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Take care of the shadow from youth



By reading this material, you have already left your mark on the digital universe. Information about your current location or operating system used is stored in the global data array and can be used both for good purposes and by annoying advertisers or intruders.

Let’s make a reservation right away, to remain completely “unnoticed” without leaving digital traces at all is impossible today. Whatever you do using your smartphone or laptop, your moves are constantly recorded. Moreover, the source of important information can be not only a priori “smart devices” - “Yandex station” or “smart watches”, but also, for example, a “smart” refrigerator, a fitness tracker or a metro travel ticket. The number of your personal digital footprints is growing with each passing day, forming together your “digital shadow” - a digital “portrait” of your personality. A portrait pretty close to the original.

Big data


Your "digital shadow" and digital footprints are the source and main component of Big Data, an integral part of the consumer society in the era of modern IT technologies, social networks and mass media. Big Data is a combination of technologies for obtaining, storing and processing information, both structured and unstructured, in the first place, those same information traces. The commercial use of Big Data began about 10 years ago, and the first who mastered the application of this technology were, of course, technology companies - Google, Yandex, Yahoo, and then Facebook, Ebay, Amazon, VKontakte and others. The ability to process digital tracks allowed these businesses to reach a new level of awareness of the needs of customers and customers, often surpassing even the capabilities of intelligence services.

Sources of information for Big Data are almost all human actions in the information environment. These are search and analytics systems (Google Analytics, Yandex.Metrica), social networks, contact data capture points (sites, mobile applications, etc.), data stored in cash, Internet of things (Internet-of-things, or data exchanged between various “smart” devices) and much more.

Big data is used by government agencies, in research and strategic forecasting, by business to build the right sales strategy or advertising campaign. Your digital footprints and the results obtained on their basis. Big data on the output gives, for example, business decisions such as personalization of product offers on the network, content on websites or in applications, and e-mail newsletters. As they improve, these technologies will be even more widely applied in such areas as, for example, healthcare, transport infrastructure and security, agriculture, etc.

Digital footprint


Big data also makes our life on the Internet easier and eliminates the pangs of consumer choice and some information noise. However, our digital footprint is used not only to build useful algorithms for good purposes. It’s quite easy to get access to your “digital shadow” by your ill-wishers, competitors, intruders or government agencies. Having thus acquired information that is not accessible during the usual collection of information, they are able to cause you great trouble. Once in the worldwide network, your photos, comments and unencrypted correspondence will remain there forever, and interested parties will find any information they need about you: where you live, where you work and how much you earn, how you spend your leisure time, where you like to relax, what goods you buy, what you like to drink and eat, what kind of music you listen to - almost everything,anything.

Take, for example, the situation with your transactions or bank card payments. Firstly, many banks give SMS-mailing services to third parties that collect data about your income and amounts and expense items. Secondly, in the course of transactions, the bank receives from the outlet a lot of additional data on the operation - date, time, type of goods, etc. And with the help of these data you can calculate where you live, what stores you visit, where you work, where your relatives live. , your work schedule, a movement map, and even your lover or chronic illness. Let's say in the morning you made a purchase at a store near your home (daily schedule, shopping preferences), filled the car on the way to work (movement map), made transactions at work (place of work),after work we stopped at a pharmacy near the house for medicines and diapers (work schedule, illness, presence of a young child). Or you can spend more on purchases than comes to the card for a salary project, which indicates that you have undeclared income and so on.

Agree, comprehensive information. Subsequently, these data often leak to the side, transferred or sold. And it’s good if they fall into the hands of marketers and advertisers, and not special services, tax authorities or scammers.

Another example is the definition of your social circle based on digital traces in social networks. Even if you do not indicate, for example, the school where you studied or your place of work, interested people can still calculate your social connections through a friends card (30% of your friends are from school No. X, and 40% work in Bank Y, respectively , according to this information, we can assume where you studied and work) and, again, use this information for your own selfish purposes.

Network "hygiene"


Is it possible to protect oneself from such scenarios, or at least minimize their likelihood? It is possible, but only in part. The principle is simple - the less you leave digital tracks online, and the less you are “interesting” to outsiders, the more safe you are. Here's what you can do to keep your identity intact:

  • when registering on social networks, on sites and in applications, use temporary or specially created for this purpose phone number and email address;
  • Do not disclose in open sources the e-mail that you use when registering accounts on social networks;
  • if possible, make private your profiles and lists of friends;
  • Clear the browser cache
  • prohibit the storage of cookies (with their help you can trace the history of web surfing);
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  • VPN VPN ;
  • - Tor;
  • ( , keylogger', «» -);
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All these methods are useful and reduce the likelihood of unauthorized use of your data, but do not guarantee 100% of the result. The only way to avoid this is to get rid of your computer and phone and completely eliminate interaction with the world wide network. You must admit that the path is radical and far from suitable for everyone.

It is much more logical to use the listed rules of network “hygiene”, but do not try to completely get rid of your digital shadow, but create its positive image and use it for your own good. The fact is that a significant part of modern employers, educational institutions, competitors, or simply your future partners in your personal life, conduct a so-called reputation analysis before dealing with you. Your social profiles, comments, your activities are being studied, and employers are asked to provide links to your accounts on social networks.

Moreover, state bodies and special services have long and systematically been moving towards what can be arbitrarily called a system of social profiles - this is a full-scale dossier for every citizen, created just on the basis of existing databases and digital tracks. Agree that in both cases, the complete absence of a digital shadow or its negative nature will not add you pluses.

Therefore, it is best to gradually and consistently create your positive image in the digital universe. For any action on the network, think about the consequences, act anonymously wherever the logic prompts, emphasize your positive qualities, and monitor your reputation. Correcting your negative image on the network is extremely difficult, it means creating your positive network image, a bright “digital shadow” is better from the very first steps in the global information network.

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