLE AND HOW?
But why they save our each activity although most of them are not useful for them? Answer is, data have more value than cost of the storage hardware to store the data. About 678,000 pages text file can be saved in 1 GB storage. Generally they use these data to know your interest to give adds or sell to some other organization for money or survey. These are the reasons why your data is not deleted and your digital footprints become unremovable. Now let us discuss how they collect ,manipulate, relate, identify these data even we have not entered our details in the website or app. They generally identify, collect and relate our data using cookies and website trackers. If you are ‘signed in’ in at least one app, website in a device, then other websites and apps may easily identify you by cookies, trackers and IP address. Let us know a little about cookies, IP address and website trackers. An HTTP cookie (also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie, or simply cookie) is a small piece of data stored on the user’s computer by the web browser while browsing a website. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember stateful information (such as items added in the shopping cart in an online store) or to record the user’s browsing activity (including clicking particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited in the past). They can also be used to remember pieces of information that the user previously entered into form fields, such as names, addresses, passwords, and payment card numbers. But cookies perform essential functions in the modern web. Perhaps most importantly, authentication cookies are the most common method used by web servers to know whether the user is logged in or not, and which account they are logged in with from.
An IP address is a unique address that identifies a device on the internet or a local network. IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is the set of rules governing the format of data sent via the internet or local network. A tracker is a script on websites designed to derive data points about your preferences and who you are as you interact with their site. Sometimes these scripts are placed purposefully by the website you’re on, other times a script may be from a website you’ve never visited i.e. third party trackers. Know more at Link. Source: Yale University
Then all data are manipulated in their systems to know your interest, behaviour, thinking, emotional and psychological behaviour etc. They may be able to predict you and control you, but don’t worry they do not do this, but they can. Source: towardsdatascience.com
IT’S AFFECT ON ME AND MY SOCIETY
Let us discuss how our digital footprints effects our society. Actually, when we use any services in internet then we do promote those services unknowingly. Our each activity on the internet is being counted like YouTube video views by websites or internet servers even if they could not able to identify correctly us and if the counted number is large then it is a motivation for them to scaleup their services. This motivation may cause problem. So, if you are using only good services on internet then you may relax, but if you are not then it may create a big problem for us because you can’t completely prevent to leave your digital footprints or remove it later.
WHAT SHOULD WE DO?
Please think once before going to do any activity on internet. Educate your children about their digital footprint. And please encourage them to think at least twice before posting videos, pictures, comments and replies. Let your children know that when he likes a post, he creates his digital footprint. If you have found this blog useful, please share it among the peoples you care. Thank you. Be careful.