Digital Footprint: Where Do You Fit In?
The PEW/Internet report Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency was recently released. In the summary of findings, they divide online adults into four distinct categories based on their online privacy (footprint) concerns.
1) Confident Creatives are the smallest of the four groups, comprising 17% of online adults. They say they do not worry about the availability of their online data, and actively upload content, but still take steps to limit their personal information.
2) The Concerned and Careful fret about the personal information available about them online and take steps to proactively limit their own online data. One in five online adults (21%) fall into this category.
3) Despite being anxious about how much information is available about them, members of the Worried by the Wayside group do not actively limit their online information. This group contains 18% of online adults.
4) The Unfazed and Inactive group is the largest of the four groups—43% of online adults fall into this category. They neither worry about their personal information nor take steps to limit the amount of information that can be found out about them online.
So, where do you fit in?
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I think I’m a two working toward a one. If I look at the Internet connections I am making as a professional effort, I have to do a little better to feel free to actively put content on the Internet under my name. It’s an interesting question.
Part of me wonders how the term personal is defined. Personal for some, might be anything that is not part of their professional life. If that’s the definition, I can’t consider myself in the first category. There is definitely information that I share publicly that I know others would not. That might place me in the last category. But I do consider the information I post and can’t think of any information that I’ve posted that wouldn’t want someone to see.