netlingo - digital footprint definition

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I have provided an update for netlingo, if you want to update their terms the contact is Erin Jansen (Author+Founder)

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A digital footprint is the record of your interactions with the digital world and how the data that is left behind can be exploited. The interactions and data that create the digital footprint includes:

(1) The content a user leaves about themselves and the content that others leave about the user in the web. The user generated data and content includes blogs, comments left on public sites, photo's or a profile uploaded and content a user creates on a social networking site. The content left by other is the move from a user as a single individual to that user being part of the social group.

(2) Explicit data from the interactions a user has with the web. This is where a users activities is captured, the types of details captured include web pages viewed, the frequency of visits along with the intervals between them, clicks, the time spent on each page, interactions with forms, landing pages, and downloadable content. In reality every click, mouse move, keystroke and interaction with the web (from a PC or mobile) can be captured and stored.

(3) Implicit data or implied data such as IP address, who the ISP is, attention, location (physical and derived), reputation, context, call records, routes and routines, liking, friending, burst data, behavior, and linking this (meta) data to other data.

Digital footprints are made up from extremely personal and private data and is subject to strict privacy laws which provide strong protection for the user. The analysis of data is where the value lies and that value comes from behavioral analysis, profiling, targeting, prospecting, normalizing, group profiling, feature profiles, benefit trades and determination of who influences you and who you influence.

Finally the phase "digital footprint" is also used in two further contexts, the first is by companies or individuals trying to show which geographies or markets their digital services is offered, as in "Our Digital Footprint," and by companies taking about the actual size of a digital device, where "footprint" means area.