Last December, The Pew Internet & American Life Project put out the results of a provocative survey entitled Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency.
Compiled by Mary Madden, Susannah Fox, Aaron Smith, et. al., you can view a PDF of the Digital Footprint report here. The survey spotlighted the question "Are internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprints." Respondents revealed:
* 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago.
However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity.
* Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it.
* 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.
* Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available
about them online.
* Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of
information that can be found about them online.
I found the survey provocative not because we have digital footprints but more importantly, not many people are thinking about it.
Indeed, most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit, govern or direct that information.
Active Digital footprints are one thing. Your passive digital footprint, or digital shadow, however, is an even more obscure set of data and quite another thing altogether. It may include things like:
* your high school or elementary school photo
* your prescription medicines - uploaded for storage by pharmacists
* your driver's license records
* zabasearch records
* your college transcripts
* your charitable organizations memberships
* races or competitions you have been registered in
* boats, trains and other forms of transportation you have used
* tax records
* mortgage records
* voter records
* PTA and school newsletter mentions
and most importantly, for our discussion, your tweets and your @replies.
Better search your exact Twitter user name right now and every twitpic that has your @name attached to it, like this one of me I found on page 1 of a google search. Fortunately, it was put up by a friend and basically with permission but in the Age of Transparency there will be great loss of privacy. I know of quite a handful of online photos that are up on Twitter and the person in the photo is unaware of their existence, much less their searchablity.
We should also likely check out our accounts at Dodgeball, Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, Spoink and a list of others.
The Age of Transparency is upon us. Accountablity vs. loss of privacy? What are the pros and cons for you?
Aaron Smith, active digital footprint, digital footprints, digital shadow, Google, Mary Madden, passive digital footprint, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Pew Research, Susannah Fox, Tagging, tweets, Twitpic twitter
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
WOW! That’s quite a lot to consider when we have all been so used to getting to choose how private we want our lives to be.
One way I think this might not be an altogether bad thing is that it may hopefully realize the importance of being the same person on the inside as we are on the outside! Even though we may think we are alone and nobody is watching, we really are not alone and lots of people are watching.
Scary in one way, maybe a good thing in another.
Just my thoughts.
Paul - yes, the good thing is the accountability inherent in transparency. In the next many months our lives will continue to be streamed online and that alone creates an accountability we’ve never experienced before. Youth, in particular, find status updates normative.
On the other hand, those who twitter their lives including personal info - medical conditions (ie - had my CAT scan today), financial information (ie - finished my taxes on time), job & co-worker details (ie - here’s a photo of my boss during a meeting), children’s names (ie - full names), etc. may want to “undo” their stream in the future. Oops!!
The ability to erase our digital shadows, esp. medical info, may become increasingly important in the seasons ahead.
Somebody, somewhere, is about to make a boatload of money creating a “digital ghost busters” field of work!
To be honest, I have mixed feelings on this. The immediate ‘kneejerk’ reaction is to be appalled - but when I think more deeply, it seems to me that increasingly we are going to be living our lives streamed online. I suspect in ten years we’ll look back and laugh that we were ever really bothered by issues like these.
Thanks for raising this Cynthia, and for the link to a very interesting piece of work
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