Digital footprint

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Digital Footprints are traces left by someones activity in an digital environment. There are two main classifications for digital footprints, Passive and Active. A Passive Digital Footprint is when data is collected about an action without any client activation, Active Digital Footprints are when personal data is released deliberately by a user for the purpose of sharing information about ones self. ^[1]

[edit] Passive Digital Footprints

Passive Digital Footprints can be stored in many ways depending on the situation.

In an online environment a footprint may be stored in an online data base as a "hit". This footprint may track the users [IP], the time when it was created, and where they came from, this footprint later can be analyzed by a network manager

In an off line environment a footprint may be stored in local temp files, which can be accessed by administrators to view the actions done on that computer, but they can not see who did them.

[edit] Active Digital Footprints

Active Digital Footprints can be also be stored in many ways depending on the situation.

In an online environment a footprint can be stored by a user being logged into a site when making a post or edit, that registered name gets connected to the edit.

In an off line environment a footprint may be stored in local temp files, when the owner of the computer has created some sort of keylogger situation, so the logs can be accessed by administrators and they will be able to view the actions done on that computer, and who did it.