Thing 3: Digital Footprint
What is your Digital Footprint?
Your digital footprint is the unique trail of data that you leave behind when you go online. It’s what you’ve said, what others have said about you, where you’ve been, images you’re tagged in, personal information, social media profiles, and much more.
Although some websites and applications will allow you to remove posts and ‘un-tag’ yourself from images, the permanence of online media and data often means that traces of this information will remain. For example, there might be a data trail, a re-post, or a screenshot of an image that has been re-shared by other people. Think about the internet, social media, and apps as a public place; consider the information you are sharing, and don’t leave your personal details lying around for others to see. By being aware of your digital footprint, you are creating a safer online space to interact in.
Your digital footprint isn’t necessarily a negative consequence of interacting with others online though, digital footprints can also be beneficial. By gaining awareness and confidence in the digital sphere you can build a digital footprint and strong personal presence online that stands for your values and accurately represents your interests. What is important to understand here, is that your digital footprint is a collage of your digital identity – it stands for who you are, what you value, what you like, and the ways you communicate these things to a wider audience.
Ethical Global Citizenship
Here at the University of Edinburgh, ethical global citizenship and digital citizenship is a key principle of our Curriculum Transformation programme to ensure outstanding educational experiences by increasing digital skills. A key part of our ethical global citizenship as we move into the future is understanding our individual and collective responsibilities in digital citizenship, and what it means to be safe online. Central to our philosophy is developing confidence in the online world whilst making informed choices to empower our future selves.
By being aware of the risks and benefits, we can manage our digital footprints to meet the expectations of organisations such as the university, professional bodies, and employers. For example, even at undergraduate level students need to be aware of the University’s social media advice, and professional bodies’ codes of conduct, e.g. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) ‘social media guidance for vets and vet nurses’.
It’s never too early to start thinking about your digital footprint and taking steps to manage it.
How to Complete Thing 3
Step 1
Watch the following video: Digital Footprint: Creating an Effective Online Presence. Presenter: Dr Louise Connelly, University of Edinburgh, CC BY-NC-SA.
https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Digital+FootprintA+Creating+an+Effective+Online+Presence/1_lj8fdhy6
Step 2
Search for your name on a social media platform or using a search engine. Does your name appear? How do you feel about the information that shows up?
Different search engines and platforms have different algorithms and may give you different results. After searching for your name on one platform, try another to see if you get different results.
Step 3
Reflect on what you found and write about it on your blog. Were you surprised by anything that you found?
Further Resources
Digital Footprint MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)
The Digital Footprint MOOC is a free online course, available for anyone, delivered for three weeks that runs throughout the year. Dr Louise Connelly (Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies) and Nicola Osborne (Creative Informatics), along with a range of experts, supply advice and approaches for managing your online presence and digital footprint.
This three-week course (approx. 9 hours total) explores different ways to manage your digital footprint, including:
- Developing an effective online presence
- Managing your privacy
- Creating opportunities for networking
- Balancing and managing professional and personal presences (e-professionalism)
Institute of Academic Development
The Institute for Academic Development (IAD) at the University provides a range advice and guidance to help you manage your digital footprint. If you’re looking for practical guidance on adhering to professional codes of conduct or advice on creating an effective online presence, look no further!
Thing 4: Digital Safety
Thinking about Digital Safety
Building on our newly acquired knowledge of digital footprints, you’re now going to explore digital safety. When you’re online you need to be aware of the limits of your privacy and digital safety. Who can see the information that you send? Can someone else read your emails? Who can view your social media profiles?
This also applies to the apps you use on your phones and tablets. Do you know what data you’re sharing? How is your data being used by your apps? Are they sharing it with third parties?
Think about what you’ve learned about digital footprints and data trails, we know that the online world is a public place where anyone may be able to access the information you share unless you take steps to protect it.
Personal Information and Digital Safety
It is important to think very carefully before sharing any personal information online; whether it’s your own or information about others, no matter the intent. For example, sharing a photograph of a student ID card found in the library to an online community group is inadvertently sharing someone’s personally identifiable information to the masses. By being aware of digital safety and using your digital skills, you can avoid issues like accidental doxing, rather than having to fix the problem after information has been shared.
Doxing refers to:
publishing sensitive personal information online—including home address, email, phone number, social security number, photos, etc.—to harass, intimidate, extort, stalk, or steal the identity of a target.
Defining “Online Abuse”: A Glossary of Terms, Online Harassment Field Manual
In Scotland, doxing is not a specific criminal offence, however it may be regarded as a form of harassment that amounts to other criminal offences including threatening and abusive behaviour, stalking, and improper use of communications networks.
Building on what you have learned about the importance of keeping your digital footprints secure and having robust digital security practices, it’s important to put this knowledge into practice.
Be mindful when and where you share information online. Take a minute before posting to check whether you feel safe sharing the information with a public audience. Posting a photo with some friends at work may unintentionally reveal where you work to a wider audience than you intended. Others in the photo may not want their image to appear online – consider their privacy too.
Social media platforms are havens for sharing content and information, both benign and malicious. Take some time to review your social media profiles. Check if you are sharing your location with your apps and who can access this information. If in doubt, turn off location sharing.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence (or factors) to an authentication mechanism. Using Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) significantly increases the security of accounts, and therefore helps keep your personal data secure.
MFA is being rolled out across University of Edinburgh Microsoft 365 services by adding an extra verification step to your usual sign-in process. When you add MFA to your Microsoft 365 services, you’ll be asked to approve sign-in to your University account by using a second option, such as an authenticator app code, a phone call, or a text.
Learn more about MFA at the University of Edinburgh (University login required)
How to complete Thing 4
Step 1
Empower yourself online. Review your social media profiles and apps. Identify any posts you no longer feel represent your beliefs and values today and remove them from your profile. There are different tools and apps that can help with this:
Review any apps you have downloaded to your personal devices and check what information you are sharing with them. Remove any apps you no longer use and update all the apps you do use regularly. Remember to use antivirus software, and to update this regularly as these updates usually contain vital security enhancements.
Article – How to Delete Your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, Wired, 2022
Review your more sensitive, such as banking and email, apps and check to see if Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an option. Do you have MFA set up for all your data sensitive apps? Is this something you would like to do?
Step 2
Here at 23 Things our aim is to create competent and confident digital citizens, who are equipped with the means, digital skills, and wider knowledge to enjoy the digital world authentically and securely.
Take some time to digest this information – there is a lot to consider when implementing digital safety skills in your online presence, but there are also many benefits.
In your blog share your thoughts on this exercise. Did you change any of your settings or delete any apps?
Further Resources
Our Digital Safety, Wellbeing and Citizenship service has provided a web resource of New Students: Must-Read Information which we highly recommend you read and work through the training provided.
The Learning computer security and internet safety LinkedIn Learning course (1hr 9m) examines the nature of internet-based threats and outlines essential internet safety skills for students. It comes highly recommended by the University Information Security directorate.
