What a digital footprint is and how to get rid of it
Your digital footprint is a term that refers to all the activity, data, interactions, and relationships across the internet that can be associated with your unique identity. In essence, it’s the sum of everything you do and have done online.
The larger your digital footprint, the less privacy you have. The larger your digital footprint, the more vulnerabilities there are for bad actors online to compromise your security. The larger your digital footprint, the less control you have over how and where your personal information appears on the internet.
How long does your digital footprint last?
Technically, forever. Companies and websites track what you do online–from the ads you click to the information you share when you fill out a form. Some of the most aggressive hoarders of data–like X–might even track things like the other apps you have. Technically, that information can be stored indefinitely. Either until you delete an account or until you pester their support team long enough. More often than not, though, that information is spread and shared.
Vendors often sell your data, though they like to hide that information by claiming they “share” your information to support advertising strategies. Zoom, for example, was under fire for some of their aggressive data-sharing practices, and while they’ve since amended their privacy policy to note that they do not use your data to train AI models, they still use your data for “Product Research and Development” and “Marketing and Promotions.” So the TL;DR here is that they easily sell and share your data.
According to the New York Times, “In most states, companies can use, share, or sell any data they collect about you without notifying you that they’re doing so.” The U.S. lacks a standard law around what can be sold and whether they must notify you.
Everything from your height and weight to pages of information can be tracked, sold, and stored online without your knowledge. Sure, privacy policies exist, but who reads those? (Don’t worry–we read them, and we’re compiling everything in our Account Deletion Directory).
Where is your digital footprint stored?
Your digital footprint is spread out over the internet. It’s not stored in a single location; because so many vendors have access to your data, your digital footprint is all around us. It’s in online databases, the Cloud, cookies on your browser, user logs or posts on social media sites, and pretty much everywhere else.
Does deleting accounts delete your digital footprint?
Your digital footprint isn’t just something you can erase by deleting a single subscription or email. To get rid of it, you would need to first identify all your online accounts, delete the accounts you don’t want online and, in certain cases, request that your information be removed.
Twitter, now known as X, can delete your account, but your public Tweets may still be visible on third-party search engines:
Keep in mind that search engines and other third parties may still retain copies of your public information, like your profile information and public Tweets, even after you have deleted the information from our services or deactivated your account. Learn more here.
Zoom, on the other hand, gives you the right to request your information be erased, but in order to do that, you need to fill out a form and request that your account be deleted.
But what happens to all the accounts you don’t even know about? The hundreds of stores you shopped at last year? The apps you logged into once and forgot about, then deleted from your phone?
Having just a single account online can increase your security risk, but most people have more than 150 accounts. Many of those are long forgotten. If you want to reduce your digital footprint, start by seeing those accounts in one place.
Yorba can find and aggregate all these accounts in one place so you can easily reduce your digital footprint. No customer support chats required.
How Yorba helps you manage and reduce your digital footprint
Finds the accounts you forgot about so those vendors can get added to your list
Displays any data breaches you’ve been exposed to and how to take action
Alerts you when you have newly created accounts or increases in subscription fees
Provides a Digital Weight Loss Plan that lets you track and manage your cleanup goals
Ready to reduce your digital footprint one action at a time? Join Yorba, and let’s make the internet way less annoying.
