Digital Footprints

Our local television news did a report the other night, using the recent news about General Patraeus as a warning about the kinds of information we all leave behind in our email and social networks.

I can’t say that I necessarily learned anything new, after all, I do work for a company that made it’s name doing forensic investigations. I did think that perhaps the story would help those of us who aren’t surrounded by stories of what the techs who work for their company are capable of recovering from computers and smartphones, like I am, remember just how insecure most of the digital information we use on a daily basis, really is.

Personally, I try and keep this fact in mind whenever I’m writing an email, or posting private messages on social networks, or even using my phone to text. I know that anything I put in writing can come back to bite me, so I don’t put anything in writing that would bite me!

Of course that’s not always easy to do. We’re a very digital society now. We interact digitally much more than we interact in other forms. It’s incredibly convenient, effective, and helps us save important information in easy to access forms. That’s all a good thing, but don’t forget that this convenience does come at a cost. Those digital communications may be very effective, but they are not necessarily private.

It pays to keep that in mind at all times.

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