Follow-up on digital footprints

I wrote a couple weeks ago about our online tracks - the posts, pictures, quotes and mentions about a person that can be found through search engines and can influence everything from dating to employment.

Now the folks at the Pew Internet Center have released a report looking at this same issue. Here are some of the findings:

Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.

In addition to providing national telephone survey data, the full report (PDF) also includes quotes from online survey respondents as well as experts in the fields of privacy, online identity management and search.

I'm an Omnivore

A fascinating new survey report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project points out some interesting distinctions within the "wired" community. The report is a typology of information and communication technology users.

It found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20 percent are moderate users, and the remainder have little or no usage of the Internet or cell phones. But there are many sub-groups within each category and a quiz to see what group you belong in.