Your Digital Footprint Life's not about all the steps you've taken, or all the places you have been, it's about the footprints you leave behind.
Your Digital Footprint
Life's not about all the steps you've taken, or all the places you have been, it's about the footprints you leave behind.
Your Footprint
• Is the trail you leave behind in all of your online activities
• Is created by TV, internet, cellular phones, banking data, scan cards, security cameras etc.
• Some parts of your footprint are available publicly by searching the internet, others can be found using other, more difficult methods
• Can affect your education, career, reputation, privacy and safety
• Can be good or bad
Think about the Consequences
Examining YOUR Footprint
Take the test above to find out how big your footprint is. Read the information along the way, it will help you complete the activity in your student workbook.
Your Future at Stake
Read and discuss this article together as a class. How can the actions of you and your friends online now impact your future education?
A True Story
Alexandra Wallace, a third-year political science student at UCLA, posted a video rant to YouTube about the Asian students she had encountered in the library during her exams week. Underestimating the inappropriateness of her timing (the massively fatal earthquake and tsunami in Japan had occurred only days earlier), her handling of the sensitive subject matter and the size of her viewing audience, Alexandra's reputation tanked overnight. Despite quickly deleting her video from YouTube after the onslaught of comments and phone calls began, others had already copied and re-posted it from their accounts in droves. Cyberbullies found her home address and sent hatemail and death threats. They called her so frequently that she had to change her number multiple times. They flooded her YouTube inbox with response videos and verbal attacks.
Since then, she's had to withdraw from school, move back in with her parents and and go into hiding. A simple Google search for "Alexandra Wallace" returns 11,800,000 results, and unfortunately for her, they're mostly negative. What should Alexandra have thought about before posting that video? How and to what extent has her future been impacted by her digital footprint?
Making Smart Choices
Choice Smart Choice
• Inapprop
riate
Pictures (
illegal
activities
, rude
gestures
, limited
clothing)
•Complaints
about school,
boss parents
• Bad language
• No privacy or security settings
• Inappropriate friends’ pictures or comments• Liking or following negative
sites/applications
• Picture
s
enjoying
sports,
arts,
culture
etc.
• Positive comments about you made by others• Online trail of your dedication to causes or charities • Pos
itive stat
us
updates
• Personal
information
hidden by
privacy settings
• Accolades and Awards
• “Following” desired
employer or school
SMART NOT SO
Everything you do with technology is tracked, before you visit a site, post, upload, download or share think. Would you…
…want your parents to see it…want your grandma to see…your teachers?…your school admission officer?…your boss?…your spouse?
Once you put something out there, you can’t take it back.
THINK BEFORE YOU SHARE!