Have you ever come across an advertisement while scrolling through social media that seems uncannily relevant to you? Does your phone, email account, or radio show give you ads as if someone was listening to you in the privacy of your own home?  If this is the case, you may be concerned about the digital trail that you are leaving.

The data trail you leave behind when you use the internet is known as a digital footprint. It includes websites visited, emails sent, and information submitted online. A person’s online activities and devices can be tracked, and internet users can consciously or unconsciously leave digital traces. When we share content about a topic we like, we are aware that the information is being publicly shared because we want to show our interest in that.

However, there are many other activities we do online for which we are unaware of who is watching. What specifics are we revealing? Who is being the audience? What information do applications, businesses, and even governments have about us? If you use social media frequently or deal with sensitive personal issues, you may be concerned about how your online behavior can be tracked and used against you.

Google and Facebook are well known for violating the privacy of users, and their business model depends on it.  However, they are far from alone.  Big Tech in general makes money by building an elaborate digital profile on you, whether you like it or not.  Digital data is also frequently used by unidentified third parties, who have access to the data of users without their express consent. Additionally, even while users could consent to give a website a certain data type, the combination of several data types from numerous different websites enables third parties to employ powerful data analytics, and therefore they can draw extremely detailed conclusions about sensitive aspects of people’s lives. Such practices increase commercial and state surveillance.

The good news is there are steps we can take to protect our privacy. Our Russia private investigators’ team goes over a few techniques to reduce your digital trace:

Block location-based services

Numerous apps use your location to deliver ads and search results that are more accurate to their targeted audience, romance. Your visited places are regularly saved by Google Maps. Your location might also be being passively used in the background by applications you were not even aware they were using this data. Regularly check your phone’s settings for location permissions and turn them off for every application when not in use or not required. Most of the time, geo-location data is not going to be useful to you and will instead provide more information about yourself to the wrong people.

Use caution when sharing on social media and dating apps

Keep an eye on what you post on social media and the Internet. It is important to be wary not only about sensitive topics but also about private data (address, ID, family info, etc). Be mindful of who sees your posts. Review your friends and followers on a regular basis, and keep your privacy settings as high as possible. As a general rule, do not post any sensitive data or information that you would not want to share with strangers. Even if you post it in a private group with the strictest privacy settings, your friends and followers may share it with their network, or their accounts may be compromised. Keep in mind that dating apps and websites also keep track of your activities, and romance scammers in Russia continue to be some of the most successful in extracting private information and selling it online.  The less you share online, the safer you are.

Encrypted messaging and other steps

Regardless of whether it is for personal or work purposes, always try to use a secure messaging app that uses end-to-end encryption, meaning that the messages cannot be intercepted and decoded, even by governments.  For private email, there is Protonmail, and for private messaging, there is Signal and Wire.  For better search engines that offer privacy, try DuckDuckGo.  When forced to share your address, try getting a PO box and always use a junk or throw-away email address to share with organizations.

C. Wright

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