week 3

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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This is a graded discussion: 6 points possible due Jan 16

Week 3 - Discussion 2 23 23

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Digital Trails [WLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 5]

Prepare: Prior to beginning work on this discussion, carefully read Module 6, Section 6.1 in your course textbook, as well as the Week 3 Instructor Guidance.

Reflect: When you walk on the beach, you usually leave behind your footprints in the sand. Online, you also leave a footprint (or trail) when using digital technology. Your computer and the websites you visit create digital footprints of where you have been. Sometimes, this tracking is helpful to us. For example, if you leave a website and return later, you can simply pick up where you left without having to start over. At other times, these electronic trails could pose a security threat to you and your computer. Take some time to reflect on what you learned about how leaving a digital trail could both help and hurt you.

Write: Using the information you read in Section 6.1 of your course textbook, address the following:

Describe two digital footprints you have left within the last week. Analyze each one for potential risk on a scale of 1-10, 1 being low risk and 10 being high risk. Write about a situation in which you or someone you know was a victim of a privacy, safety, or security breach online. Describe the situation and how it was eventually resolved. Put your name into at least two different search engines (Google, Bing, Dogpile, Yahoo, Ask.com, and DuckDuckGo are some popular ones) and review your own digital trail. Pretend you are a potential employer. What observations could you make about your own online presence? Note: If you have a common name, you may need to add additional search terms or experiment with different search terms, such as the city in which you live (e.g., Dan Smith Clinton, Iowa). Now that you have explored your own digital trail, identify at least three steps you can take to enhance your privacy, safety, and security on the web.

Your post should be at least 250 words.

Respond to peers: Review your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers by Day 7. Think about what you learned about digital trails from reading about your classmate’s digital trails. Consider sharing tips on how to use digital footprints wisely. Each response should be a minimum of 75 words.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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(https:// Michael Diaz (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227653) Jan 6, 2020

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In this day and age leaving behind digital foot prints is something we all do so often. Even without realizing it, we can be traced by the simplest thing. In the last week I know I have left many foot prints behind. The foot print I leave behind most often is my online shopping. The last purchase I mad was from Ebay and it was for a new motorcycle seat. Of course my social media then got flooded with Ebay suggestions and things about motorcycles. It’s a little tricky on how to rate this foot print because it depends what you take as a risk. If being targeted for ads is a risk for you then this may be rated a 8 or 9. For me I can rate this foot print around a 3 because I know it’s a legit website where the most harm that could potentially come from it is me having to scroll past a few ads. Another foot print I have left recently is tagging myself and friends at a local bar. Now this I can say is easily rated a level 8 because of the security risks that other people will know where I was and when I was there. I try not to tag myself or others in locations for this reason but occasionally it does slip.

Working in a bank, we deal with a lot of fraud. A common case I come across is someone buying something online from a website that wasn’t real and then having their information stolen. This is a major form of security breach because people are losing their hard earned money to scammers that have no regard for anyone else’s financial well-being. The way these cases get resolved for my clients is our back office starts an investigation process where they verify the clients claim. They check the legitimacy of the website and the end goal is to get our client’s their funds returned and hopefully have them spread the word about these fraudulent sites.

My name is pretty common but even so I only use one social media platform. When searching for myself a few old pictures surfaced that I may have been tagged in but lucky for me nothing was obscene. My only social media is Facebook so when I finally found myself you can see that there isn’t anything on there that would turn away a potential employer. I don’t have as much of an online presence as most of my friends do and for this I’m grateful. Regardless of the size of my online presence, I can still take precautions for safety. One would be to never post anything to personal online such as bank info or addresses. Another would be to constantly change my password. All too often we see celebrities getting hacked so one can only imagine how easy it must be for the average person to also get hacked. Finally I think censoring

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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photos and status updates is important. We constantly see the younger generation posting many obscene photos or statuses that give off the wrong impressions of who they really are.

