# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Digital Literacy – Searching for information online

# data[].attributes.headline
Tools and Technologies to Improve Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
Tools and Technologies to Improve Learning

# data[].attributes.headline
Digital collaborative tools could be used to enhance personal and professional practices

# data[].attributes.subject
Digital collaborative tools could be used to enhance personal and professional practices

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We're a membership organisation, providing digital solutions for UK education and research.

# data[].attributes.headline
 Approach is Developed Using Digital Creativity

# data[].attributes.subject
 Approach is Developed Using Digital Creativity

# data[].attributes.headline
Benefits and Risks of Digital Collaborative Tools 

# data[].attributes.subject
Benefits and Risks of Digital Collaborative Tools 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In our recent webinar, The Benefits and Risks of Collaboration Tools, we explored the explosion of collaborative tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack and also examined some of the new risks they can create along the way. Thanks again to Brian Hill from Wellington Consulting for sharing his insights and deep knowledge of the collaboration and unified communications markets. For those who were not able to join the session, which I will summarize here, the recording is available to watch.

Over the past 9 to 12 months, our customers and prospects have expressed a dramatic growth in interest in collaborative tools-primarily Slack and Microsoft Teams, but also Cisco WebEx Teams, Symphony, and others. This interest comes from firms large and small and was a popular discussion topic at our June SmarshConnect and more recently at eDiscovery and compliance events such as Today's General Counsel in NYC and the SIFMA Compliance & Legal Society regional meeting in San Francisco. The growth in interest and demand is not limited to the market we serve. Microsoft recently reported that more than 500,000 organizations are using Teams, which has surpassed Slack with 13M daily active users (DAUs) compared to Slack's 10M. For many, the choice of collaborative tools is not limited to a single platform. Pull from specific departments and functions, mergers, and the lack of a corporate standard often result in the presence of multiple tools within an organization. In fact, collaboration technology provider Mio estimates that 91% of organizations have more than two collaborative tools, with an average of 3.3 per firm.

In order to better understand the reasons behind this increased adoption, we explored the benefits firms have realized from collaboration technology. As one might expect, many of the expected benefits of collaborative tools are intangible. Productivity gains and the improved ability to share customer information, for example, are difficult to measure. However, some published results appear to validate firms' investments in these platforms. For example:

In an April 2019 study led by Forrester Research, users of Microsoft Teams reported a 17% reduction in the volume of emails received daily and a 19% reduction in the number of meetings attended weekly.

In a survey conducted in 2017, IDC reported that users of Slack experienced a 32% reduction in emails and 23% fewer meetings, percentages that have likely increased since the publishing of this report.

In its own research, analyst firm Nemertis Research reported that, while the vast majority of firms have not established quantifiable metrics around the use of collaboration technology, those that have experienced a 12% reduction in email and a 22% reduction in the number of meetings.

Suffice it to say, the benefits of collaboration are appealing, whether measured explicitly or when looking more broadly at enabling agility, improving response time, and reducing cycle times around collaborative work.

So, what about risks? As we discussed on the webinar, three primary categories are causing firms to hesitate before enabling even broader use of these technologies:

Policy risk: A primary challenge of collaborative tools is the lack of guardrails. In many cases, employees are not provided guidance on what the tools can and cannot be used for. Potential exposures can be introduced if communications policies that guide the appropriate use of intellectual property and other sensitive information are not extended to new collaborative tools. For many firms, these policy controls need to go much further than simply leveraging the native features provided by Slack, Teams, and others.

Modality Risk: Collaborative tools tend to provide a rich set of features, including the ability to engage in persistent chats, embed files for joint authoring, enable recording of voice and video, and use emojis and other non-text messaging as part of conversations. This can result in exposure to features that were previously not available or addressed in policies as well as increase confusion and complexity, as each collaborative tool is unique and has its own method of access, native controls, and capabilities.

