Can you erase your digital footprint?

You’ve seen it in the movies: A character wants to hide their tracks to throw off the bad guy behind them. They might grab a leafy branch and sweep away whatever footprints they left in the dirt, sand, or snow.

Footprints like these are simple to erase. But what about your digital footprint? Is it possible to sweep away all traces of your online activity and persona?

The answer is not as straightforward as you might think.

While it's possible to wipe away and cloak most of your footprint (and we'll show you how), the reality of our digital lives is that you probably won't be able to eliminate every single trace of it.

What is a digital footprint? 

Wherever you go online, no matter what you’re doing, you leave behind traces of yourself and your activity. Collectively, those traces add up to your digital footprint.

A peek at your digital footprint might reveal:

• The type of content that interests you 

• Where you bank 

• Where you shop and what you buy  

• Sites you frequent 

• Posts you publish (and react to) 

• Photos you’re tagged in 

• The devices you use 

• Online games you play  

Wondering what can someone do with this information? More than you’d think. Digital footprints equal gold for these three groups:  

• Advertisers and marketers: Advertisers usually collect digital footprints on their own through cookies and other tracking elements or they might buy the information from data warehouses, typically using it to customize ads to your interests and behaviors and drive traffic to select companies. Personalized and targeted marketing increases the number of a company’s clicks, sign-ups, followers, page views, video views, and so on. When done according to regulations, this sort of tracking is legal.

• Recruiters and employers: Recruiters and employers often search prospective employees before and during the interview process, which may influence their opinion of you. The same goes for anyone else you’re out to impress, such as potential clients and even friends.

• Cybercriminals: Your digital footprint could also be used maliciously by cybercriminals to commit fraud or identity theft. These criminals may use publicly available information about you to launch targeted attacks and phishing scams. Once they get their hands on the information they were after, they might use or sell it for their own profit. 

Erasing your digital footprint  

If you wanted to erase your digital footprint completely, you would have to start over with a clean slate.

This entails manually deleting your online accounts and any information posted about you online, including photos, videos, reviews, posts, and other content that you may have shared. You would also have to delete any emails you've sent, as well as any data on your devices.

Essentially, you would have to remove any digital traces associated with your name and identity, and you would have to cease all online activity after the fact.

Sounds daunting? Because so much of what we do takes place online, this is close to impossible — especially because there also will always be information about you online that is beyond your control to delete, like information held by third parties.

The next best thing to help keep your information private and safe from cybercriminals is to keep your digital footprint small. To get started, you must first understand what it contains.

How to find your digital footprint 

Using a few different methods, you can get a clearer picture of your digital footprint. 

If you’re an Allstate Identity Protection member, you can use our Allstate Digital Footprint® tool that compiles a list of the sites and apps that you have logged into using your email addresses.

This way, you can see your digital connections at a glance (even the ones you may have forgotten about).

If you’re not an Allstate Identity Protection member, try entering personal details like your name, email address, or phone number into multiple search engines.

According to Lifewire, the search engines that yield the most prolific, detailed, and varied results include DuckDuckGo, Google, Yippy Search, and Bing.

While you may not get the whole picture of your digital footprint using either of these methods, it's a good start.

How to clean up your digital footprint  

With some legwork and ongoing good habits, you can go from being low-hanging fruit for data snoopers and criminals to being not worth their while.  

• Set online activity alerts. If your email address is connected to the Allstate Digital Footprint® tool, you’ll get an alert when it detects any new sign-ups. You also have the power to act on these alerts by asking these companies to unsubscribe you from marketing emails. Depending on your state's privacy law, you might also have the power to ask these companies to delete your data. Another way to keep tabs on your activity is by setting up Google Alerts for your name, email address, phone number, and other personal information. These alerts go to your inbox and, from there, you can take the steps you deem necessary, such as using the help and contact sections to see what options you have for getting the data removed (Google has a removal request form).

• Use a password manager. Because passwords are coveted information for cybercriminals, it’s important to shield your login credentials from outsiders. A password manager generates unique, strong passwords for each of your accounts. If this is the only precaution you take, traces of your online activity will remain, but your passwords are less likely to get compromised or connected to you. The end result? Your personal accounts are less likely to be hacked. Some browsers store login credentials and autofill those on their own. However, the best password managers bring an arsenal of additional cloaking defenses, like two-factor identification.

• Browse anonymously. You can do this by installing an anti-tracker extension on your browsers, like the one included in some of our identity protection plans. Compound this protection by using browsers that don’t track or collect user data, like Tor, Brave, and DuckDuckGo. Even so, know that while tracking blockers and privacy-first browsers and search engines increase your anonymity exponentially, none can cloak you all the time, all the way.

• Use a VPN when you go online. Using a virtual private network (VPN) also helps mask your online activity. Such networks boost anonymity by encrypting the content you send and by hiding your location from trackers. If a tracker somehow manages to trace pieces of your digital footprint to you, they can’t get further than the VPN’s own address. Skip a VPN and trackers can discover your local IP server address and use it to access your personal information. Not all VPNs are the same, though. While there are free VPN options, they may not all offer the added level of protection or high speeds that those you pay for do.

• Quit social media. Can’t quit cold turkey? At least minimize your social media presence and button up your online profiles. You can do this by setting your social accounts to private, so only those you vet can access them. If you have accounts that you can’t make private (like those for work), only post content you want to be public. Delete old content, including direct messages, that you don’t want public.  

Once you've done all this, make sure to maintain your scaled-down digital footprint and make good digital habits your standard practice.