(https:/ Debra Eden (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226626) Jan 8, 2020

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Michael,

I appreciated your comments on the shopping as I did the same thing and while I appreciate the shirt suggestions, I now cannot click on anything without them showing up. I also have a credit union employment background and have seen a lot of fraud. Most of the people recovered their funds due to the fact that I worked for an amazing credit union with a very good fraud team but it still was a very stressful time for them. There were other times where we could not help people and they ended up losing their savings or dumping their checking into the negative due online fraud schemes.

I would definitely agree with you that today's Facebook users oftentimes do not think before posting. They just post on a whim or to impress without any thought of the consequences. Today's employers do check online before hiring. My daughter was a hiring manager for her company and the first thing they did was check Facebook on potential candidates. Several people's applications went straight from hand to trash can due to poor online choices.

(https:/ Stephanie Collins (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227383) Yesterday

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Hi, Michael!

Digital Footprints - How will your posts affect your future? (https://lhslance.org/2015/news/digital- footprints-will-posts-affect-future/)

"63% of hiring managers decide not to hire an applicant because of something they found questionable on a social networking site" (Credit) (https://lhslance.org/2015/news/digital-footprints- will-posts-affect-future/) .

I think it is great that you only use one social media platform, it limits the information that can surface when a potential employer seeks information about you to determine if you have a professional image. The digital footprint we leave online can exist for many years and affecting our reputation and a company's reputation.

Because so much of our data directly reflects the outcomes of job opportunities, it is important to consider these 10 helpful steps to maintain professionalism.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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(https:// Debra Eden (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226626) Jan 8, 2020

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I think I have left a lot more digital footprints this week than I realized. I know one was an online shopping website for shirts. This was due to a popup that came up while reading a news article. It showed some

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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shirts that I thought were cute so I clicked on it. Safety rating on this is around a 3 since it was a reputable site but I have been reaping the consequences of my little online shopping trip since now everything I look at has that same company right in the middle of it with more shirts like the one I looked at. One other footprint I have left this week is reading some news articles that automatically come up on my phone at lunch. Since we live in Corpus Christi near the ocean, I like to read articles relating to marine life. Once again, this is a low risk footprint around a 3. I was once again, however, inundated by news articles about marine life afterwards.

Before moving to Corpus Christi, we lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My daughter had a friend whose mom was single. She was communicating with a man over the internet who convinced her that he really wanted to meet her and needed money to travel. She took the bait and sent him thousands of dollars from her daughter's college fund. I'm not sure if this provided him a link into her bank account information but I do know that the situation caused her family a lot of grief and financial issues including compromising her daughter's college fund which was never recovered.

I put my name into DuckDuckGo and Dogpile. Apparently, I have some friends not even I knew about. It did get my name right most of the time and my age unfortunately. If they were going to lie about me, they could have at least made me younger. I didn't find anything a potential employer would find alarming. I guess I am not that interesting and since I don't Facebook, there aren't any juicy, embarrassing posts to dig up.

The one thing I found out by searching myself was that it listed how many footprints I had left. Although I hadn't gone anywhere dangerous, there were certain articles I followed that led to other spam so I need to update my settings. I need to be sure I watch what news articles I read so as not to be led into infected sites. I also need to update my privacy settings so people cannot see my financial portrait (i.e. what I owe, where my mortgage is, etc.) My financial details need to stay private.

(https:/ Stephanie Collins (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227383) Yesterday

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Hi, Debra!

What You Should Know About the Potential Risks of Online Shopping (https://smallbizclub.com/technology/ecommerce/know-potential-risks-online-shopping/)

I also complete a lot of my shopping online, I have always thought the convenience outways the risk. However, this class has taught me the potentially harmful realizations about the danger of using banking information online.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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The article I attached communicates about the possible risks we could encounter when shopping online.

Identity Theft Credit Card Fraud Adware and Malware Fake Online Stores Overpayment

Cybercriminals also pose a real security threat by using methods such as a Trojan Horse. Consumers could possibly open a disguised email and open the dangerous link because the advertised product caught their attention. Maintaining caution and directing typing in the URL into the address bar can reduce the risk of visiting an infected site.