Review Risk: The multiple modalities-along with the fact that conversations can be changed, modified, or deleted-create new complexities for compliance and discovery programs that are designed for email. Familiar parent-child relationships of email are not as easy to decipher when there may be hundreds of participants in a persistent chat, and where content may be consistently evolving. For regulated firms and those facing a large volume of litigation, the risk of missing a critical component of a conversation is exceptionally high, and using tools unsuited for today's collaborative technology is an exposure that more legal and compliance teams are tuning in to.

Given these factors, what guidance can help firms keep benefits and potential risks in proper balance? Brian Hill offered the following:

Understand that risk and value can live anywhere: As we've stated many times, content and context-not specific technology-are determinative. This is true when managing litigation, meeting regulatory demands, or protecting against loss of intellectual property. Collaborative tools are yet another example of platforms that need to be brought under the umbrella of governance controls.

Training around collaborative tools needs to be explicit: As many have learned from previous technologies such as Microsoft SharePoint, deploying new tools without guardrails and user guidance can easily produce yet another dumping ground. Firms should establish clear guidelines on what can and cannot be shared on collaborative platforms and ensure that training programs remain active and current as new features and interactive capabilities emerge.

Examine discovery and compliance tools now: Persistent chats and interactive content behave fundamentally differently than email. For firms relying on technology that can only ingest and process content in an email format, this can result in breaks in chains of custody and create tremendous complexity in the review process. Firms should examine their existing technologies to understand how they will manage these non-email sources before the first case arrives.

Finally, as we've stated elsewhere, the evaluation of new technologies itself should be a collaborative exercise. It should involve the direct participation of legal, compliance, security, and privacy stakeholders to support IT and business units and provide a complete picture of the benefits and potential exposures introduced by Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other collaborative platforms.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Benefits and Risks of Collaboration Tools | Webinar | Smarsh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In our recent webinar, The Benefits and Risks of Collaboration Tools, we explored the explosion of collaborative tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack and also examined some of the new risks they can create along the way. Thanks again to Brian Hill from Wellington Consulting for sharing his insights and deep knowledge of the collaboration and unified communications markets.

# data[].attributes.headline
Basic Infrastructure of Common Digital Devices 

# data[].attributes.subject
Basic Infrastructure of Common Digital Devices 

# data[].attributes.body
Examples of digital infrastructure include:

Internet backbone, broadband.

Mobile telecom and digital communication suites, including apps.

Data centers and networks.

Enterprise portals, platforms, systems, and software.

Cloud services and software.

Operational security, user identity and data encryption.

APIs and integrations.

# data[].attributes.headline
Work Safely Online by Using Appropriate Language and Behaviour

# data[].attributes.subject
Work Safely Online by Using Appropriate Language and Behaviour

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
LibGuides: Research Toolkit: 6c: Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
LibGuides: Research Toolkit: 6c: Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages

# data[].attributes.headline
Why Search don't Return Relevant Results

# data[].attributes.subject
Why Search don't Return Relevant Results

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
While search engine representatives and light hatters (the whitest of the white hatters) say that having great, link-worthy content and links is enough to get high rankings, there are many sites with these traits that do not get listed for the words that matter (the ones that send serious traffic). If it were so easy and every page that deserved a high ranking had it, there would be no need for us -- SEOs.

The reality is that search engines are far from perfect. They face significant challenges trying to decipher our intentions and find the pages that best match our queries.

Here are some of the reasons why search engines don't return 100% relevant results all the time:

1. Relevance is subjective. This is the biggest problem. You can do a search for 'coffee' in Canada and find Tim Horton's website as the most relevant. Makes sense, as that's the most popular coffee chain in Canada, but for somebody in Seattle, Starbucks might be the most relevant result. You can do a search for the '49ers' and be looking for the football team, but a historian may be looking for research material on California. And you might even do a search today for 'bones' trying to find where to buy your dog a treat, but tomorrow you do that same search looking for an episode of the TV series 'Bones' that you missed the night before.

How can a search engine disambiguate such searches? Mind reading would be an excellent approach :-)

So far the best approaches the search engines have come up with are the use of human quality raters and personalized search. The better the search engines profile the searcher, the higher the chances of producing relevant results. This method obviously raises a lot of privacy concerns.

