Digital footprint and security

Lisa Pook shares some of her top tips to take control of your own data …

Since working for Techrelate, I have become more aware about my online presence and decided I should get my own housekeeping in order when it comes to security, not only online security but to reduce the amount of information that Google is storing on me aka my digital footprint.  

This weekend I looked at my history of searches, passwords and card details in Google. I was shocked. Google had been storing so much of my personal information that I decided to purge some of it. 

Below are some actions that you can take to reduce your footprint, stop Google remembering all your info and have a simple life! 

 

 

Online search history 

If you to type in ‘Techrelate, IT Insights’ for example, Google will remember that I’ve visited this page before and suggest it. This is sometimes helpful. I decided to look at my cache and see my browsing history … it was extensive. I like plants and the amount of plants I have looked at in the past few months was incredible. Why does Google need to save all of this … is it useful for me or for them? Reports have said that Google logs ALL of our information … there are court cases over it. I want to be safe, rather than sorry.  There are two options to purge your search history. You can look at ‘simple browsing data’ and ‘advanced browsing data’. I chose to clear all.  

  • As well as clearing my search history, I’ve also switched my phone browser to ‘private mode’ and have cleared my browsing history on my laptop, which is something that I will now do on a regular basis. Clearing it took ages … make a cup of tea, get a glass of something nice for this phase! 134 forms had saved my auto fill details such as address phone number etc.  

 

Credit card details 

Your web browser can store your credit card details and fill them in whenever you want.  In the Chrome web browser on a PC, Mac, Android device, or Chromebook, you can enter payment methods that Chrome will remember these and offerthem to you automatically.  

I really hated the fact that my computer / Google was remembering my card payment details, although I had changed cards. I’m sure I never clicked on the ‘save details’ but I must have …  

  • To check your details open Chrome and click Menu > Settings > Payment Methods and delete as necessary.  

 

Passwords 

Next I started wondering how many passwords my wonderful laptop / Google have remembered. You know those times, when you click ‘remember password’ as you can’t be bothered to write another one down?   

  • I went to the password section of Google chrome (3 dots, advanced setting). It showed me that my laptop had remembered 56 passwords! I went through them and deleted as necessary. By going through this process, I also started to look at how many sites I am linked to, even if I had forgotten they existed. I chose to shut them down, i.e. recruitment websites, blogs etc.  These are now all gone. Hurrah! 
  • Now I am using a password manager to stop my brain melt from remembering umpteen passwords and to make all of my accounts more secure.  Last Pass is a great app which you can use online or on your smartphone. I’ve reset all of my passwords.  

 

Personalisation of searches 

I thought to myself that I do not want personalised searches i.e. if you type one thing, a series of things come up that are linked. I switched this off. 

  • I learnt very quickly that you should not tell YouTube to stop personalising, or you will have to find your own tunes!  

 

Can Google forget me? 

If you want the Google search engine and other related products to remove you from searches, this is now possible if you are in the EU.   

 

If you want to look at your own digital footprint, try the above. If you want help with reducing your business footprint or measures for your staff to take, please get in touch.