Why Your Digital Footprint Matters
Your digital footprint is a trail created by your online activities. This can include visiting websites, sharing photos, posting on social media or forums, commenting on posts, online shopping, using apps, and more.
So, why does this matter? The importance of a digital footprint is summed up well by NSW.gov:
But along with this, your digital footprint can expose you to privacy and security risks such as identity theft, scams, and fraud because others can access your data and details.
For the sake of your online reputation and safety, it has become increasingly more important to be aware of and even reduce your footprint these days more than ever.
If you’re ready, let’s look at how you can take control and manage your digital footprint in just four steps — beginning with email.
1. Start with Email: How to Reduce Your Email Digital Footprint
The fastest way to shrink your digital footprint is with your email. This is the most visible yet manageable part of your footprint. Like a map of your digital life, your mailbox contains messages for accounts, subscriptions, social media, shopping, and similar communications.
Using tools like Clean Email, which work in conjunction with your service provider, you can quickly eliminate exposure from forgotten newsletter or account signups and annoying spam or other unsolicited emails.
📌 Unsubscriber: View all of your email subscriptions in one place with Unsubscriber. You can then unsubscribe from multiple mailing lists at once rather than one at a time like with most email apps.
Plus, you can pause subscriptions if you’re doing a fast mailbox cleanup.
📌 Privacy Monitor: Check if your email address was involved in any data breaches with the Privacy Monitor. You’ll see details of the security incidents along with next steps such as flagging vulnerable accounts for deletion.
With these smart features and other Clean Email automations, you can better control your inbox and protect your email address.
💡 See also: Have You Been Pwned: What does it mean and what to do.
2. Define the Full Scope: How to Check Your Digital Footprint
Once you complete your email review and cleanup, you’re probably wondering, “how to see my digital footprint” in other spots. You can move onto other online locations for reducing your digital footprint which can include everything from social media networks to people-search sites.
📌 A great way to begin is with a simple name search. If you use Google or another search engine, pop your name into the search box and then review the results. You also have an option to request removal of results you find on Google as we describe in the next section.
📌 For seeing where your photo exists online, try a reverse image search. Google also offers this option along with services like TinEye where you upload your picture or enter an image URL. You can then sort the results to see each occurrence.
📌 One more method is to use a data removal tool like DeleteMe or PrivacyBee. These services locate where your personal information has been exposed such as data broker sites and search engines, and then provide options to remove it.
3. Scrub Your Internet Presence: How to Clear Your Digital Footprint
After you find the online locations with your information, you can delete or remove what you find.
📌 With Google, you can find out if your personal details show up in search results and request removal of those results. Visit the Results About You page, enter the information you want to look for, and optionally receive notifications when matching results are found that you can then remove.
📌 Next, close any inactive or outdated accounts. If you can’t remove your personal data as you do this, you should be able to request the deletion of your data from the site owner. Note that the CCPA and GDPR laws exist to protect privacy and data rights for those in California and the European Union.
If you use a data removal service like those mentioned earlier, you’ll see options for removing your data with them. Many services perform continual monitoring, but fees may vary depending on the types of websites scanned.
4. Maintain Long-Term Privacy: How to Minimize Your Digital Footprint
Knowing how to remove your digital footprint is key, but minimizing it moving forward is just as important because your online activity will likely continue, right?
Here are several things you can do to reduce your footprint long-term:
✅ Maintain a lean mailbox: Along with the Clean Email features mentioned earlier, you can use automations like Auto Clean for inbox rules that automatically manage incoming messages and Cleaning Suggestions for recommendations based on your previous actions.
✅ Consider a VPN: A VPN protects your privacy by masking your IP address and encrypting data, both of which hide your online activity, current location, and personal identity.
✅ Try incognito mode: Most web browsers offer a private browsing mode where the sites you visit remain private and unsaved.
✅ Use a tracking blocker: Tools that stop your activity from being tracked can be added to your favorite web browser. You’ll find both browser extensions and security service add-ons.
✅ Set up a burner email: Create an email alias or a plus-address to keep your principal email private. These tools route messages to your main mailbox without exposing your primary email address.
✅ Perform a regular privacy review: Whether quarterly or bi-annually, performing a privacy review can keep you better protected and alert you of future potential threats.
Conclusion
Even though you now know how to hide your digital footprint along with ways to maintain your digital privacy moving forward, there’s one more super important thing to remember.
Total erasure of your online presence isn’t realistic. Once your information becomes public or even partially public, it can be extremely difficult to control how others use that information.
Focus on what you can control, which is the visibility of your footprint. Use safe tools like Clean Email to stop spam, subscriptions, and other unwanted emails and complete routine privacy reviews to spot anything new you need to address.
