When it comes to internet privacy, I tend to be overly cautious about my digital footprint, almost to the point where some would call it paranoia. I don't post anything online that I think would be inappropriate or doesn't reflect me as a person - this results in me not posting very frequently due to coming up with ideas for posts and then backing out at the last second. When it comes to downloads, if a download seems fishy, I either refuse the download or eliminate it as soon as possible, because the idea of malware frightens me. So when I found out about what the government knows about me from something as small as location services, I freaked out. Of course, I don't go or do anywhere or anything illegal or dangerous - that's just not my style. The reason why I got nervous was that I hate the idea of being watched without my knowing - especially by people I don't know. Even when I'm doing something good, I would prefer my viewers to be known and limited. And seeing as how I spend a lot of time online, I shudder at the thought of how much information I have given that the government has "borrowed."
Thankfully, I believe my footprint is still small. Because I'm very careful of my digital footprint, I tend to leave behind consistent, false information, such as a fake birth date and age. I'm extremely cautious about what personal information I reveal online - when asked to share my credit card or something similar, I check the site's Terms of Service to see exactly what they do with it. And my results seem to have paid off: when testing how much my carbon footprint has grown by googling myself, after a long and arduous process looking through plenty of names, I finally found a profile that closely resembles mine - devoid of any personal information, aside from my name. And these videos encouraged me to make sure that profile never gets filled out.
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