Organisations
Better Internet for Kids
- An initiative by the European Commission, this offers resources focused on online safety and digital literacy and provides guidance on managing digital footprints. While aimed at parents and children, it does provide useful and interesting material
Childnet
- Provides resources on digital literacy and online safety, with specific sections on managing digital footprints. While it’s aimed at younger audiences, the advice is also relevant for learners of all ages
Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Large non-profit group defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation
European Association for Viewers Interests
- EAVI promotes media literacy across Europe and provides educational resources on digital footprints, privacy, and responsible online behaviour.
European Data Protection Supervisor
- An independent supervisory authority whose primary objective is to monitor and ensure that European institutions and bodies respect the right to privacy and data protection when they process personal data and develop new policies
Irish Council for Civil Liberties
- Irish Human Rights Watchdog
Irish Data Protection Commission
- The national independent authority in Ireland responsible for upholding the fundamental right of individuals in the European Union (EU) to have their personal data protected
noyb
- A donation-funded NGO based in Vienna, Austria working to enforce data protection laws, in particular the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. noyb is of course an abbreviaton of "none of your business"
Privacy Rights Clearing House
- Another non-profit organisation focused on increasing access to information, policy discussions and meaningful rights so that data privacy can be a reality for everyone.
UK Safer Internet Centre
- The UK Safer Internet Centre provides a wealth of resources for students, educators, and parents. It covers digital footprints, online safety, and best practices for protecting personal information online.
Webwise
- The Irish Internet Safety Awareness Centre is funded by the Department of Education and co-funded by the European Commission. It provides extensive resources on online safety, digital citizenship, and managing your digital footprint. It includes interactive guides, lesson plans, and information tailored for both learners and teachers
Other Sites
Apply Magic Sauce
- This demo predicts your psychological profile from your social media digital footprint. Developed by the University of Cambridge Psychometrics centre (nothing to do with Cambridge Analytica)
Be Internet Awesome
- While primarily designed for younger audiences, this interactive resource from Google is also useful for learners and others. It includes games and educational materials that teach about online safety, privacy, and managing your digital footprint
Blacklight
- Enter the address of any website to see the specific user-tracking technologies on that site
Cover Your Tracks
- How unique is your browser fingerprint? Test your browser to see how well you are protected from tracking and fingerprinting.
Data Detox Kit
- An interactive guide that offers practical steps for reducing your digital footprint, protecting your privacy, and regaining control of your online presence.
Debit Card
An X account (not updated in eight years) reposting people's pictures of their debit cards
Google Ad Centre
- Log in to your Google account. Then click 'manage privacy' to see ad categories
Have I Been Pwned
- Check if your email address is in a data breach (created by a renowned security expert and is a widely used and trusted service)
I Know Where Your Cat Lives
- Geolocated publicly available cat pictures! The location is identified by using the picture metadata
Identity Theft Tool
- Test yourself — how aware are you about your risks of ID theft? You should be answering 'yes' to everything!
justdelete.me
- A useful directory of direct links to delete your account from web services and a rating of how easy it is to do so (ranging from easy to impossible)
My Activity - Google
- Sign in to review and manage what Google has stoed about your web browsing, including things you’ve searched for, websites you’ve visited, and videos you’ve watched
namecheckr
- Enter your commonly used handles to see where they are being used. This can help you discover old accounts you may have set up and then forgotten
Privacy Not Included
- A Mozilla Foundation (makers of the Firefox browser) guide reviewing the privacy features of various products and services. An excellent resource for learners who want to make informed decisions about the apps, devices, and services they use, understanding how these may affect their digital footprint.
Privacy Tools
- Provides services, tools and privacy guides to counter global mass surveillance
The Surveillance Game
- Shows in real time how what you do in a browser window is monitored by websites (caution: the odd swear word may be heard)
The Tech Talk
- Another Mozilla resource - this one aimed at parents, but useful for other Internet users
TOSDR
- Terms of Service; Didn't Read is a user rights initiative to rate and label website terms & privacy policies, from very good (Class A) to very bad (Class E).
Articles
10 Social Media Blunders That Cost a Millennial a Job — or Worse
- 10 real-life mistakes that could cost you your next job—or worse, make you the next viral cautionary tale.
Common Dark Patterns and How to Avoid Them
- Infographic showing the various types of dark patterns
Dark patterns, the tricks websites use to make you say yes, explained
- How design can manipulate and coerce you into doing what websites and not what you want
Doxxing Yourself on the Internet
- A tip sheet from the New York Times information security team to help you see what you, and others, can find about you. Includes some tips for Google searching
The Essential Guide to Securing Your Instagram Account
- Follow these steps to increase your account’s security and keep cyber criminals and scammers away
Everything Google knows about you and how to stop it!
- The short answer – A LOT. But you can stop them from collecting more, here’s how!
Facebook Privacy Settings: 18 changes you should make right away
- All you need to know to keep using the popular social network safely.
Here’s how you can see and delete your entire Google search history
- How to delete your Google search history
How to Delete Old Accounts Containing Personal Information
- From MacAfee AntiVirus, this article will walk you through the simplest ways to delete unwanted accounts from various social media platforms
How to see everything Facebook knows about you, and what you can do about it
- This guide will help you protect your Facebook privacy
How to stop location tracking on your Android phone (mostly)
- How to stop location tracking and how to delete your location history
How to turn off location on iPhone photos and videos
- Follow these steps to turn off the location for photos/videos on your iPhone
I've Been Hacked! Now What?
- The basic steps you need to perform to get your computer back to normal after you've been hacked
Managing Your Digital Footprint
- Advice from the Data Protection Commission
My Android Phone Was Hacked. How Do I Fix It?
- How to repair the damage (as much as possible) and get back to everyday life.
Apps, Browser Extensions and Search Engines
AdbBlock Plus
- A free browser extension for ad blocking
Brave
- A privacy-focused browser, which automatically blocks most advertisements and website trackers in its default settings. Brave has received some negative publicity for various missteps, including an undue focus on cryptocurrencies.
DuckDuckGo
- An American software company that offers a number of products intended to help people protect their online privacy., their flagship product is a search engine that has been praised by privacy advocates. They make browser extensions and have their own web browser, with both having web tracking protection.
Firefox
- A well-established browser with a focus on privacy - though does need some tweaking. For privacy, it is a lot better than Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Ghostery
- A browser extension that aims to block ads, stop trackers, hide ads, and prevent pop-ups while you browse the web
Privacy Badger
- A browser extension that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web
Proton Mail
- Proton Mail is an encrypted email service - so your messages are private
Signal
- A privacy-focused alternative to WhatsApp
Startpage
- Get Google's search results without Google's tracking
uBlock Origin
- Another, very powerful, free ad blocking extension. Highly recommended
Video
Amazing Mind Reader Reveals His "Gift"
- (Spoiler: He's not reading minds)
Digital Footprints - Your New First Impression
- Video on employers' use of social networking sites to screen candidates - rather old, but principles apply - pay attention to reasons why candidates were rejected!
What Your Digital Footprint Says About You
- Digital education and social media expert Nicola Osborne encourages us to tread carefully on social media and consider what our digital footprint might reveal about us.
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