Digital+Footprint

= What is your own digital footprint? How do you you self-check? How often? =


 * A digital footprint is the information that is left behind through technology. Whether it is Facebook, online newspaper articles, or birth certificates, your map of technology can be traced and found. A great way to check your own digital footprint would be to periodically [|Google] your name. All information that is on the Internet will be linked and you can find it easily. By checking this way every couple months, you should be able to keep track of your digital footprints and keep it at a safe level!


 * My own digital footprint is like a connect the dots puzzle (I hope). When I google myself or search Facebook information, I am mostly off the radar from the point of view of randomized searches. I have nosy parents that probably don't want to see pictures of me partying, so I try to keep it this way. But I'm not sure how large my digital footprint really is. Just because my parents and I can't find certain stuff about me doesn't mean larger, more specialized groups wouldn't be able to. Searching my computer, you would realize that I am addicted to Tetris, and my phone holds information about how often I get late night calls from my friends. iTunes has a record of exactly what I might like to listen to on a desert island and my credit card records would show my weakness for the mall. I'm not sure who else can see this and why they might be interested, but I know there are people out there that will find this information at some point, whether it is relevant to what they are looking for or not. As for purposefully crafting my own digital footprint I would say I do it to a certain point.


 * I do use Facebook and I have information about myself that would never be on the web without me putting it up there. For this reason I do craft my own digital footprint, but for all the parts of my life that I have no control over, I cannot control this. I can't help it if the University has records of me in a digitial format. This is how they conduct business and I can't do anything about it.


 * Your digital footprint refers to the amount of time you spend connected to the digital world. These include ANY time you spend that can be recorded or shared by any interactions you have while you are CONNECTED...YOU CAN SELF CHECK by google-ing your name, every couple months to see how often and where and what shows up about you!


 *  Your own digital footprint is a record of all the information the computer has recorded related with to you, and your name. It could be anything from a record of your birth, to comments you have made on blogs. A good way to self-check is by searching for your name on Google. The frequency that you check this information would relate to how much information you share on the computer -- if you share a lot you, should check more often to ensure a "clean digital footprint." From the day you are born you already have a digital footprint. You have information about you stored on files such as medical records, social security, ect. Your own digital footprint is a Facebook page or Google account or email. You can check by googling yourself and find what information comes up about you. You should check every so often to make sure you aren't posting too much personal information about yourself.

==1. BlogPulse: Trends in the Blogosphere == [|BlogPulse] Search for your name then grab the RSS feed to see who is talking about you and what they're saying.
 * A person's digital footprint is an electronic trail left by their interactions within the digital world. The digital footprints are the electronic capture of "memories" built from the interaction with electronic devices--such as television, the Internet, mobile web, cell phones, etc. and other digital devices/sensors. These "footprints" are not visible but are still able to provide data on what a person has done, where the person has been, how long they stayed, both via the web and by their actual, physical location, how often, the route or routine and increasingly who with, your social crowd. [|ReadWriteWeb] provides a good list of resources to self-check and track //your own // digital footprint:

==2. Pipl: Searching the Invisible Web == <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|Pipl] claims to search the [|deep] or invisible Web to find documents, blog entries, photos, publicly available information that other search engines don't serve up.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">3. Spy: Watching what Happens on the Web == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">According to the site, [|Spy] can "listen in on the social media conversations you're interested in." This clean visualization search tool watches Twitter, FriendFeed, blog posts, Google reader shares and Flickr for any term you want.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">4. Serph: The Social Web Right Now == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">A brilliant tool for searching the social Web, [|Serph] shows you what is being said about you "right now." Serph gathers results from blog search engines, social media sites, social news sites and social bookmarking sites and offers an RSS feed for the results.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">5. Social Mention: Mentions of your Name on the Social Web == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Another great tool for searching the social Web, [|Social Mention] offers a quick glance at mentions of your name on the Web. Just enter your name and switch between blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news or all of them at once.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">6. Monitter: Tracking Twitter == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|Monitter] is one of the coolest looking monitoring tools for Twitter and one of the most useful.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">7. BoardTracker 2.0: The Ultimate Search Tool for Forums == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|BoardTracker] is a forum search engine, message tracking and instant alert system that offers relevant results quickly.

==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">8. Google Alerts: The big G == <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">[|Google Alerts] It offers e-mail and RSS alerts for any set of keywords including your name.

How often you want to self-check is completely up to you, but if you have a lot of electronic interactions, it would be a wise idea to check often to keep up with the treadmarks that your digital footprint is leaving. //<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">-Sarah, Anne, Chris // <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif;"> **Next** **Home** **Back**