2. Natural language searches. A MySQL database engine can precisely return all the relevant records given a query 'select first, last from employee where last = "Smith";'. There is a formal syntax and no ambiguity. A search engine, on the other hand, receives 'who has smith as last name in chicago' or 'smith last name chicago'. The query is in natural language -- our language. There are many different ways to say the same thing--there is context, there are human idiosyncrasies, and so on. The searcher component of a search engine must disambiguate the query and translate it into a more formal manner before looking it up in the index.

3. Poor queries. Many searchers don't know how to express what they want in the real world, and are even worse when attempting to ask a search engine. They call the vacuum cleaner a 'sucker' and are unable to find cleaning services online. Worse yet they misspell words, making the problem more 'interesting' for search engines.

4. Synonymy. This is another challenge. There are words that have the same meaning, like 'car' and 'automobile'. When you do a search you would like to get pages that contain your exact words, and pages that contain other words that mean the same thing, as long as they are relevant to your search. Let's say you do a search for 'monkey'. You would want your results to include pages that contain monkey, but perhaps also the words 'chimpanzee' or 'ape'. If you were a little bit more strict, you would not want to include pages that say chimpanzee because, although a chimpanzee is a primate, it is not a monkey. These details don't pass through the minds of most searchers, but search engines have a hard time because of it.

5. Polysemy. There are words that change their meaning depending on the context in which they are used. For example, if you do a search for 'wood' you might want pages that are talking about pieces of a tree, or you might be talking about the geographical area that has many trees. Without the right context, it is hard for a human to tell. Imagine how hard it is for a search engine!

6. Imperfect performance. To follow up on my previous post about relevance feedback, let me introduce a couple of related concepts to better explain this problem: precision and recall.

Precision and recall are metrics used by information retrieval researchers to evaluate the performance of search engines. It doesn't matter how sophisticated the ranking algorithm is, at the end of the day what really matters is whether the user likes the results or not. Precision is a measure of how efficient the search engine is in returning only the relevant results for the search. The more irrelevant results, the lower the precision. Recall, on the other hand, measures how good the search engine is in returning all the relevant results. (Of course, this assumes the researcher knows how many relevant results there are.) The more relevant results missing from the search, the lower the recall.

Ideally, a search engine should identify all relevant documents without returning any irrelevant ones (100% precision and 100% recall). In practice, this has been proven to be impossible, as precision and recall are inversely proportional.

Empirical studies of retrieval performance have shown a tendency for Precision to decline as Recall increases. Trade-off between precision and recall

Fortunately, most searchers are more concerned about precision, especially in the top ten results. Few of us search past the first couple of result pages (SERPs). Relevance feedback via Quality raters is an excellent approach to improve precision. Quality raters can select the documents that are most relevant to the search, and that information can be used to refine the original search and yield better results for most users.

7. Spam. Search engines identify relevant pages by means of 'quality signals' or metrics that can be deduced from web pages by automated means. The challenge to search engines is that once black hat SEOs identify those signals, they can start to fake them. I think that over time it is going to be harder and harder to fake quality signals, but it is never going to be impossible. For humans it is easy to spot spam, but for computers it is much harder.
Why is it important to know all this?
This subject is important because it proves an interesting point. Although the search engines don't want to admit it, they need us (SEOs). As I mentioned above, relevance is subjective. Do you want to take a passive approach and hope for the Quality raters to qualify your website for the searches they think are relevant? Or, instead, do you want to take an active role and identify the best keywords, include them in your content and incoming links, and carefully study websites that are ranking high (web authorities) to see how you can do the same? Personally, I prefer the active role.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Reasons Why Search Engines Don't Return Relevant Results 100% of the Time

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
While search engine representatives and light hatters (the whitest of the white hatters) say that having great, link-worthy content and links is enough to get high rankings, there are many sites with these traits that do not get listed for the words that matter (the ones that send serious traffic)....

# data[].attributes.headline
Tools and Technologies to Improve Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
Tools and Technologies to Improve Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your digital footprint is always growing - so how can you keep it under control?

