Your Digital Footprint

凡走過，必留下「數位」足跡How much information are you leaving behind?你知道自己無意間遺留下多少私人的訊息嗎？by Jeremiah Clark

It’s Monday morning, and you’re late for work. Instead of walking as usual, you head straight to the subway. On the train, you use your cell phone to call a co-worker about a meeting. Then you use your laptop and the subway’s Wi-Fi connection to update Facebook and catch up on your e-mails. When you finally get to your office building's lobby, you swiper your ID card and zip up to your office. Without realizing it, you’ve left a trail of information easily accessible to others starting back at the subway station. This is your digital footprint.

Your digital footprint consists of all the information about you that is stored digitally. Why does this even matter? It matters because people you don’t know have access to your information whether you like it or not. Your information can be divided into two categories-active and passive. Your active data is everything you've added to the digital universe, like personal details on Facebook and Twitter. Your passive data is the information about you that is being recorded without your knowledge.

Think back to your activities this morning. When you took the subway, cameras at the station recorded your entering the station or bording the train. Your cell phone company kept a record of the time and length of your phone calls. The websites you browsed stored information about you on their servers, and that is available to others. And your office recorded your data when you signed in. All of this adds to the size of your digital footprint.

Should you be worried? It all depends, Information you actively add to your digital footprint can be seen by anyone-and it never completely disappears from the digital universe. But most of that information is secure. Companies usually don't give out your information. Some companies use your digital footprint for your benefit. If you have ever gotten a recommendation for a product while shopping online. it's because of your digital footprint.
If you are worried about the size of your digital footprint, "walk" carefully. Don't share anything online that you don't want strangers to see.

More Information
Be careful on Facebook!
Your digital footprint on your Facebook page may be used for more than just keeping Friends informed of your activities.
College admissions departments regularly check Facebood pages to ascertain the character of the applicant. Employers check up on potential employees to find out more than resumes reveal. Even the taxman checks networking sites to see if those avoiding taxes made any references to financial matters.

Grammar
It matters because people you don't know have access to your information whether you like it or not. "whether you like it or not "-is very useful sentence when you talk about the situation will happen without your control.
Whether she likes it or not, we're still going to have a birthday party for her.
Whether you like it or not, I'm going to take your video games away.

Vocabulary
Wi-Fi-wireless internet.
footprint-shape of your foot left on teh ground, following the footprint can follow that person.
zip-快速行动,迅速通过,飞快 fast, quick.
Mom always wants to zip through the duty-free shops before departure.
A convertible zipped by us when we were about to cross the road.敞篷跑车
digitally- 数位地All the customers' statements were digitally stored in the bank's main computer.
*The production line is controlled digitally.数位化控制
passive-非主动提供的,被动的,消极的,反义词是active主动地,积极的.
Women are sometimes educated to play a more passive role in relationships.

Chat Room
catch up-追赶,赶上.补救.追上进度.赶工.
catch up sleep补眠, catch up on my email, catch up my reading....
catch up with someone-许久不见的朋友,了解对方的近况,包刮生活,工作,感情各方面的