Beware of your 'digital shadow' By Tan Weizhen
Publisher:The Straits Times - Publication Date: 18-04-2008

Whether you are surfing the Internet or shopping in a mall, information about you is being collected - without your knowledge.

What this means is that there is a lot more information about you out there than you realise. It's called your 'digital shadow' and, on average, the information is enough to fill a DVD.

The data is collected in a number of ways, from e-mail histories to credit card transactions, right down to surveillance camera footage.

The total amount of digital data generated by Singaporeans is expected to grow this year to 1,258 petabytes. One petabyte is equivalent to 1.05 million gigabytes. If all this data was copied into books, it would be enough to cover the entire island to a height of 0.6m.

About half of all this digital information - in effect, a trail left behind by Singaporeans' activities that others can pick up on without their being aware of it - makes up their 'digital shadow'. And the other half comes from sources such as government agencies which collect official data on Singaporeans, digital medical records, and the loads of stuff that Singaporeans create about themselves, from posting pictures online at Flickr to the information that goes into their Facebook accounts.

These findings were published last week in a report by research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

Joe Ong, country manager of data management firm EMC, which sponsored the IDC report, said the results show the dark side of being so wired up and tech-savvy: This makes it easy to collect data on Singaporeans.

Not surprisingly, Internet transactions are the main source of the information that makes up a Singaporean's 'digital shadow'.

A recent Nielsen study, for example, noted 73 per cent of Singaporeans use credit cards for online transactions. Zuji, an online travel agency, found more Singaporeans order e-tickets than people from any other Asian country.

The digital 'footprints' left by web users are collected by firms via 'cookies' and transactions, and sold to other companies and advertisers hungry for your private information. Cookies store information from your visit to a website, including what you did on it and any personal information you gave.

This explains how, for example, a bank you have had no dealings with can get your private cellphone number to offer you a sweet credit card deal. Companies mostly use this information to track your preferences and spending habits, and then send you spam, or stick you on a mailing list.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are the other big offenders.

In December last year, for example, Facebook started the controversial Beacon system with 44 other websites. Once members are logged onto Facebook, Beacon tracks their online activities via web cookies.

What you are doing on these 44 sites - for example, watching a video - will show up as an alert on friends' Facebook profiles.

In effect, this sends data about you to people you don't know: Your Facebook friends will invite others to view their profiles, which will contain information on you. As the network widens, so do the people who have access to your surfing habits, among other things.

While most information-gathering may give rise to simply irritating consequences - extra spam, for instance - or, conversely, may turn out to be helpful, such as by allowing online retailers to recommend products to you, there is some real danger as well.

In a major heist last year, for example, hackers stole information on 50 million credit cards and personal data from American apparel store TJX.

Dr Lim Sun Sun, assistant professor of the communications and new media programme at the National University of Singapore, noted that apart from privacy concerns, the 'digital shadow' poses a problem for users who want to distance themselves from their past online personas.

"It is beyond your control as your photos and other data may be tagged by other people. It would then be difficult to present your best self to the world.

"This has adverse implications for future relationships, job applications and educational advancement."

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