Benefits of a Digital Footprint Review

In our digital world, even if you don’t publish much publicly online, there’s still little digital breadcrumbs that you leave behind that can add up to something akin to a sensitive profile of yourself that forces you address this information. With this article we’ll talk about the benefits of a digital footprint review and who can benefit.

First, let’s talk about what a digital footprint is.

What Is a Digital Footprint?

A digital footprint includes things like:

• Online accounts you signed up for

• Contact information

• Court cases

• Publicly available government records

• Social media posts

This part of your digital footprint is what you contribute to. You actively did something to have this information show up in online spaces. Some of this information is more permanent than others.

There are more things on the technical side that also contribute to your digital footprint. Some of which is automatically collected like:

• IP address

• Geolocation

• Cookies

• Browser fingerprinting

This part of your digital footprint is data about you that’s collected passively which you have little to no control over.

This leads to issues that your digital footprint creates.

Issues Your Digital Footprint Creates

The information that you volunteer to publish online, or send in a web form, and the data that’s collected which you don’t voluntarily provide, affects you, or your family, in many ways.

Privacy

Between the information that you volunteer and the data that automatically gets collected about you, it can form a sensitive profile about who you are.

Here are some of the privacy issues tied to your digital footprint:

• Companies want data about you for targeted advertising. This comes in the form of cookies, web beacons, tracking pixels, browser fingerprinting, loyalty programs, and newsletter signups.

• Employers may look at your digital footprint to see if there are any concerns about hiring you.

• A potential date might want to learn more about you.

• You might have escaped an abusive relationship. Your abuser might use your digital footprint in a way that affects your physical safety and mental health.

• Your digital footprint may lead to your own personal cybersecurity incident or identity theft.

• If you have children, they are likely part of your digital footprint whenever you post or share content featuring them (e.g., text, photos, or videos) on social media.

Personal Cybersecurity

The most obvious impact on your personal cybersecurity is data breaches.

Over the years, your digital footprint includes the online accounts you signed up for, contact information you’ve provided, cookies and browser fingerprinting from sites you’ve visited/apps you’ve installed, and other data third parties share about you.

A data breach can result in your accounts being hacked and your receiving an increase of phishing messages and spam. And if you’re someone who’s escaped a harmful relationship, data breaches can give an abuser even more ammunition to put your privacy in jeopardy.

Identity Theft

What you post on social media, what others share about you, and information about you that is publicly available or exposed in a data breach can all make you vulnerable to identity theft.

Some of the most common forms of identity theft are financial identity theft, medical identity theft, and synthetic identity theft.

Identity Theft impacts things like your finances, credit, healthcare, employment, benefits, and reputation.

Lastly, lets explore how you digital footprint affects your reputation.

Reputation

Your digital footprint can reveal a lot about who you are to other people.

What’s found in your digital footprint can impact:

• College admissions

• Getting hired for a job you applied to

• How the public views you if you’re a public figure

• Your dating life

• Business opportunities

• Personal relationships

Who Benefits From Digital Footprint Reviews

Many people can benefit from a digital footprint review.

If you’re a job seeker, and you aren’t getting an interview, or aren’t progressing to the next round of interviews, it could be due to the potential employer looking at your footprint. We’ve had people contact us because of their past that shows up in spaces that can’t be removed, so we know first hand that this is happening to job seekers.

If you’re applying to college, admissions may look at your online presence to learn more about you to see if you’d be a good fit. We get the balance of wanting to show off your passion/interest for what you want to study versus things that can get your acceptance rescinded, as was the case of the infamous Harvard incident back in 2017.

For those who are looking for business opportunities, our work helped a business owner make an important decision to not move forward with a potential investor because of major red flags that were discovered. With knowing that, understanding what your digital footprint looks like can help you address any hurdles you might need to overcome for the business opportunity you found.

For those in the dating pool, putting yourself out there on the apps opens you up to many interesting opportunities; some good and some bad. Finding a way to be open, while also protecting your privacy is important. It’s also equally important that you know that you’re physically safe when meeting your date.

Whether it’s to address privacy, personal cybersecurity, identity theft, or reputation, if you’re in the public eye, a digital footprint review would benefit you. If you’re a public office holder, a business owner/CEO, or a celebrity, or you’re a high profile person, gaining control of your digital stuff is important.

Lastly, if you’re someone that’s concerned about your privacy, security, or reputation for any reason, and you’re realizing it’s time to be proactive, you’d benefit from a digital footprint review.

Now let’s talk about some of the benefits.

What Are the Benefits of a Digital Footprint Review

Here are some benefits of a digital footprint review:

• Better control of your information: Knowing what exists about yourself online can help address what we mentioned in the reputation section of this article.

• Improved cybersecurity: With information in the public domain about you, this is attractive to bad actors. This can lead to identity theft, financial losses, account takeovers, and other malicious activity. Knowing what information exists in your digital footprint allows you to better secure your data.

• Enhanced privacy: With the stuff you publish online and data breaches, you never know who is looking at your information. By managing your digital footprint, you can help reduce who can see your stuff and what they can collect about you. The less information you give out helps reduce targeted advertising. By controlling your digital footprint you can also protect your kids and you can better protect yourself from people who may want to harm you.

Lastly, let’s talk about how Bsquared Intel’s Digital Footprint Review service helps you.

Bsquared Intel’s Digital Footprint Review Service

Our Digital Footprint Review service is customized to fit your needs and goals of protecting yourself and/or your family.

With our service you get:

• Your time back. Let us take care of the research so that you can take care of your other obligations and not be stressed.

• Over a decade of experience. Our specialty is finding information on the publicly facing Internet, reporting on it, and providing insights on how to better protect yourself based on the findings.

• Comprehensive reporting. Regardless of which tier of our service you select, you will get invaluable insights on how our findings impact you and ways to better reign in your digital footprint.

Your Next Step

Ready to take a proactive approach to protecting your digital footprint?

First visit Bsquared Intel’s Digital Footprint service page to learn more. Then complete the contact form below. Briefly tell us your goals, any specific needs, or concerns you’re encountering.

Please do not include sensitive personal information, passwords, financial information, or other confidential details. We’ll review your message and, if our service is a good fit, contact you to schedule a call.