The ‘Digital Footprint’ We Leave Behind Is Surprising

We all leave behind quite a bit of information when we browse the world-wide-web. A recent survey revealed that the average person shares over a third of their life online (36%) — which is still viewable long after they die. Researchers, then found that the average adult shares 276 posts on Instagram, 170 on Facebook, and 141 tweets every year. That amounts to 17,369 posts for Instagram, 10,680 on Facebook, and 8,911 for Twitter, over the average lifetime. That is a LOT of data. No wonder almost half of online users worry about how much they are putting out there.

The findings come from a new survey of 2,000 adults, conducted by OnePoll for Aloha Browser, found that 47 percent worry about putting so much of their lives online for the world to see. Another 29 percent don’t think they’re “savvy” enough to protect their online presence.

The top ways people go about trying to protect their online activity are:

•  %47 say using secure passwords as the top way they safeguard their internet privacy
• %40 say they never give out their main email address or phone number
• %39 percent refuse to use public storage websites, like Google Docs or Dropbox

“We all put so much of our lives online nowadays because it’s considered ‘the norm,’” says a spokesperson for Aloha Browser in a statement. “But we are not giving our online privacy the attention it deserves. It really is simple to protect your privacy online but far too many people aren’t taking the simple, yet necessary steps.”

Regardless of how hard they try to protect themselves, 57 percent say they still receive warnings about security breaches to their online accounts. Two-thirds worry that they’ll be the victim of identity theft and one in three say it would be embarrassing if someone “tricked” them online. The average person is also on the receiving end of three online scam attempts every single month!

One of the best ways to protect your online data is known as a VPN. Moreover, 37 percent don’t know what a VPN is, but a staggering 83 percent admit to using them in public spaces.

Source: https://bit.ly/3Qpta9P