Digital identity - Your digital footprint on the internet - Emptor

In 2022, with the internet and digital identity becoming increasingly important, it is imperative to raise awareness about our digital footprint on the internet. This footprint is the set of information that projects a personal image and encompasses who we are online.

The digital identity advances according to the information and behavior on the network. Our activities and generated accounts can share diverse information in different profiles. For example, the social network LinkedIn will have professional information, while another social network to keep up with friends’ photos will have completely different information.

We must be aware of the type of information we share and where to protect ourselves from possible fraud. Below, we share some concepts and tips to protect your digital footprint on the internet.

Information Exchange

Active

At the most basic level, active information exchange can be considered as logging into a social media account, completing an online form, subscribing to a newsletter, or accepting cookies in your browser.

Some actions we take actively include liking, commenting, sharing, retweeting, or participating in forums; these are interactions we perform voluntarily.

Passive

At all times, while browsing the web, we are exchanging information, often without being aware of it. Our IP reveals the geographic location, browser, operating system, device, language, age, and even the last websites we have visited.

We are sharing user and statistical data with the site, and in turn, the site inserts cookies in our browser that allow tracking of login, purchase history, and behaviors within the site to carry out marketing actions. This generation of daily transactions converts the information into big data, the processing of terabytes of information that allows creating profiles and analyzing them to obtain valuable insights.

Why Should the Digital Footprint Matter So Much to Us?

The digital footprint on the internet is important for the following reasons:

Permanence: Once data is public, the user has little or no control over the information provided and how it will be used.
Online Reputation: A digital footprint can determine a user’s online reputation, just as in reality.
Employer Verification: Employers can verify your online activity and track comments, opinions, and activities on sites before hiring you.
University Control: Universities can verify the online activity of their students before allowing them to enroll in a course.
Privacy Violation: The content of a private group can be leaked, exposing sensitive topics.
Fraud: Cybercriminals can access data that you provided yourself to carry out an attack and identity theft.

Examples of Digital Footprints

Travel Sites

Use an app to book a trip.
Register on accommodation sites.
Airlines.

E-Commerce

Subscribe to a newsletter.
Make purchases.
Install apps on your smartphone.

Online Banking

Use your online banking app.
Make transfers, deposits, purchases, payments, direct debits.
Open a credit or debit card account.

Protecting Our Digital Footprint Is a Personal Task

It is important to maintain a good online reputation, as educational institutions, employers, and even your own social circle may be verifying your comments or posts on sites. We share some recommendations to take care of your digital footprint:

Set up name alerts
Monitor your name through Google Alerts and perform searches with your full name to be aware of which sites mention you and what type of content is shared. If you need a result to be removed, you can contact the site administrator and request its removal.
Business Listings and Yellow Pages
In some sites, information from an ad you posted at some point may appear. If you need to remove the results, contact the administrator and ask them to remove you from their listings. Exposing personal data, such as addresses, phone numbers, and even email addresses, can be counterproductive.
Form Submissions
Before requesting a form to download information, ask yourself if it is necessary to send data and how relevant that information is to you.
Privacy Settings on Social Networks
Review the privacy policies, terms, and conditions again to know with whom you are sharing your information and who sees your posts. Choose a configuration with which you feel comfortable, sharing information only with people you know personally. Do not share too much personal information, such as travel plans or current location, to avoid surprises.
Use Only Secure Sites
Sites with https: have an SSL security certificate, which allows encrypting your information. Avoid sites that only contain http in their URL, especially when entering payment data. Always protect your information when making a transaction.
Create Secure Passwords and Use an Application
Secure passwords usually contain at least 12 characters, including uppercase, lowercase, special characters, symbols, and numbers. It is important to use a password manager; we recommend LastPass to store different passwords in one place.

Identity Theft or Impersonation at Work

Just as there is identity theft to commit various types of fraud, there is also impersonation and credential theft to obtain employment. A large percentage of candidates lie on their applications when seeking a job position.

This entails various risks by exposing clients and suppliers to having contact with a person within your company who has committed this type of practice to benefit from the situation.

Therefore, due diligence should be performed before hiring a collaborator or employee. For this, there are background checks and identity validation, which allow you to have full security and verification from more than 500 reliable, state, and federal sources in various Latin American countries.

At Emptor, we validate through an automated process via an API and an executive dashboard, allowing validations to be performed in minutes. Through artificial intelligence, the validations are processed and then go through a second human filter, where legal experts review in detail to rule out homonyms.

In this way, the process is equitable, and it is carefully reviewed to select potential collaborators in whom you can trust, being certain that you are hiring the right people for the position.

We invite you to schedule a free demo by clicking on the image to discover how Emptor works.