Okay, so I’ve managed to make it to week 2. This week we’re looking at Digital Footprint and Digital Security. We’ve been asked to think about our digital footprint and explore what parts of our lives are scattered all over the internet…ohhh boy!!

Would the real Andy Todd please stand up

So I did a quick Google search for Andy Todd and was expecting to find a bunch of horrible photos from my youth which my non-computer savvy mum and dad had accidentally uploaded for the world to see, or even more worrying, horrible up-the-nose shots from those pesky photographers at pubs/nightclubs. Thankfully, nothing of the sort was found.

The main man from the Andy Todd clan seems to be the ex Blackburn Rovers player. As much as I wish this was me, with my two left feet, I can assume you it was not. He’s even got his own Wikipedia page, so he must’ve been quite good!

I’ve always been relatively careful about what I share online and as I’ve heard so many horror stories about bad people doing bad things with your personal details. With that in mind, I guess I shouldn’t really be so surprised that I didn’t find a great deal of content about myself online, well, apart from some links to the University documentation and videos I’ve produced and popped my name on.

This leads us nicely onto digital Security…

Digital Security

As mentioned above, I’ve always been relatively careful about what information is out there about me. I very rarely fill in information about where I live, my job, age etc. on social media accounts, and each of my accounts are locked down to friends only. I regularly check this and ensure that the people in my ‘friends list’ are actually friends (and those I’ve paid to be my friends), not strangers.

When I looked into the settings on my iPhone, I wasn’t overly concerned because I have been careful in what apps I download and what access they get to my phone. I tend to only download and use relatively well known apps and I think carefully about given them permission to my phone. Even then, it often seems really silly the access that some apps ask for when using/installing them. One thing I do like with IOS is that you can still use most apps without having to give full access. As you start to try and use more features, you’re normally then asked to allow access to your camera or mic. 

My experience of using Android is slightly different. One app I downloaded to allow my to watch film clips requested access to nearly everything on the tablet (address book, wi-fi, camera, videos). Safe to say I passed on installing this as I didn’t feel there as any need for this kind of access to my device just to watch videos. 

My biggest concern with how reliant we are on technology these days is it seems almost impossible to sign up/or use anything online without having to give certain details away. And where are they all being sorted? Who are they being shared with? What happens if Talk Talk are hacked again and our details are sold onto third parties? 

Well at least we’ll have our front facing cameras to capture our reactions when we find out we’ve been compromised…..until those images are stolen from iCloud…