Glossary: Digital Footprint
Launch library · evergreen read
A digital footprint is simply the steadily accumulated trail of information a person or organisation leaves behind through ordinary online activity, posts made, comments left, shared content, account history built up, gradually accumulating over time into a record that can later be examined closely and carefully traced.
For verification purposes specifically, an account's own accumulated digital footprint is very often the single most reliable piece of available evidence to examine: a long, coherent, consistent history is considerably harder to fabricate convincingly than a single polished profile with no real supporting activity standing behind it at all to lend it any genuine credibility.
Checking the depth and overall consistency of a digital footprint, rather than simply judging an account purely by its current, momentary appearance, is a core technique underlying most of the account checking practices covered elsewhere throughout this entire library of material covering the much broader subject in full.