It's often said that data is "the new oil". Ignoring contemporary price fluctuations, there's merit in that idea in the sense that data is the currency keeping the world ticking. Personal data can be acquired, amassed, and traded away. Targeted advertising, for example, is entirely reliant on the analysis of the personal data of individuals - and is an extremely lucrative business.

Just as your personal data may be signed away through license agreements and terms of service, although lesser so in modern times than in the past, you can also voluntarily reveal information about yourself on social media.

Other people, for example, can easily glean a comprehensive overview of your career history and ambitions by the information with which you populate LinkedIn. Other details, like which restaurants or pubs you frequently visit, can be picked up through an examination of Instagram or Facebook posts. That's a huge chunk of personal information in just two examples, and there are many more ways in which people can easily leave a digital trail over the internet.

The main concern, however, isn't the information that's left behind in the form of digital breadcrumbs, but the data that you don't know is being collected along the way. Data that you unintentionally give up may be the most valuable, as it tells others far more about yourself than you're willing to let on.

Data can be harvested, for instance, with each click as you navigate the website. Every time you visit a certain web page at a certain time, or when you add an item to your shopping cart on an e-commerce site, your interaction is logged as a data point. Liking tweets or Facebook posts, or clicking a related article on an online article may also generate data that an organisation can collect and utilise.

This doesn't necessarily happen for nefarious purposes, and can often tweak your web browsing experience so it's more relevant and personal to your own needs. Although this process can, often enough, lead to situations where you're browsing experience is too finely-tuned and tailored; where it's too personal.

The downsides of your digital footprint

While data can be used for your benefit, the same data can be used by hackers to fuel criminal enterprise. This may come by way of third-parties observing your method of payment, or what you may order while you're out and about in real-life. Elements of your life you would normally keep private may be exposed through the exploitation of your digital footprint, inadvertently or otherwise, and subsequently used to blackmail you.

There are several ways you can minimise these risks, however, but first, you must take into account the moving parts. When it comes to your digital footprint, for instance, there are two types: active and passive.

Active digital footprint

An 'active' digital footprint is the publicly traceable information that you share on the web, including Facebook updates, message board posts and Twitter rants. We rarely think about this type of digital footprint, but it can become a major headache in some circumstances.

The most obvious example is in employment; when hiring a new member of staff, the vast majority of companies now look up potential candidates' social media profiles. You may have a bulletproof CV, but if your Twitter feed is a stream of complaints and insults directed at your former employer, that's likely to be a one-way ticket to the rejection pile.

Similarly, many people have been undone when ill-advised social media comments came back to haunt them later. The UK's first youth police and crime commissioner, for example, lost her job in 2013 after prior tweets emerged that many people said were racist and homophobic. The government's Data Protection Bill seeks to allow people to ask social media firms to remove posts they made in childhood, which should go some way to getting rid of embarrassing views people no longer hold.

Passive digital footprint

Your passive digital footprint is made up of the information that companies are harvesting behind the scenes, such as browsing data, IP addresses and purchasing habits. This is often collected without us even knowing about it, and is used to target advertisements, build customer profiles and more.

There are a number of ways to minimise how large this type of footprint grows, such as using proxies and VPNs, or using anonymising technologies such as Tor.

Thankfully, this data isn't usually publicly searchable, so it doesn't present much of an issue in day-to-day life - unless you're especially concerned with private companies like Google and Facebook tracking your internet activity.

Social media's security issue

Your social media posts can also present security risks. By stitching together all the information distributed across your various social networks, criminals - both cyber and garden-variety - can often stitch together a shockingly comprehensive view of your life. This can lead to burglaries, fraud and even identity theft.

So how can you ensure that your digital footprint doesn't become a digital problem? The simplest solution is to make sure not to post anything potentially embarrassing or harmful online - a good rule of thumb is to never post anything that you wouldn't be comfortable with showing your boss or being read aloud in a full room.

