Digital Footprints: Uncovering Clues in the Cybercrime Era

Author: Aastha Priyadarshi, SEM VI, B. Sc - M. Sc Forensic Science (Integrated), National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhinagar

Digital footprint is a unique set of traceable data record which a user leaves while performing any online activity or connecting to the internet. It is also known as digital shadow or electronic footprint and is relatively permanent. It includes surfing, blogging, texting, social media posts, online reviews and reactions, cookies of websites, online payments, location history etc. It is a powerful source as it includes the personal, professional and financial data and creates a customizable profile of the user. Digital footprints are becoming more complex as the internet evolves.

Why is digital footprint important?

Digital footprint has a great impact on a user’s online image. Protecting the digital footprint can help a user to maintain his/her reputation and privacy. It affects employability, online reputation at a social workfront, personal safety and online privacy.  According to a survey by CareerBuilder, around 54% of employers investigated candidates’ digital footprints for the recruitment purpose.

One can check their own digital footprint by searching themselves online and visualize what information of a user is publically available. Set google alerts if any new information is posted online about the user. One can search themselves on people finder websites like TruthFinder, BeenVerified, FastPeopleSearch, Spokeo etc. Users can check if their email IDs or passwords are safe by using websites like “LeakPeek”. One can secure their information by services like BreachWatch which can help in identifying any leaked information available on DarkWeb.

Deleting an entire footprint is a very difficult task because any online activity made by the user is already stored by the third party services, the government or other entities. But one can minimize a footprint by deleting any information related to the user that is publically available.

Digital footprint also involves online activities made in incognito or private modes due to their temporary cookies and the activities can be linked across multiple accounts and profiles. One can still be tracked through the computer’s IP address and combine the IP address with device type and browser details and can easily identify a particular user. The most secured way to prevent adding information to digital footprint is to use a VPN (virtual private network) which encrypts the internet connection and hides the IP address. A specialized search engine can be used with tracking protection like DuckDuckGo, StartPage, SearchEncrypt etc. or a private browser can be used to hide user’s origin. For conclusive secret browsing, a computer may obtain a special operating system created by the user.

Future of digital footprints

The evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning in digital world can bring new vulnerabilities related to privacy, security and use of personal data by cybercriminals and data brokers and in contrary the digital footprints can be beneficial as well to track the source of threat or the attacker. Many research studies are focusing on how digital footprints collected from online communities and networks enable us to understand human behavior and social interaction in different dimensions.

There are 5.16 billion internet users in the world today with roughly 64% of population with unique digital footprint. According to the DataReportal, 751.5 million internet users in India at the start of 2024 and approx. 462 million social media users in January 2024. India’s digital footprint has more than doubled in less than a decade reaching over 50% of population. Indian digital footprint is appreciated worldwide for its social inclusiveness which has 2nd highest penetration of internet users in the world with 600+ million users, but also has become an captivating target for cybercriminals seeking to exploit vulnerabilities, warned a group of cyber-security providers.

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