My digital presence
Do you know...
Do you know what is in your digital dossier? Since you began to have a life on the Web, data has been accruing about the habits and interests of your online life. The generation of young people emerging in the digital age have the unique experience of having the entirety of their lives immersed in digital data. In fact, the generation of “digital natives” is having their digital dossier populated with data before they are born, and even after they will die.
What's the big idea?
Digital dossiers are an aspect of life online that is common to all, yet many users may not even realize the amount of data they are responsible for. A digital dossier is a superset of all your online data that includes secure private records as well as your public online identity. In addition to your contributions to the dossier, other people can make contributions to your dossier with pictures and other additions to the subset of data that makes up your public identity online
Here's how the dossier grows:
- Before a digital native is born, a sonogram image is taken at the hospital and sent around. The dossier is started before the digital native’s birth.
- As the digital native becomes able to independently navigate the web, an identity is created about his or her habits and interests and the dossier grows from there evermore.
- A basic google search about fantasy baseball, for example, is stored in search engine servers and the user’s IP address is tagged with a unique cookie.
- In future searches, the user may find strategically placed advertisements for websites selling discounted baseball hats or tickets based upon the information that the dossier reveals about the user’s interests.
Here's a video about it
This video illustrates the way your digital dossier accumulates data.