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