Digital and physical footprint a lawyers perspective
would you be surprised
if i told you that there’s not only the
internet
that knows everything about us there are
tons of personal information
laying just outside your house in your
waste container too
hi my name is migle i’m data protection
and information technology lawyer and
today
i will tell you about two types of
traces you leave behind yourself
it’s digital and physical footprint
how this information is and how it can
be used
and is there anything we can do about it
so first
let’s talk about digital footprint it’s
all the stuff you leave behind yourself
while you use the internet
everybody has digital footprint believe
me
this is not an exaggeration we are
becoming increasingly defined
not even mentioned valued by our
digital reputations and this trend is
only going to continue further
as more and more information about us
becomes available online
and searchable it may come as a surprise
for you but your digital
footprint may be permanent it is
currently easier
and cheaper to store this data than it
is to
find it and delete it therefore
for every one of your online actions
whether they’re deliberate or
unintentional
whether they are positive or negative
there is
a permanent record so this is probably
the right place and time
where you would expect me a data
protection lawyer
to speak about the right to be forgotten
under the eu gdpr
general data protection regulation well
what can i say
you have a right to forget about this
right
no seriously it only applies in a very
limited number of cases
and it has much more limitations and
exceptions
than use cases for example
you opted to receive direct marketing
emails
or to put it more simply newsletters and
then
you no longer wish to receive them
that is when the right to be forgotten
comes into play
but not all the controllers and not all
the providers must grant you which such
right
as i mentioned there are much more
exceptions and limitations than
use cases what is even more important
is that not only the internet but also
the society
has memory lithuanian audience may
remember the scandal where two very
famous basketball players
had an advertising contract with one of
the telecommunication companies
but it backed fired due to their long
forgotten but not forgiven rape
accusation scandals
even though all the prosecution terms
have long expired
the facts keep lifting back to the
surface again and again
and it would probably not happen if not
for the almighty
internet and now you may say
i’m not a famous basketball player i’m
not a social media star
i’m not an influencer so this in no way
concerned me
and no such data could be collected
about me
are you sure there are two things i need
to tell you
first of all digital footprint may be
classified
into two very broad categories it’s
active
and passive digital footprints so which
means that
when there is an active digital
footprint you yourself deliberately give
the information but there is also a
passive digital footprint which means
that
the information could be collected
without the person even
knowing that this is happening for
example
you may have heard from other ted talks
that information
is started to be gathered as soon as a
woman announces that she had a baby
so obviously the child himself or
herself
did not create a profile within facebook
so far
but facebook already registers it as
one more user and starts collecting such
information
that is why it is very very important
but also what is even more important is
that there is not
only digital footprint but physical
footprint as well
a physical footprint is something that
you step on the ground
and leave a mark of yourself as a trace
of your physical being
but i have a deeper notion of it in mind
and let me tell you a story to
illustrate this
a year ago i was moving out from one
house to the other
and i had to throw away a lot of stuff
we did not use anymore
so one morning near the containers i saw
a homeless guy who has been a sort of
friend of mine for a few years then
we used to give him some food leftovers
we did not consume or
clothes my husband does not wear anymore
and
he used to help me clean my car’s front
window on some
harsh and cold winter morning so we had
a certain connection
the morning we met he asked
are you moving out and i was really
surprised by that question
because he did not seem like a spy who
would sit under my balcony and
eavesdrop for my personal conversations
but it appears he was going through my
waist container
and he found a lot of coffee and tea not
used for many many years
so he realized that some kind of high
level cleanup is going on
also digging deeper he found the draft
blank
sales pages agreement of the real estate
which put all the things into one
perspective
he realized i was moving out and he was
right
what a smart guy merely by looking into
the items i threw away
he made a meaningful conclusion
but let me tell you that you do not need
a homeless friend
to realize how physical footprint works
one artist made an exhibition of 3d
portraits
of people whose dna she found
on discarded cigarette butts and chewed
up gum
on the streets of new york so she
analyzed the found dna
to figure out the gender and ethnicity
and some likely traits like likely size
of their
nose or likely eye color or likely hair
color
and use the phase generating software
and a 3d printer
and created the speculative series of
their portraits
so you see it is really wise to consider
what data
you leave behind yourself
you may ask why is it important and that
is a very good question
it may have really really very different
use of using this information so it
though those purposes may be really good
ones and some of them
may be not so good for example the good
ones include
the fraudulent activities may be tracked
down using your digital footprint
the companies may recommend items for
their users
which are based on their preferences so
it boils down to everything personalized
which gives you better experience
also recruiters can find the right
candidates for
job positions using their footprint
i really like the idea of tim kendall