-Stephanie

(https:// Stephanie Collins (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227383) Saturday

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I left a digital footprint this week by shopping online at Amazon. I would consider this a medium risk with a rating of 5 because I entered my debit card information to complete the transaction for my items. I took caution when encountering pop-up ads and made sure the URL was correct before logging into my account. I also left a digital footprint by paying my phone bill online. I would consider this a higher risk with a rating of 8 because I connected my checking account information for the money to withdrawn. I paid my bill through the iOS app on my phone and did not encounter being redirected to any other websites when I needed to enter my billing information.

There have been many times that I have received a message on Facebook Messenger from someone on my friend’s list that contained a link and asked if the video was mine. This is a common phishing scam, when a person opens the link, it will take them to a fake YouTube page and request that they download required updates to view the video. These links attempt to have individuals download malware to their computers. When I receive these messages, I immediately delete the message and do not open the link to avoid download potentially harmful software. I included an image of a similar message that I received.

My Facebook and Twitter accounts were the first two links that appeared when I searched my name and city through Google’s search engine. When I completed the same search using Bing, the search engine was not as accurate as Google and did not locate any of my accounts or find any information about me. I take caution to avoid making posts that will reflect on me in a negative way. When I use my social media accounts, I post pictures of my family and interact with friends. If an employer reviewed my social media platforms, my image would not reflect poorly on the company because I avoid using vulgar language and posting irresponsible images.

The three steps I can take to enhance my privacy, safety, and security on the web:

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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Install security software/firewall on my laptop and update the software regularly to reduce potential risks. Adjust my social media account settings from public to private. Avoid opening emails and text messages that are from an unknown sender.

(https:/ Kimberly Adams (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227062) 4:49pm

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Hello Stephanie,

It sounds like you have the right idea on protecting your digital security and privacy. I would like to say that all of my accounts are private but I know that my LinkedIn and my Instagram are not, but I do know that I do not share anything on them that would do anyone any good. Updating passwords regularly and not saving card information is another great way to protect yourself. Be mindful of the security that you install a lot of them can be hacked fairly easily.

Be prepared!

~Kimberly

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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(https:// Mary Ball (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226760) Tuesday

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A couple of digital footprints that I left behind is I have purchased several items from Amazon, it is like my favorite place to do online shopping. I would rate this at a 9 because I leave my card payment info stored to my account for easier access being that I make multiple purchases from Amazon a week. Amazon does have it where I have to provide my password to make a purchase, so it makes me feel at ease leaving my card info stored. This is the only place I choose to do this with. By saying that I leave my card info in place, I have set up with my bank a high fraud alert, anything that is purchased, whether it is 1.00 or 100.00 or more I get a notification, and can easily stop any transaction that I see that wasn't myself or my spouse.

One other digital footprint that I have left behind, is I love to decorate my house. So I am forever searching the web for ideas on how to switch up my home. I don't tend to make purchases, so I rate this at 1 since I never have to put in any kind of personal information into any of the places that I search.

I am not sure if many of you are aware of the Equifax data breach of many of its consumer's social security numbers, names, etc including mine along with my husbands and a lot more, information was leaked out. During the process, Equifax offered it's consumers up to 250.00 or to have 6 months of free credit security. I already have free credit security through Credit Karma, so I opted for the up to 250.00, which I have yet to receive anything, and I'm not really looking for it to come, as the settlement is to be divided between everyone who opted for the cash settlement.

One other way just yesterday that I had a security breach was I had received an email that my Amazon account had been placed on hold and that any prior purchases had been canceled until I completed an Identity form. In this form, it asked for my name, address and social. That caught my attention quickly and I called Amazon and they confirmed it to be a scam. So had I went through and filled out the information, whoever was on the other end would have had my info and been able to do whatever they please with it. I will upload the exact email to the bottom of this post that I got so you can see if you've ever received this from Amazon.

