What is a Positive and Negative Digital Footprint?

Positive and Negative digital footprint are the parts of digital footprint. A digital footprint is nothing but a digital shadow that means when someone visits a website and sends information online they leave a trail of information. In this article, we will cover a brief explanation of positive and negative digital footprints.

Here are the steps that increase your online presence on social media-

• Make sure to post relevant content on social media such as Instagram that is not annoying to someone or does not violate the policy. Relevant content helps us to create a positive image on social media platforms or online.
• Make your social media photo professional, it increases your followers.
• Make your social media profile attractive. Add achievements, and qualifications to your social media profile.
• Avoid using hurtful language that hurts the audience in social media.

A negative digital footprint means as the name suggests “negative” It reflects your negative image or damages your reputation either on Google or social media platforms. For Example- If you post drug-related, or any posts that violate social media policy it will decrease your reputation and make a negative impression in online searches.

• It will impact your career and college admissions.
• It decreases your followers on social media.
• It decreases your chances of getting a job and promotion to the company.
• Posting sensitive information on social media gives the privilege of hackers to steal your sensitive information and blackmail you.
• It spoils your career.

Here are the negative consequences of your digital footprint-

• Hackers can steal your identity and misuse your data in that case don’t share your personal information on any web or social media platforms.
• There is the chance of hackers hacking your email accounts.
• Unprofessional photos, hurtful posts, and negative comments will damage your online reputation.
• A negative digital footprint disqualified you from the college application process either in India or Another country.
• If children not taking precautions they might be at risk. Educate your children about online safety.
• Hackers might damage you for financial losses they send to the link to log in to the bank account in that case they steal your credentials and withdraw your money.

Here are the strategies to protect digital footprint-

• The first strategy to protect your digital footprint is to search yourself online, it will give you the results related to your profile.
• The second strategy is to delete your social media accounts that you have not used in past years or are not currently active.
• Next is to use a strong password in your account so that hackers do not misuse your information.
• Don’t use a similar password for every social media account. for ex- you use xyz@234 in your Instagram account and on LinkedIn you use xyz@234.
• Update your apps or software.
• Use a VPN to secure your data and protect your IP address.
• Never share your username and password with anyone. Use a password manager tool that creates a strong password so that hackers do not steal your credentials.

Here are the examples of positive digital footprint-

• The first example of a positive digital footprint is to create an impressive profile on social media that includes a professional photo that reflects your positive image and increases your presence on social media.

• The second example of a positive digital footprint is in the hiring scenario in organizations. Many hiring managers mostly shortlist and find the people on LinkedIn, naukri.com, indeed. Make sure to create an impressive or attractive profile by adding a professional photo, educational summary, skills, and project details that increase the chance of selection and to reflects the positive image.

Here are the examples of negative digital footprint-

• The first example of a negative digital footprint is to someone posts content that disrespects the religion and hurts the audience leading to a negative impact on the social media.

• The second example is to change your identity on social media platforms your name is John and you have graduated from ABC Institute but you created a profile on social media and wrote the name Alex in place of your original name such as John and put the institute name XYZ institute in place of ABC institute in that case you reflects a negative image in the social media with your wrong identity.

Here are the steps that you follow to manage your digital footprint-

• Check your identity online by just searching your name in Google, opera, and Yahoo and setting an alert by your name so that Google gives you a notification related to you if something comes up on the internet or online.
• Use only the accounts that used recently and delete the accounts that you have not used. Accounts such as any social media accounts, Gmail accounts.
• Make sure to update your profile because it reflects your positive image.
• Don’t put any sensitive information in the social media posts.
• Maintain your settings on social media such as Facebook, Instagram. For ex- if someone sees your post, make sure to update settings so that you can see who sees your post.
• Avoid sharing passwords and sensitive information with anyone.

Digital footprint has both the ends positive digital footprint and negative digital footprint that represent both the good and bad side of digital footprint. A positive digital footprint increases your online reputation while a negative digital footprint decreases your online reputation.

What are the negative side of digital footprint?

Here are the negative side of digital footprint-

• Don’t share annoying information on social media because it damages your online reputation.
• Companies reject your application if there is wrong with your identity when they search online.
• Don’t violate the policies in the company or social media. Let’s say someone writes the content and shares it on Instagram and you just copy the content and paste it in Instagram by your identity. It will negatively impact your reputation and decrease your followers.

What is electronic footprint?

Electronic footprint also known as digital footprint refers to the chunk of information that you leave such as visiting a website and sending data online while using the internet.

What is active and passive digital footprint?

Active and passive digital footprints are the types of digital footprints. In an active digital footprint, users share the post on social media or we can say the data submitted online. In a passive digital footprint, the user isn’t aware of the things happening such as the person who visited the website and information saved in the website such as how many times the user visits the website.