Tracing Online Activity: Technology is becoming an unavoidable part of our lives, professional and personal. Like anything, even this can have a good, bad, or ugly side, depending on where you are looking from. The truth is that every time we access the Internet, we leave a digital shadow behind us, which can be used in various ways. Your online presence can have good and bad consequences, from stopping hackers from accessing your accounts to your details being used in annoying targeted marketing campaigns.
Our Online Life
We live in the digital age with 5.00 billion internet users in the world today, with more than 500,000 new users accessing the Internet each day over the past 12 months. From kids to older generations, everyone has accepted the development of the Internet and technology and, with some effort, become tech-savvy. We use it in most daily activities, from communicating with others, remote working, online gaming, or even for virtual visits to museums and galleries. Possibilities are endless, and we enjoy every minute of exploring what else we can accomplish.
Impact Of Internet And Technology Advancements
Our digital world is evolving so fast that things that seemed impossible just decades ago are now part of our reality. New training technology trends are emerging daily in various sectors. We grew from big basic phones whose highlight was an option of playing Snake to slim and modern smartphones that let us access the online world from the palm of our hand. You can even ask your phone to turn on your robot vacuum cleaner or start the heating so your house is nice and cozy by the time you get home. But, our growing online presence means that bigger and bigger parts of our lives are starting to be more present online.
Every time any of us accesses the Internet, we leave a trail of data behind us without even being aware of it. The amount of data generated daily is so high that it is impossible to answer the basic question of” How much?”. We can only make an estimate. But, to put things in perspective, on average, 5.7 million of Google searches are conducted per minute. All of this data is stored online and can be used for various purposes. The only way you can guarantee it doesn’t affect you at all is to turn off the Internet and remove yourself from the digital world.
Would you be able to survive going cold turkey and live your life without the Internet in order to reduce its impact on your privacy? Our lives have become so intertwined with the Internet and technology, that it would be impossible to imagine our lives without it. We already feel out of place when we can’t find our phones for a few minutes. Luckily, it still hasn’t come to that. While our mind immediately goes to the negative sides of it, the truth is that there are as much as positive as negative aspects of storing and tracing online activity.
Duality Of Tracing Online Activity.
The trail of data we leave behind, or our digital footprint, contains various information about us, from websites we visited, emails we sent, social media activity, and any other data we submitted online. All of these data can be used to trace your activity for various purposes, which brings a question would that be for positive or negative purposes. Everything can be considered from two sides, and tracking online activity is no different.
Positive sides:
Irreplaceable tool in fraud prevention: A fraud prevention strategy can use your standard internet activity to determine any discrepancies that might indicate fraudulent activities. Early recognition of red flags can allow them to stop fraud attempts before they can cause any damage.
Personalized service: Your online history allows companies to offer you more related content, suggestions, or advertising, optimizing your use of the Internet. For example, Google traces your online activity, so they would be able to give you relevant suggestions and answers. There would be no point in asking Google for a restaurant recommendation if it won’t be able to suggest you a restaurant that is in your vicinity.
Companies can give better recommendations: By using customers’ preferences, they can determine which incentives are the best options for them. Basing the recommendations on interests and needs instead of using the same ones for everyone ensures that every customer gets the best service.
Optimized recruiting process: By using candidates’ digital footprints, recruiters can quickly verify information from the CV and ensure they find the right candidate for the right position.
Negative sides:
Your personal data can be used without your knowledge by third parties: Unfortunately, we can never know where our data can end up, which means that it can be used to generate revenue without you even knowing it is happening.
Loss of privacy: With so much data online, especially with the growing popularity of social media, it is impossible to keep your data as private as you would like.
The danger of identity or data theft: Fraudsters can do a lot of damage if they get their hands on your accounts, and what better way to do it than by using your data against you. The worst thing is that you can never know exactly which data they managed to steal and what they are planning to do with it, such as with the Twitter hack from 2020.
What Can You Do?
If we want to be a part of this new digital world, we need to embrace all the good and the bad that come with it and find a balance between. By deleting all of your old or unused online accounts, double-checking your privacy settings and most importantly, being more aware of what you post online, you can reduce the negative impacts of your online activity and its tracing. By being more mindful about your online activity, you can make the most of your digital footprint without sacrificing your online life.
