What is a digital footprint and why should I matter to me?
Digital footprints are any breadcrumbs we leave online. It’s all of my activity the moment I step inside the web. When I open my phone and check my news feed, I’m stepping all over the web and leaving footprints for AI to trace. This traceability defines the me which AI sees.
There are 2 types of digital footprints that we know of:
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Implicit self - This is the digital self that is nearly impossible to see or is plain confusing to understand. It is the cookie data, it is the CCTV imaging of myself at a sports show. Why does it exist? How does it exist? Who uses it and why do ‘they’ use it? Should it mean anything to me?
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Explicit self - This is the digital self that is clear and easy to see. It makes sense and I understand it. I may not always know every explicit self memory that AI has kept of me over the years, but it’s visible to anyone interested in knowing more about me, the digital self. (This is any click history I have built up, the likes, the shares, the comments, the photos; all of the engagement someone has had with my digital self as well.)
