“Outer order contributes to inner calm”-Gretchen Rubin
A digitally overwhelmed Gen Z finds itself amidst a technological upheaval. Clusters of personal data in innumerable forgotten places, thoughtless signups on those barely used e-commerce websites, a hoard of data on old hard drives and cloud storage, and those old, “rebooted” devices. Digital clutter, quite literally like our physical clutter takes up all that unnecessary space and plays havoc with our peace of mind.
Cluttered devices and outdated profiles are all signs of a privacy breach waiting to happen. With changing lifestyles and increased vulnerability to digital exploitation, it is more important now than ever to “clean that clutter and take control of our digital footprint.”
Follow a concise approach:
More than often, our laptops and phones are filled with software and applications we do not regularly use.Most of those saved photos are just repetitions, different angles, and poor-quality images. Those “important” documents have multiple copies and are often never opened in our entire lives. These are just clusters of unsecured data sitting on our digital devices.
- So, identify what you need and delete all those obsolete GB (Gigabytes)
We subconsciously subscribe to newsletters we would never read. Important emails are often lost between chunks of irrelevant brand advertisements and newsletters. While our personal and financial info floats around on various e-commerce accounts and websites, cookies and browsing history exposes our digital lives to even more dangerous realms.
- Minimize exposure to unsecured websites, irrelevant subscriptions.
- Remove cookies, browsing history, passwords, financial info at least every 2 months.
- Minimize e-commerce accounts and log out every time after using them.
Social media accounts, being our Expose to the world have put us in an extremely vulnerable spot. Our photos and personal details being available to multiple people, this data can be used to unimaginable limits. Fraudsters thrive on confidential information being unintentionally leaked and use this very data while concocting synthetic identities.
- Unfollow people and pages that no longer cater to your evolved interests.
- Review security and privacy settings on all social media accounts from time to time.
- For more detailed settings change, check out https://medium.com/technicity/reducing-your-digital-footprint-by-staying-invisible-online-d6e3a30a5c4
Those old electronics and hard drives which no longer work and have been factory reset by us are not necessarily completely absolved of our data. We either keep them all boxed up till the end of time or carelessly discard them but that doesn’t change the fact that there are still bytes of information in existence that could harm us if retrieved by unscrupulous humans. Several e-waste recyclers provide data destruction facilities and must be contacted.
- Give your e-waste to a verified e-waste recycler.
