Unlike the footprints we leave as we walk along the beach, electronic footprints don't wash away so easily. Most human activity leaves an electronic footprint that will last until we have an apocalyptic event. To put this into perspective, unless we are plunged into another dark age by a meteor, traces of our existence will last well beyond our lifetime. This leaves us with two choices, accept the inevitable or pay attention to the traces we leave.
Let's focus on the some of the traces we leave and the choices we have. From driving to surfing the Internet, we leave a huge volume of traces that we usually don't think about. Even if we have nothing to hide, maybe we should still know what traces we leave behind. I've chosen to accept some loss of privacy for the sake of convenience.
My car is equipped with OnStar. This is a great tool in case of an accident. It also helps when I'm lost or want to find the nearest gas station. But what traces does it leave? First off we know there is a GPS system that tracks the cars movement. This is how you get directions and how emergency personnel are notified in case of an accident. Should I worry about this? I don't, but what if I don't want people to know where I've been. Well I suppose I could decide not to take my car.
But wait, if I don't take my car I can still be tracked by my cell phone. It too sends out a signal that let's the phone company know where I am. It needs to send the signal so I can receive calls. I suppose that I could turn off my cell phone so that it's not sending out signals.
But wait, what car am I using? If it's a rental car, I had to pay for it with a credit card and show identification. That almost defeats the whole purpose of not using my car. And what if the rental car company has installed a tracker just in case their car was stolen. Hmmmmm.
Maybe I could borrow a friends car. If the friend picked me up, I could drop my friend off and drive to where ever I was going. Of course if I borrowed a car I'd have to make sure it did not have an electronic toll payment system like SunPass or EasyPass. And I'd probably want to return the car with gas. Hmmmm. I guess I would have to pay cash for the gas if I wanted to make sure I did not leave a trail.
But wait, where did I get the cash? If I went to an ATM then I left a trace at that machine. Worse yet, where did I go? Almost anything we do involves spending money. Having lunch, flying on an airplane, parking at the airport, renting a hotel room, buying clothes and well, just about anything. That's an awful lot of cash.
But maybe I don't go far or maybe I don't spend a lot of money. However, if I used the Internet to research a local park and the park hours, my ISP at home has a log of my activity. My PC also has the history of the browsing and maybe even a cookie.
Maybe this all seems a little over the top. The point is that in the world today we leave an electronic footprint. Someone can create a very detailed picture of our existence using that footprint. Should we worry about it, yes and no. Yes because with evil intent that information can be used against us in ways I don't even want to think about. And no, because there is very little we can do about it.
While I don't worry about it, I do recognize the footprints I leave behind. And when I am concerned about people with evil intentions, I try to minimize that footprint as much as possible.
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