I searched my name with my maiden name and my married name, and on Spokeo, it brought me up with my maiden name and had so much information about myself I was a bit shocked. From my current address, and the last 3 addresses that I lived in, to 3 possible phone numbers, my email and listed some of my family members. This website pulled up the exact location of the house I'm living in now. The link is listed below to show you just how much info others can have with just the search of your name.

Link (https://www.spokeo.com/Mary-Hayes/Washington/Tacoma/p40180254443)

I also searched my name with Bing but didn't find much other than my Facebook account.

I believe that if an employer wanted to search my name, they wouldn't find any negative things to use against me. I strictly use my Facebook for personal and family reasons, and never post anything vulgar or anything that would make a company think twice about hiring me.

Three different ways to enhance my privacy:

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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1. Start using unique passwords that would be hard for others to predict. 2. Clearing my Cache more often, I tend to not do that a lot but learning to do this will help protect my

information from just lurking around in my Web history. 3. Turning off the "save password" When you use this feature it saves and stores your passwords

allowing you to use them across all browsers and devices.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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(https:/ Debra Eden (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226626) Tuesday

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Mary,

I think we all have shopped on Amazon without really thinking of the risk we may be taking with our financial information. I like that you mentioned text alerts related to your bank account. That is something we recommended to our members when I worked in the credit union. Usually when my text alert goes off, it is within 30 minutes or less of any card activity. At that point, everyone involved can be protected whether it be us as the customer or the company that is not going to lose merchandise. I think that is a really great fraud protection to bring out.

(https:/ Stephanie Collins (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227383) 7:55am

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Hi, Christy!

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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Identifying Emails from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html? nodeId=201909120)

The image of the email you shared looks very realistic. For the consumer's privacy, Amazon will never request sensitive information such as social security numbers, tax ID, or bank account numbers (Credit).

(https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201909120)

Automatic Strong Passwords (https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/automatic-passwords-and-auditing- in-ios-12/)

I am also guilty of saving my passwords in webpages. My MacBook Pro remembers all of my passwords and allows me to log into webpages using my fingerprint. I've always enjoyed this feature because I don't have to remember what my password is for specific accounts. This laptop contains a feature that will suggest a strong password for me, the password contains many alphabetical and numerical characters that would be difficult for a cybercriminal to guess. If I choose to use the suggested passwords, I can use my fingerprint on my laptop or face ID on my iPhone. I think this feature lowers the risk of my passwords being stolen because I don't have to physically type them out anymore.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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(https:/ Teyauna Carter (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226844) 1:40pm

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Hello ! I'm guilty as well. I try to keep the same password for everything I create because it's so much easier. Taking the easy way out huh? Even my debit cards all have the same pin #. Even someone so close shouldn't have all your personal pin #'s or passwords. I also always save my passwords rather its on my personal computer, work computer or even on my phone. My house alarm code is even the same as my debit cards pin number. Now that I realized that I have done some online purchases at work on the computer I need to find away to change my password and not save it. All it takes is for 1 person to log on and see my account information pulled up and there goes me being in a financial bind.

(https:// Aaron Zerfoss (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227168) Yesterday

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The only digital trail I could think of is the one where I wanted to see how much my paycheck is from my job. It leaves a digital footprint on my phone because I also sometimes forget to log out of which would be high on the risk scale because the website shows all my personal information when it comes to employment.

My mother had her card information stolen by a drive through clerk at Burger King. She realized this by a purchase that was done not by her from a company in Australia. The suspicion on why she believed it was her was because she took her card and took a minute to give it back.

A lot more information comes up then I want it too. My family information addresses I lived at and old phone numbers. Even with my father it goes a little before paying for it my dad’s criminal record with the search of my name. I don’t recommend the name but oddly one website shows a girlfriend I had years ago even though I wasn’t with her for a long period of time.

