It’s likely you’ve heard the term digital footprint and even more likely that you’ll have one. But what exactly is a digital footprint and how can you manage it more effectively? We explore what a digital footprint is, how you can manage it and the role computer scientists play in helping collect and protect user data.
Written by Grant Longstaff. Published 13 October 2025.
What is a digital footprint?
A digital footprint is a record of your online activity. The websites you visit, the music you stream, the items you buy, your Instagram posts, TikTok videos, likes and upvotes, all of it is captured and leaves a trail of your online activity. Digital footprints often fall into one of two categories, “active” and “passive”, and are collected through websites, apps and devices.
Active digital footprints
An “active” digital footprint often refers to the information you choose to share online. This includes your social media posts, photos, comments and likes, online reviews and online data capture forms.
Passive digital footprints
A “passive” digital footprint is much more subtle, and data is often collected without you knowing. This is everything from your internet history and website cookies to metadata and location data.
Why do digital footprints matter?
Digital footprints form a permanent record of our online actions. Our online activity leaves a digital trail and could have implications on our privacy and security, especially if the information is collected without your consent.
The data we share, whether we do so knowingly or not, can be exploited in several different ways. It could impact our personal lives, affect our professional ones and could be used by criminals in phishing scams, identity theft, fraud and more. Digital footprints also raise ethical questions on data collection. But, by understanding how our data is captured and used we can better manage our digital identities.
Protect your digital footprint
In an online world it’s difficult not to leave a digital footprint. However, there are some simple precautions you can take and changes you can make to your online behaviour to better protect your digital footprint.
Begin by Googling yourself to get an idea of the information out there. Use incognito mode and examine what you find. Your blog? Old Twitter posts? Embarrassing photos? If you can find them this easily then so can future employers. You can use this as a starting point to identify the content you need to remove, the accounts you need to put into privacy mode or even remove altogether. After all, you don’t want to miss out on a dream job because a potential employer Googled you and found your teenage poetry.
Protecting your digital footprint often comes down to adopting good online practices you’re likely already aware of:
- Check your privacy settings.
- Limit cookies.
- Keep social media accounts private and limit who can see them.
- Avoid unsafe websites.
- Hide or delete old accounts.
- Turn off location tracking.
- Limit app permissions.
- Use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Avoid linking accounts (such as signing into a service with Facebook) to limit the data organisations hold on your activity.
We also know there are instances when you might want or need an online public presence. You might need a LinkedIn account for job hunting or enjoy sharing book reviews on Instagram and TikTok. There’s no reason you can’t do this; just consider the information you’re sharing and regularly review what you’ve put out into the world. Consider creating personal and professional accounts and keep the two separate to reduce the personal data you share.
Your digital footprint is constantly changing and likely won’t go away. But, by considering what we share, how we interact with the internet and managing our online presence we can better ensure our information is protected.
Digital footprints and computer science
Everyone should understand how to protect their data. However, if you’re interested in a career within computing and technology you may need to consider digital footprints as part of your work.
A digital footprint is made possible in the first place by the tech, systems and algorithms developed by professionals in the field. As a computer scientist you’ll need to understand how these traces are created, stored, analysed and managed. This requires knowledge of computing principles, data structures and ethical and legal frameworks.
Depending on your role you might have to build and maintain systems which analyse digital footprints to deliver tailored experiences. You might analyse the digital traces left by users to detect suspicious activity and use the data to make systems more secure. Understanding how footprints are generated can allow you to design systems that minimise unnecessary data collection. This helps protect the privacy of a user and also means your employer complies with data protection laws.
Ultimately, computer scientists must consider how the systems they build handle data. The use of technology is expanding and the responsibility of companies and organisations to ensure transparency and accountability in the digital world is growing as a result.
If you’re interested in a career in tech, then our BSc (Hons) in Computer Science is the perfect degree for you.
