What Is An Internet Footprint?

Watch what you say online – because other people certainly are! Maybe even your boss. There are no laws on the books as of yet regarding “snooping” into other people’s Internet Footprints, taking sneak peeks inside their minds by way of the feelings, comments, thoughts, and ideas they’ve posted of their own accorded on the internet.

Think about it – posting anything online is akin to publishing it, and once you’ve voluntary put yourself out there like that, anyone with any intentions is free to see it, and interpret, and respond to it in any way they wish. Anyone can track your internet footprint all the way to your front door. Put another way, your internet footprint reveals to anyone who wishes to know, the inner workings of your heart and mind. That’s a lot of power to give to a stranger, much less several million of them.

If you have a website – or a blog – you have an internet footprint. If you have a MySpace, Facebook, or Friendster account, or a membership with any website, for that matter (even a Free one) – you have left behind an internet footprint. If you write User Reviews or leave comments on Member Forums; if you visit chat rooms or post photos or digital home movies; everything you “say” and “do” online is recorded somewhere and contributes to the development of your internet footprint.

Prospective employers can look up your internet footprint in a background check and use it to help base their decision on whether to hire you or not. An attorney in a lawsuit can uncover seemingly benign information about your personality and proclivities, and spin it to defame your character on the stand. A college admission’s board can use it to help influence their decision on whether or not to accept you or your son or daughter into their program. A prospective mate can use it to determine whether or not to continue dating you.

There are any number of ways your internet footprint can be used against you. All somebody has to do is enter your name into a search engine (maybe with a couple quote marks “” around it) and voila! Your whole trail through the internet is theirs to see.

The lesson here, however, is not to stay off the internet entirely. That’s overkill - rash and unnecessary, not to mention virtually impossible these days. The internet is a wonderful tool and we should avail ourselves of its multidinous resources endlessly. The lesson here is this, and it’s twofold:

1. Use the internet wisely – be conscious of what you choose to post (and not post) on the internet; assume that anyone can and will be reading it, and ask yourself if someone who doesn’t give a darn about you personally could find a way to take advantage of you based on what you’ve revealed;

2. Buy, install, and use a top quality PC privacy program to hep eradicate all traces of your personal information from your hard drive.

The former will help minimize theimpact and potential backlash of your internet footprint. The latter will keep the most confidential of information stored on your computer from falling into the wrong hands.