This is something I’m unsure on how to fix. I feel like theirs a way I can contact people to have my information taken off the internet. But I feel it’s through employers, income tax, rental properties that had my name a part of it. Luckily, I don’t have a criminal record that can fall back on me. But I have heard family members criminal records could possibly hurt other people in your family especially close family members.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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(https:/ Teyauna Carter (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226844) 1:29pm

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Good evening, I agree. On LinkedIn, a bunch of my family information came up that included previous and current addresses and phone numbers. Ii is also a few people that showed up that has the same last name as me (which I still go by my married name) but I never heard of these people before. This is kind of putting people in harms way. Supposedly I was beefing with someone and they can not get to me but see I have family members I'm attached to that lives local and go after them. This is the exact way I found out that my daughter's dad is married. I just went on the google and put in his name and Lord behold his name popped up and I clicked on it, there it was a recent picture with him and her on it.

(https:// Teyauna Carter (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226844) 1:21pm

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One of 2 digital footprints I have recently left behind was signing up for a meal prep order. I got an email about a keto meal prep that will help me lose weight without starving myself and was interested in joining. I signed up to have meals delivered and paid the fee. Later when I went into my Facebook page, I started seeing different ads for weight loss. I also left my footprints by ordering a sweat band from Amazon. Now I have so much spam/junk mail about work out DVD's. It's almost like an email party lol. I never have had a problem using Amazon nor Ebay as far as having my account being used by anyone else or my account being double charged. I would rate both of these as low, somewhere between 2-4 being that I have always used Amazon & reading the reviews for the Keto meal prep, it seem to have 5 star ratings.

Last year, my campaign American Express Travel reached a security breach and because there are 8 other campaigns on the same floor, they felt obligated to shut down the departments just in case the hacker/hackers decided to hack their systems as well. We work with a lot of people personal information. The moment we started receiving calls about unauthorized charges, the company immediately shut down the campaign for 5 weeks and discontinued all card holders cards until futher investigation. Once the investigation was finalized, we were able to reverse those charges and run business as usual. I honstly enjoyed those weeks free of NO work.

My name is popular, but the spelling is unique. I have seen it spelled Tiana, Tiona, Tianna etc but not like I spell mine Teyauna . I put my name in DuckDuckgo and it the Mylife profile. It does a picture of me about 9 years ago and pretty much all of the information is accurate with the exception of me being Caucasian. I also placed my name in LinkedIn and there everything is accurate except I no longer work as an Account Manager at Aarons Sales and Lease. I if was an employer, the observations I can make will be this individual doesn't have a lot going on in her life, she has been at 1 job a good period of time and with the income she is currently making the company will need to compete.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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Three steps I would take to protect my online privacy , safety and is security is be mindful of what is being posted by myself or being tagged in others post on social media. Letting everyone know your every move and where about is not safe. Be mindful when doing online shopping, all websites are not legitimate websites. Your bank accounts can easilybe hacked and someone can access your account and take all money. Last be careful when opening up spam mail. Some emails are not safe, this is a way for hackers to access your data base.

(https:/ Mary Ball (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226760) 3:01pm

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Hi Teyaune-

It is interesting to read about what companies have to do to protect themselves. I never really imagined just what length they have to go through. I'm sure you enjoyed that workless moment. But I bet when you got back it was like a crazy madhouse.

I love your name, the way it is spelled is very unique. I have a son named Brinxley and everyone always speaks how unique his name is. I've actually googled his name and there's nothing on him or anyone with that name, except for my husband's papa's obituary where his name was listed as his great-grandson.

I also catch myself tagging me at places and didn't realize the danger in it. Especially being alone.

