CHARLOTTE — You may be tired of having so much of your personal information out there. It’s hard to completely erase it. But there are ways to limit the data.
The cybersecurity company Kaspersky says it well: “A digital footprint is the trail of information created by your activity online.” Examples include:
- Social media posts
- Likes, comments, and shares on social media
- Account signups
- Photos and videos
- Search history
- Fitness apps
- Location tracking
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Criminals use your digital footprint to steal your identity or they use it to find you, make their stories more believable, and try to scam you.
“Everything about you is everywhere on the Internet,” said Tom O’Malley, a former federal prosecutor, including in the Charlotte area.
O’Malley created Frozen Pii, a tool to help consumers protect their financial identity. He donated it to the nonprofit The Identity Theft Resource Center last year.
He suggests Googling your name. See something you don’t want out there on the web? Save the page’s exact address and ask Google to drop it. (Click or tap this link for the form)
He also recommends asking data brokers to remove your information. He says start with Optery, DeleteMe, or GitHub’s BADBOOL tool.
“They’ll tell you who the top people search sites are and how to go about requesting removal,” he said.
Plus, here are some other tips for shrinking your footprint:
- Delete accounts you don’t use.
- Go into your privacy settings and limit how much info. you share, like contacts, location, photos, etc.
- Use multi-factor authentication and strong passwords.
- Check out as ‘guest’ when shopping ... instead of creating an account.
- Stay current on software updates on your devices.
- If you have to enter your birthday, phone, or other personal data... ask yourself how badly you need that account.
“Unfortunately, we really cannot escape the digital climate these days,” consumer Brandy McLeod told Action 9 attorney Jason Stoogenke. “I’m here to buy socks. Why do you need my email?”
McLeod teaches digital literacy. She founded Carolina Bridge Tech, a Charlotte business that runs scam safety workshops.
“I like to teach anyone who maybe isn’t as privy to how the technology is running on the back end how to use online things safely,” she said.
She gives her classes social media accounts and has them play scammer.
“And I’m asking questions like, ‘What is Maya into? How old is she? Where does Maya’s mom work? Where do they go on vacation?’ And you start to realize Maya didn’t post a lot, her mom didn’t post a lot, her school didn’t post a lot, but, when you put those three pages together, you’re able to find out everything about Maya.”
And that’s without even buying any of your data.
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Stoogenke says it’s practically impossible to disappear online. Even if you do everything you can, you can’t control data breaches and what’s on the dark web. So the goal is to leave a smaller footprint, and limit your exposure.