A digital footprint is essentially anything online that concerns you. It may even be considered as anything online that has your name attached to it. A quick google search will reveal things that you may prefer not to be revealed, or even open your eyes to what some people in the room found out about people who share their name... as John found out when he searched his name to find two blokes having a pash...
Privacy settings are a great way to lock your information down, and not imprint your digital footprint like a dinosaur's that lasts for 100s of year (maybe more). Problem: privacy settings are, for good or for bad, regularly changing and it's something you need to keep on top of.
Being a good digital citizen requires you to understand other's digital footprint and appreciate that they may not want their image/blog/website/personal lifestyle choice blurted out for all to read/see/comment on/sack over...
It is important to take control of your digital footprint and regularly search yourself - commonly called 'egosurfing', but maybe a better name should be 'ensuring-digital-footprint-is-ok-surfing'. If something comes up that you do not give permission for, you are responsible for doing something about it. Email the webmaster, call up the author, engage solicitors, DO SOMETHING! Because you're the one it effects.
We need to teach students this as well... not just in a 5 week block that we can tick off, but it needs to be constantly referred to and discussed. Have students ask questions, get them to egosurf, check things out.
At the end of the day though, if you don't do/post anything you wouldn't want to share with your boss/parents/partner/children/granny, then it's really not a problem...!