This is rarely possible all the time, though. Indeed, aside from the fact that this rule is heavily restrictive, there will always be incidents outside your control. This could include when someone posts a questionable photo of you on their social media account, for example.

The good news is that most social networks have adjustable privacy settings, allowing you to limit who can see your profile and posts, and change whether or not new friends and followers are accepted automatically.

If you're especially paranoid about your online activities being linked to you, one option is to use anonymous social media accounts. These can either use entirely falsified information or personal details not associated with your professional life, such as a middle or maiden name. This will make it harder for people you don't personally know to track you down.

The final and most extreme option for managing your digital footprint is the EU's ' right to be forgotten' law. This legislation allows people to request that search results which are "inadequate, irrelevant, or no longer relevant" be removed from search engines like Google. There has to be a valid reason for the request, however, so this tactic does not apply in the majority of cases.

The best guidance is to be sensible. A few pictures of you on a night out are unlikely to get you fired, but posting a lengthy rant about your boss might. Voice your opinions on Twitter if you like, but try and refrain from spewing hateful, abusive screeds. Exercise good judgement and common sense, and your digital footprint will likely be just fine.

Featured Resources

Humility in AI: Building trustworthy and ethical AI systems

How humble AI can help safeguard your business
Download now

Future of video conferencing

Optimising video conferencing features to achieve business goals
Download now

Leadership compass: Privileged Access Management

Securing privileged accounts in a high-risk environment
Download now

Why you need to include the cloud in your disaster recovery plan

Preserving data for business success
Download now

46 million Animal Jam accounts leaked after comms software breach
46 million Animal Jam accounts leaked after comms software breach
macOS Big Sur is bricking some older MacBooks
macOS Big Sur is bricking some older MacBooks
Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: A tragically brilliant Mate
Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G review: A tragically brilliant Mate

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is your digital footprint? | IT PRO

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Your digital footprint is always growing - so how can you keep it under control? It's often said that data is "the new oil". Ignoring contemporary price fluctuations, there's merit in that idea in the sense that data is the currency keeping the world ticking. Personal data can be acquired, amassed, and traded away.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Online collaboration is fast becoming a permanent feature of modern workplaces and remote teams. Companies and organisations are attracted by collaboration tools that allow employees to work together anywhere, at any time using any internet-enabled device.

But what are the advantages of online workspaces for collaborative working in comparison to traditional methods such as video conferencing with colleagues and stakeholders? And what are the potential drawbacks and disadvantages when using cloud-based platforms for online communication?

Let's take a look at both sides of the coin and examine the key features of both the disadvantages and advantages of online collaboration.

1. Productivity

Pros: Collaborative software gives team members the necessary tools and resources to collaborate within their organisation regardless of their location, including from home and while travelling. This drastically reduces "downtime" and allows people to be productive at their convenience. Platforms like Kahootz also send automatic updates when documents have been added or amended, ensuring everyone is on the same page and projects keep moving at a fast pace.

A research study by Deloitte found that three-quarters of those surveyed believed access to collaborative software would improve work flow and significantly improve productivity levels by as much as 20-25%.

Cons: With remote work, personal contact is usually reduced, which can lead to confusion over what is expected of certain tasks and time tracking. They may also feel that being connected 24/7 is blurring the boundaries between their professional and private lives. Moreover, online workspaces also require each team member to be take complete control & responsibility for their own tasks and keep each other accountable, to ensure deadlines are met.

Solution: Make sure team members are clear about their roles and responsibilities, and put effective team leads in charge of workspaces. Utilising task lists, team diaries and effective time tracking methods to delegate assignments and monitor progress, while establishing clear guidelines can help teams check progress, and set ground rules about when colleagues are expected to be online - and when they are not. Finally, don't entirely abandon face-to-face meetings for online meetings and video calls. In person task management and project discussions can still be very useful, if not as essential as before!

2. Efficiency

Pros: The typically workday includes three hours a day searching for information and/or writing emails. That's fifteen non billable hours a week! However, when used properly, online collaborative working tools can eliminate a lot of these redundant emails and streamline resource management. One key feature of collaboration software is the centralisation of all communications in one secure, online platform. It's simple for remote teams to login and find the information for multiple projects. Easy to use interfaces significantly reduce the time spent searching through long email exchanges, meaning more efficient communication.

