Digital footprint
Furthermore, employers use a candidate's digital footprint for online vetting and assessing fit due to its reduced cost and accessibility.
As technology usage becomes more widespread, even children generate larger digital footprints with potential positive and negative consequences such as college admissions.
Examples of passive digital footprints are apps that use geolocations, websites that download cookies onto your appliance, or browser history.
A digital footprint can be stored when a user logs into a site and makes a post or change; the registered name is connected to the edit in an online environment.
Examples of active digital footprints include social media posts, video or image uploads, or changes to various websites.
As the digital world expands and integrates with more aspects of life, ownership and rights concerning data become increasingly important.
[14] Interested parties use Internet footprints for several reasons; including cyber-vetting,[15] where interviewers could research applicants based on their online activities.
[18] When many users choose to share personal information about themselves through social media platforms, including places they visited, timelines and their connections, they are unaware of the privacy setting choices and the security consequences associated with them.
[23] An example of the usage or interpretation of data trails is through Facebook-influenced creditworthiness ratings,[24] the judicial investigations around German social scientist Andrej Holm,[25] advertisement-junk mails by the American company OfficeMax[26] or the border incident of Canadian citizen Ellen Richardson.
[27] An increasing number of employers are evaluating applicants by their digital footprint through their interaction on social media due to its reduced cost and easy accessibility[28] during the hiring process.
[35] For this reason, prospective patients may unknowingly choose their physicians based on their digital footprint in addition to online reviews.
As a result, marketers pay influencers to promote their products among their followers, since this medium may yield better returns than traditional advertising.
[38] Parents may post up to 13,000 photos of a child on social media in their celebratory state before their teen years of everyday life or birthday celebrations.
[40] While parents may assume that privacy settings may prevent children's photos and data from being exposed, they also have to trust that their followers will not be compromised.
Instead, someone who acts apathetic towards the impression they are making online will struggle if they one day choose to attend college or enter into the workforce.
[43] Teens who plan to receive a higher education will have their digital footprint reviewed and assessed as a part of the application process.
