Digital Footprint: How to Find and Protect it

LAST UPDATED: NOV 08, 2023

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

In this guide, you will learn:

• What is a Digital Footprint?
• How to Find Your Digital Footprint
• How to Remove Your Digital Footprint
• Tips to Protect Your Digital Footprint

What is a Digital Footprint?

Your Digital Footprint is any information about you that is found online. This includes your name, home address, phone number, birthdate, locations you visited, and photos you shared and posted on social media.

How to Find Your Digital Footprint

To know what personal information is publicly available about you online, go to Google, Bing or any search engine, type your full name, then press ENTER. The search results indicates what information is available about you online.

How to Remove Your Digital Footprint

Deleting your digital footprint is next to impossible because any activity you made online has traces of information linked to you already stored from third-party services, the government or other entities. You can, however, minimize your digital footprint and reduce what information is publicly available about you. Here's how:

1. Log in to your Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Twitter, Youtube, or any of the social media accounts you have a profile registered. Do this as well to your email accounts or any online account that stores your personal information.
2. Delete unnecessary information you do not want the website or service stored on their end. This includes your home address, phone number, and date of birth.
3. Delete posts, pictures or videos you no longer want to be associated with.
4. Consider deleting accounts you are not using anymore.
5. Review the privacy settings for all your online accounts. Limit the amount of data that is collected and shared.

Tips to Protect Your Digital Footprint

Remaining anonymous online can be challenging, here are some best practices from our Security Experts to help protect your online identity:

• Avoid oversharing on any social media websites or on public forums. Do not share information that could be linked to you, like your home address, phone number, and date of birth unless necessary.
• When signing up to other online services that needs your personal information, use an alternate email address or a pseudonym.
• When surfing online, use a private browser or a VPN to prevent third-party services from tracking your online activity.
• Remove any data stored on your device regularly. Clear your browser history, cache, and cookies.