My Digital Shadow

So, I learnt a new term today - "digital shadow". Like our "carbon footprint" this is a new term coined to describe the traces we leave in cyberspace. Apparently we leave enough data on cyberspace from all our activities on the Internet for others to collect a great deal of information about us - like what we like to wear, what brands we favour, where we would like to go for a holiday and of course in perverse cases, what our sexual oreintations are :) Every website we have ever visited, every online transaction made, every email sent, every blog updated and commented on, every item googled gives away information about ourselves that can range from the innocuous (so you know I like chocolate, so what?) to the potentially scary (you know the names of my children, where they are and what they are doing) to the damaging (my credit card number is somewhere in cyberspace?)

When I first read the article, I admit I was rather perturbed and it made me pause to think about my online activities. In light of my recent narcissistic activities involving googling myself, I realised with a start that I had willingly put out a great deal of information about myself and my family. So technology has made it possible for me to contact long lost relatives, friends and students, but it has also made it possible for strangers to know me. This is especially true in Facebook where your friends' friends whom you have never met could possibly know about you depending on the kind of privacy levels set on your page and your friend's.

So what does one do then? Retreat into an Amish village and erase all signs of my existence? That's a depressing option. I'm still thinking about it. But meanwhile, for those of you haven't discovered Facebook yet, here is the link to my 50th Birthday party photos on my Facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36127&l=a1222&id=607050798

Since I am already casting a digital shadow now, might as well make it a HUGE one while I am still at it :)