who is the former executive
of pinterest and facebook which he
expressed in the movie
the social dilemma where he said that
it is really easy to lose sight that
those platforms
have created really wonderful things in
the world
they have reunited lost family members
they have found organ donors so there
are meaningful and systematic changes
happening around the world
just because of digital platforms and
he’s totally right
they can be really beneficial some claim
that
the benefits only lay on the shoulders
of the tech giants
that they’re some kind of selling the
data
but i really do not believe that it’s in
their best business interest to sell
such data
it’s not in their interest that the
users do not trust them with their data
what do they do with it as mr kendall
said
in the same movie they simply built
models based on this data
which predicts our actions and that is
why this data becomes
really valuable
but there may be really really a much
more serious threats
for example your passwords can be
figured out
your bank accounts could be broken into
your personal information could be
shared online
it may have serious repercussions on
teen’s life for example in miss job
opportunities
shared personal information or even
ruined relationships
so it can have really really very
negative consequences therefore
we have to be very cautious when we
share our data
but where we have to be even more
critical is when we
consume this data
people these days spend a lot of time
online
they click they read they watch certain
types of videos
they connect to like-minded people and
that is when their site becomes
really narrow as jana stern wrote on the
wall street journal
they end up in their own personalized
version of reality
and as she said they end up in certain
rabbit holes
i would even add that they may even end
up
breaking into the u.s capital
is there anything we can do about it
sure we can change it by having our own
views
reading as many sources as we can not
trusting
one source one newspaper or one website
talking to your colleagues your friends
traveling trying to expand the bubble
not staying in your comfort zone for too
long as cliche as it may sound
but this is a totally legit advice it
might change the algorithm
it may improve your consciousness both
mentally physically and digitally while
you are online
other any less cliche actions a lawyer
could recommend
sure when it comes to sharing your data
think about it think about not only
what you post on social media but also
how you do it and even when you do it
i have a friend of mine who travels
literally
all over the world and he has a really
very vivid instagram gallery
but none of those pictures are posted
in real life in real time
so whenever he posts a new picture i
call him and ask
hey how are you how’s the weather in new
york
and he always responds no clue i have no
idea how many venus
at one point of time i even thought that
he is lying about all those trips
and maybe he even photoshopped himself
on this great wall
but it appears after talking to him i
realized that
there were two separate instances when
burglars were trying to rob the house
right after he posted his holiday
pictures online
so he is now really cautious when he’s
posting his social media also when i say
that you should be cautious of how
you share your information this means
that even for example when you are
coming from the holidays
and want to post some pictures online
try and
see if you could reduce the circle the
visibility only to your
close friends also secondly what is very
important
is try to get back control of your media
when you are
on social sites what i have in mind is
for example facebook has this
functionality
why am i seeing this try to play with it
you will be really surprised to see how
facebook sees you and what things you
are interested in
what commercials what ads facebook
thinks you are interested in
so try to play with it you will be
really surprised to see
how it sees you also
facebook twitter and some other social
media sites
have this functionality of rearranging
your feed according to
most recent time of the posting not
according to
what what is most relevant according to
facebook’s or twitter’s algorithms
also try to play with it you will see
that just like in the old times you will
see the feed
of most recent posts and not according
to what facebook or twitter might think
that you are interested in
use only secure websites
update your firewall and antivirus
systems regularly
change your passwords regularly this is
really important
but what is even more important is try
to teach your
children how to securely use the
internet and how to securely
share their data it is becoming really
vital these days
when the internet takes over all parts
of our lives
but not least recycle
and besides regular recycle bins one
smaller bin
just for your personal information for
example invoices
receipts personal notes or
even photos that give you bad memories
all should go in that one small box
so that you do not come back with a
burglar trying to
get inside your house ensure
the full destruction of sure of such
information like
fire place or shredder will do the trick
so to conclude today i wanted to tell
you about
two types of crazies you leave behind
yourself it’s digital
and physical how this information is and
how it can be used
and is there anything we can do about it
i also wanted to inspire you to think
more critically
when you are online when you share your
data
or even when you get rid of your own
waste
it is permanent this physical and
digital footprint it is permanent
and it is really important that you keep
track of it
at the same time it does not mean that
you must start living
in a cave embrace technology
do not refuse it just because it uses
your data
big tech companies which value their
reputation they really put
all the efforts into securing your data
and into sharing it ethically
instead try to think of what you
yourself can do
to make yourself secure when you are on
the internet
when you share your data or even
when you get rid of your own waste good
luck
and thank you