A Digital Footprint is a data trail left by interactions in a digital environment including the use of television, mobile phones, the world wide web, the internet and other connected devices and sensors. Digital footprint provides data on what has been preformed in the digital environment, and that data can be used in behavioral targeting & economics, personalisation, targeted marketing, digital reputation, social influence and social media or social graphing services. In Social Media a digital footprint can refer to the size of a persons “online presence” measured by the number of individuals by whom they interact. (Wikipedia)

Whenever you click, search, like, share, tweet etc. you deepen your digital footprint even further, your location, IP address, what you have said online and what others have said online about you is the sort of data that is used in targeting and marketing.

Our Young Minds Online Transition Year course provides tasks for teenagers to carry out so through best practice they can learn more about their digital footprint.

Jillian O’Toole