I enjoyed reading a little bit about your work and name- Best wishes- Christy

(https:/ Kimberly Adams (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227062) 4:41pm

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Teyaune,

It makes me think about how webhooks and data are used when we purchased something online. The information is stored and used to 'make' your browsing more personalized to you. This is kind of creepy to me, how much information is collected. It's not just online that you have to worry about your information being hacked or compromised, it's in stores as well. Think about the target breach that happened many years ago, back in 2013. https://www.lifelock.com/learn-data-breaches-target-data-breach-victims- could-get-up-to-10000.html (https://www.lifelock.com/learn-data-breaches-target-data-breach-victims- could-get-up-to-10000.html) We go into the store thinking we are safe, but we never are. Your card information goes into a system that transports your card data online to their processor and then it gets sent to your bank for approval and then back to the processor and then back to the store, all in the matter of seconds. That's a lot of hands in the pot!

Be mindful.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

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Kimberly

(https:// Kristy Schuerman (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226756) 1:43pm

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Two digital footprints that I left behind this past week would be having a group chat on Instagram and I was also did online shopping. I would say that chatting with my friends on Instagram I would consider a 1 because we were not sharing any personal information but I would consider my online shopping a 9 or 10 due to the fact that all I had to do was enter a code and all of my saved information populated. A situation in where someone I know personally was a victim of a security breach, that person was my brother. He had his social security number stolen which meant that these people were opening up credit cards in his name and spending a lot of money all over California and mind you we lived in Ohio. We eventually got it all resolved through the banks and the social security office but he still to this day has an alert on his social security number that whenever it is run, he gets a phone call verifying that he gave permission. The first observation that I found when searching my name online is that my LinkedIn profile comes up and shows a picture of me along with where I work at currently. The second thing that I noticed was when I was in high school and ran track and field my records are recorded on their website. For a potential employer I feel like my name search is not very threatening. After exploring my digital trail I believe that I can put less personal information out there, make sure to always be aware of what people are posting of you on social media and to go back to the websites where I know I have personal information saved and make it so it is less descriptive.

(https:/ Mary Ball (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/226760) 2:50pm

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Hi Kristy-

I too have had my social stolen, it was so hectic, even filing my taxes was insane. I had to wait for a pin to verify my own taxes. I can't imagine what these people think that they will not get caught. Maybe not right away, but eventually they will.

I also leave my information for easy online shopping. Now that I see how risky it can be, I've taken all my debt information out. Except with Amazon, I'm having a hard time cutting that one loose because I shop there a pretty good bit, and the hassle of loading my card number each time would be so repetitive.

I enjoyed reading your discussion.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/discussion_topics/1614972?module_item_id=2922179 16/19

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Best wishes- Christy

(https:/ Kimberly Adams (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227062) 4:23pm

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Hey Christy,

If you are super worried about your amazon you can use a prepaid card as your default card on file and then only enter your true card number when you buy things!

Hope that helps!

~Kimberly

(https:/ Kimberly Adams (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227062) 4:31pm

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Kristy,

It's insane the amount of information that we save, online. Think about your mobile banking apps or your information that we save for online bill pay. All of that information is stored and used for later moments in time. What happens if someone hacks your accounts? Did you know that if you leave your bluetooth on, on your phone that your device now becomes hackable and the cards you store in your Apple, Samsung or Google pay now is free information for someone to copy and use at their choice.

Be careful out there not everyone has your best interest at heart.

~Kimberly

(https:// Merisa Hamzic (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/26525) 4:12pm

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Week 3. Discussion 2.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/discussion_topics/1614972?module_item_id=2922179 17/19

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Two digital footprints that I left on my work computer were a couple of weeks ago, it was my bank and online shopping. I have a very busy life and most of my shopping is online and my debit card is always linked to my account. So all of my information is saved onto my work computer. I think another digital print is the social media that we use and how we always post pictures. My work computer contains all of my billing and all my finances. The big one is Facebook for me, I use some of the apps through my Facebook account and my debit card is linked to that.

My mother and I were both victims of a privacy and safety breach. My mom had her identity-stolen a couple of months ago, and we had to change all of her documents and banking information. She used her laptop computer for online shopping, paying bills and one day she let someone borrow the computer at work and after her identity was stolen. We had to call the credit company and the social security administration to let them know.

