Most people are completely unaware of the digital footprint which they leave behind when using internet. This module helps you to see your footprint, follow the breadcrumbs to the source and decide whether you wish to take any action with this.
You can read about the type of information that is captured by each site and then click the link to go to that site and follow the site-specific process to access your own data. This helps you to understand what information exists and to take any steps that you feel are necessary.
Note that these sites use your information to provide a service to you or to market your profile to other sites seeking clients with your profile.
At the bottom of the page we show the information you have left when viewing this page!
Google collects data on you via tracking cookies, plugins and a set of applications such as chrome browser, search page, Youtube, maps, playstore, drive, gmail and agenda. The quality and accuracy of the data can be very high.
Expect all your searches, a history of locations, watched or liked video’s on youtube and your agenda. The data is supplied via an email (which can take a day) and you can expand the data on your hard drive – note that this can be a very large file (1GB).
Some of the files are so large that you may need tools like Atom to browse it.
Microsoft
Microsoft is one of the most widely used operating systems on personal computers in the world. Microsoft has several applications that collect data: the Edge and Explorer browsers, search engine Bing and Windows operating system.
The data collected is focused on how a user uses the browser, search engine and Windows to improve performance. For the browser it would track the websites you visited, the search engine ‘words’ you searched and for windows the applications you use on your computer.
Apple
Apple has a widely used operating system for its own personal computers called macOS (Catalina) and iOS for devices such as the iPad and iPhone.
Widely used social media channel with extensive data collection and processing history.
Facebook knows you well, due to the fact that you provide Facebook with data about what and who you like. Facebook records this and provides you content tailored to your profile. This phenomenon is also called the ‘Facebook bubble’ as every user sees different data. The data includes location history, contacts address book, events, friends list, active groups, usage apps on phone, conversation history (Messenger).
LinkedIn collects data regarding your interests and relationships as a professional. This enables you to find and connect with likeminded people or companies. It also enables LinkedIn to provide advertisements based on your interests. Some information LinkedIn uses are your CV (profile), messages, contacts from mobile address book and people in your network.
Spotify
Spotify records the history of what music you listened to in order to provide you with recommendations of similar music or podcasts you might like. Does the kind of music describe what kind of person you are? Spotify collects the history of what you listened to which provides Spotify with a profile of you that is used to target you with advertisements (on free accounts).
Popular social media channel
Snapchat
Popular social media channel
Amazon
Shopping and other applications such as Alexa digital assistant and software suite.
Amazon shows which products you have purchased and your browsing history while looking for products. Based on this information new products are recommended.
Alexa gives voice data history information
And finally – when you browse to a website your browser supplies information about you which can be captured and stored. This information varies per browser and device combination so it is not consistent across platforms. There are applications which interpret this data to assess your wealth based on whether you are using a recent and high specification device.
Your IP address will also be supplied but this may be altered by a proxy server to protect you from unwanted hacking attempts. Your geographic location may be interpreted from the IP address or from other information if supplied in the browser.
Many browsers such as Firefox now block or limit the supply of unnecessary information to protect the user from unknowingly revealing data.
The IP address you are reporting is: 176.62.173.81
