A digital footprint can significantly impact an individual’s right to privacy. As people engage with online platforms, they leave behind a trail of data that includes their browsing history, social media activity, online purchases, and more. This data can be collected, analyzed, and used by various entities, such as advertisers, social media platforms, and even malicious actors. As a result, individuals may experience targeted advertising, potential data breaches, or even identity theft. Furthermore, the aggregation of this data can lead to the creation of detailed profiles, which may infringe upon an individual’s privacy and autonomy. For instance, these profiles can be used to make decisions about a person’s eligibility for certain opportunities, such as employment or financial services, without their knowledge or consent.
To illustrate, imagine your digital footprint as a series of footprints in the sand at the beach. Each footprint represents a different online activity, such as a social media post, an online purchase, or a search query. Now, imagine that someone is carefully following these footprints, collecting information about you and using it to make assumptions and decisions about your preferences, behaviors, and even your eligibility for certain opportunities. This intrusion into your personal space and the use of your digital footprints without your consent can significantly impact your privacy and sense of control over your own information.
Please note that the provided answer is a brief overview; for a comprehensive exploration of privacy, privacy-enhancing technologies, and privacy engineering, as well as the innovative contributions from our students at Carnegie Mellon’s Privacy Engineering program, we highly encourage you to delve into our in-depth articles available through our homepage at https://privacy-engineering-cmu.github.io/.
Author: My name is Aman Priyanshu, you can check out my website for more details or check out my other socials: LinkedIn and Twitter