I have used Bing and Google, I searched my name and so many things came up, my social media accounts, white pages with phone number and addresses. I am very careful what I post on social media so nothing bad came up.

After all this, I can start deleting cookies and cash after using the internet, I will not be saving my passwords, make my social media accounts private, I will not be storing and linking my debit card to my online shopping sites. I will definitely not have Facebook liked through my apps and my card.

(https:// Kimberly Adams (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227062) 4:21pm

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A great example of a digital footprint that is low risk is when I have left this week is my search for what type of plants that I can plant that will help ward off mosquitos. Which by the way would be lavender or marigolds, I have killer skeeters at my home. A high-risk footprint I have left this past week could be paying my mortgage or logging into my bank account. That is a lot of data to be collected and just left for anyone to grab.

I teach in a contact center that processes payments for many online companies and every class I ask the question about, who has been the victim of a data or privacy breach? Every class someone has a story to tell. Whether it has been their card has been compromised or their identity is stolen. We, then talk about how did you fix it? Most say they call the bank and dispute the card transaction or they have to file many complaints to the credit bureaus to get it taken care of. Once you have been violated it’s hard to get your life back.

I used DuckDuckGo and Google, which by the way I have never heard of, but I searched my current full name with and without my middle name searched many and many pages and returned nothing. I searched my first married name and maiden name all the same way and found nothing. I used my current town, old towns even the town that I grew up in and still nothing. I did find a lot of people with almost or the same name. My name is pretty common. When I played detective, and I went to town like a crazy ex-

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/discussion_topics/1614972?module_item_id=2922179 18/19

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girlfriend or one that is headed that way because she thinks something is going on. I found nothing. When I sign up for things I don’t use my real name, I normally use some type of pen name. I don’t want you to find me.

Now that I know more about my security I will continue to do most things the same. I will continue to use a pen name, delete my cache, cookies, browser history, and be mindful of the things I post, sites I search and be mindful of ways I use the internet.

(https:// Amy Bryant (https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/users/227350) 4:40pm

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It is so easy to leave a digital footprint without thinking of the repercussions. We are usually safe and comfortable in our home, maybe even in our bed. We choose different websites to surf Facebook, Yahoo, Google, and many more. We do these things without a second thought. Most of us feel that we are safe because we are alone, and no one could see us do such activities. This past week I was on Facebook and yahoo. I would rate my Facebook interaction a three or a four as I participated in a political post. I usually do not do these things because I do not see the point in them. But then again, if I don't stand for something, I will fall for anything. I rate it in these terms as I didn't take part in the conversation. I just liked the post, and I read the comments. I was enlightened about the feelings of two sides taking part in a debate. I know that even though a friend of mine posted it to a private friend group that an employer can see that I liked the post. If said employer was not for diversity, they could use that information against me. Thankfully though, I work for an employer that not only encourages diversity, but they require new hires to take part in diversity training.

The second digital footprint was on the site of yahoo. I would rate it a one because I just clicked on what was happening with Megan and Harry. I don't see how reading this article could put me at risk. But anything can happen. When I looked myself up online, I used several search engines, Yahoo, bing, and duck go. I am not sure if I did it right because I was unable to find very much when it came to my digital imprint. Nothing more than the city I used to live in and the city I live in now. It also showed the people I am associated with and my close relatives. What I found on these searches was that they would only go so far before I would have to pay money to see my history. I am not willing to pay for that information. However, going forward, I will take these steps to protect my digital identity. I will change all of my passwords to something hard to guess. I will change my emails that I give to cultural sights to a fake name. I will turn off my location services, and I won't post my address or phone numbers on any public forum. I will take care of my photo's I have online and make them private or get rid of them. There are so many measures we need to take to protect ourselves. I am glad for this class to open my eyes so I can be a more responsible digital citizen.

1/16/2020 Topic: Week 3 - Discussion 2

https://ashford.instructure.com/courses/57785/discussion_topics/1614972?module_item_id=2922179 19/19