Your digital footprint is important because it represents the trail of data you leave behind whenever you use the internet, and these days, you probably spend a lot of time online. According to the Central Statistics Office, over 90% of Irish adults use the Internet, and of those, over 90% of adults use the Internet every day. The average amount of time spent online by Irish adults every day is an incredible six hours and 13 minutes - you might sleep less than that some days! Think how many footprints you would leave if you were running about in snow or sand for six hours. That's a lot of footprints!
Your digital footprint can have significant implications for various aspects of your life:
In 2013 Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm, created an app named "This Is Your Digital Life" and deployed it on Facebook, supposedly for academic use. However, the app not only collected personal information from Facebook users, but also from their Facebook friends - who didn't necessarily use the app, breaching the consent agreement in place. By doing this, Cambridge Analytica were able to collect the personal data of terms of millions of Facebook users - whether they agreed to share their data or not.
This data was used in political campaigns to individually target potential voters with messages designed to appeal to them. Many people believe, and there is some evidence to suggest this, that Cambridge Analytica and the Facebook data were used by the Leave Campaign in the 2016 Brexit referendum although an official UK investigation Commissioner found that Cambridge Analytica was not involved "beyond some initial enquiries". Nevertheless, some suspicion remains.
Facebook were fined $5 billion by the US Federal Trade Commission and paid $725m to settle legal action taken by American Facebook users. Cambridge Analytica declared bankruptcy, but similar companies have been set up by people involved with Cambridge Analytica.
Leaving aside the political aspects, the scandal is a fantastic example of how your online data - your digital footprint - can be used to target and manipulate you,
Your digital footprint is important because it can have an impact on both your personal and professional life, privacy, security, and reputation. Being more aware of your online activities can help you maintain a more positive and secure online presence.
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