Complete manual/49/en

Depending on who you are and what you do, you will probably have different concerns about the kinds of data or ‘digital traces’ that are the most sensitive for you, as well as who can access them. This may make you feel uncomfortable. But you are not alone, and there are a number of things you can do to reduce the creation and capture of your digital traces. You may also wonder how the data you create may be used about you now versus how years and years of data about you could be used in the future by whomever has access to it then. Worldwide, there are very few laws that effectively regulate data collection or protect us from this historically unprecedented level of data collection. This makes it even more important for us to support privacy-protecting laws and standards with an eye to the future as well as the present. It also makes it important that we remain aware of this issue that is relatively ‘invisible’, benefiting corporations and governments, and find ways to tell others about it. We can also ask ourselves if we really need to tweet, record and stream all the things we do in life. And finally, we can fight back by regaining control of the digital traces we create and limiting who can collect and use them and we can also help by showing our friends, networks, and family members how they can do this too.