Digital Footprint

Morning

Got my first blog done yesterday and now starts the work of trying to help parents and children use the internet safely. It truly is a remarkable phenomenon but with every great invention there comes with it issues which not only affects adults but can have a profound effect on children, whether in the  years of primary or just leaving college. On that basis it affects the family unit, how it interacts and how it deals with issues.


So in the blog I just want to bring up the issue of something called your digital footprint.

Courtesy of Digitalfamilysummit.com
 

Just to explain your digital footprint is something that is left behind for all to see. Be it words, pictures, video, tags, likes and tweets, they all leave a trail of your online presence. It's important you know this because it WILL affect how your children are perceived and WILL ultimately be used by perspective employers, Universities and those who provide services. Some of this is happening now. Take the story of Paris Brown (see full BBC article here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22083032) She resigned from her PCC post because of the comments she made on Twitter. She was 17 when she was forced out of her job....17!!




The internet allows individuals or businesses to 'mine' for data, that is get access to data you thought was yours. Your digital footprint is their door into your world. How many of us now have shredders? We wouldn't put letters in the bin with our personal details on without shredding the paper first, or at least we shouldn't. So your digital footprint needs to be treated with similar care and attention.

Just take a very simple family scenario. Your off on your annual two week holiday everyone is excited and when you get there you take photos and post them online. Looks like a pretty normal pastime, keeping memories and letting your friends know what you are doing. You post a few pictures with GPS positioning switched on. This is called location data on most smartphones. So back-home everyone knows your in a villa in Italy, Rome to be precise, Casa La Selle if you want to be picky, Casa Religiosa if we want to be absolutely accurate.

All from the GPS data on the picture you took of the Villa. By the way when you checked in at the airport everyone knows when you flew and you probably mentioned the airline and what time. All Harmless? Possibly, but you have just told the world your house is empty!!! But that's ok only your friends can see it...right? One of your friends re-posts this and suddenly it's all over twitter.....wrong!

I did a very simple search yesterday on facebook on one of my friends activities. It was pretty easy to work out movements and habits and with who. Usually the gym visit to the same gym were on Tuesdays and Thursdays and mostly with one of her friends Kate. She has one child of school age and her husband works locally, quite late by some of the posts and they have a really big summer house in the garden they use for regular parties. And just so the world knows there is a picture of the front of the house. So I go onto Zoopla and look for houses sold on that road, bingo, get the house and photographs with a postcode, then onto Google Streetview, so I can see the surrounding landscape and hey presto I can see the summer house and a way in through the neighbours garden. This took me less than 5 minutes.

If you want to scare yourself stupid about how easy it is to get really 'deep' into your data take a look at this video. On the pretence it's a clairvoyant, it's not, it's a bank of computers and hackers in the back and they got every detail, including bank accounts. Well worth a look. This is privacy, this is your digital footprint http://youtu.be/F7pYHN9iC9I

There are really simple things you can do to reduce your footprint and keep yourself safe online. Remove GPS data when you take pictures, don't post any financial details online, that's anything, make sure your children are aware of their digital footprint, how it affects them and those around them. The biggest thing is nothing is free, nothing. It's really easy to like something or get an app but the reality is they want your data, all of it. Data is the new goldrush and privacy is the water they are panning. Ask yourself why the provider wants access to your news, your friends, status, if it's not obvious it's because it will be used and sold....simple.

This is our digital footprint and that of our families, protect it, think about the reasons and educate yourselves. It's really important

Comments welcome

Checks and Balances

This is my first blog on a subject very close to my heart and one I feel very passionate about.

The internet of today is very different from the environment in which I grew up in the 70's and 80's. It feels like we had a series of checks and balances in my day that helped children enjoy their childhood and helped parents be guardians to their offspring, keeping them safe and protecting them from the world at large.

I remember going to the local shop and trying to buy a bottle of cider when I was about 15 for a party at my friends house. The shopkeeper refused and by the time I had walked back home my mum knew and I was in trouble. It seems the checks and balances of society in the 'real' world were working. My mum was a single parent and she welcomed the help that these checks and balances brought. Whilst she didn't find it easy bringing up two 'characterful' boys she always did her very best for us, protected us and kept us safe.

Fast forward 30 years and things are somewhat different. The checks and balances that helped my mum in the past no longer apply, the internet has seen to that. I feel like we have gone from a society that cared and looked after our children to one that is hell-bent on exploiting them, reducing them to digital bookmarks who are to be marketed to by the next big thing. The next big thing that has control so lacking it appears to be deliberate just to get 'eyeballs'. As parents were are trying to cope with technology that is confusing, moving quickly and new stuff popping up quicker than I could eat spacedust from my local sweetshop back in the day. Facebook, Facebook messaging, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, whatsapp and the hideous ask-fm, to name a few. Some you probably won't know about as well, how about WeChat, Vine, FourSquare even Skype.

These services only purpose in life is to get more people hooked. How do they do that? Easy if you bypass the checks and balances, remove a whole raft of protection parents would want and hey presto THE NEXT BIG THING. It's not necessarily their fault after all more people is more marketing revenue, but the landscape for parents is daunting.

So where are those checks and balances? how do we, as parents, protect and keep our children safe? I think we need a fundamentally new approach and in my next blog I'm going to ask for your support to create something that will help parents bring this back to the family and provide something that could change the way we view all this smart new tech

Comments welcome