Cons: With all its features, project tracking tools can generate just as many (if not more) emails as it reduces, this can be counterproductive. On a daily basis, email inboxes can quickly get cluttered with the vast number of notifications and direct messages.

Solution: To efficiently manage the number of emails that team members receive, it's important to implement the appropriate settings and permissions for each project. By doing so, a notification will only be sent when absolutely necessary, helping prevent unnecessary alerts and allowing individuals to devote more time to their project tasks. Automated filters, reduced inbox clutter and streamline communication can complement online collaboration resulting improved productivity and better project outcomes.

3. Cost

Pros: Online collaboration is highly cost-effective compared to traditional methods and is within reach of all sizes of organisation. Software like Kahootz offers flexible pay-as-you-go licensing, ensuring you only pay for the exact number of users you need and not tied down to large bundles of licences. Additionally online collaboration enables individuals to work remotely and share files from any location, potentially reducing office expenses such as equipment, utilities, and space. By adopting Kahootz, organisations can benefit from significant cost savings while maintaining productivity and efficiency.

Cons: You need to choose a package offering a fair pricing structure. Some will force you to buy licences for other tools you don't need, so be wary. On the other hand, a "per user per month" pricing model may lead organisations to limit the access to only selected users. This, in turn, can cause a disparity in transparency and communication across the workplace.

Solution: Before committing to any cloud collaboration system, it's recommended to research and compare pricing plans from various companies. Take time to estimate the total projected expenses for all your team to avoid any potential budget overruns. Some vendors will also provide a ROI calculator on their website to help with this process, simplifying the decision-making process and ensuring cost effect solutions for your virtual collaboration

4. Audience

Pros: With the right software, you can reach far beyond the "usual suspects" within your organisation and seamlessly collaborate with external stakeholders, such as your key clients, partners and suppliers. Because it is cheap and easy to bring individuals working together into an online workspace, you can increase engagement with your external stakeholders more than by using traditional methods such as meetings, audio and video calls, paper surveys, press advertisements and similar. This brings diversity to your real-time communication - resulting in more creativity and the creation of stronger and healthy relationships.

Cons: It can be tempting to widen the number of people you collaborate with, without properly assessing the reasons why you need to engage with them. This can lead to a diffusion of focus and a slowing down of the collaborative process with online tools.

Solution: Collaborating with teams or individuals from other organisations can be beneficial, but it's important to assess your motives before inviting them to your online workspace. Consider your goals, resources, and potential challenges to ensure that the collaboration is worth the effort. Clarify expectations to promote a productive and positive collaboration. In the end, the success of your collaborative projects depends on collective efforts, so choose wisely!

Choosing a flexible and customisable tool like Kahootz allows you to use the platform for more than one purpose. With its drag and drop functionality, user-friendly interface, and short learning curve our powerful collaboration tool can be used for a variety of business processes including client portals, collaborative procurement, project management and online forums to increase engagement.

5. Security

Pros: The most trusted collaboration tools have many safeguards in place to protect their users' data. By having encryptions, password protection, two-step authentication and firewalls; users can have the peace of mind knowing their sensitive data is secure and safe. Most cloud storage services prioritise security as one of their key features.

Cons: Remote collaboration typically functions on a cloud-based workspace, making data security a vital concern on all levels. Although the original concerns associated with online collaboration tools have been resolved, there are still a few people with the mind-set that storing data and file sharing in a cloud storage system is not as secure as keeping it on their personal servers.

Solution: Any online collaboration software vendor should be able to provide evidence of their security credentials if asked. This should also be the case for free versions and mobile apps offered through their service.

Looking at their list of clients also provides insight. If security-conscious organisations, (from the public or defence sectors for example) trust their team collaboration software to host their data, then that can only be a good sign.

6. Project Management

Pros: One of the major advantages of a collaborative online workspace is that they ensure all project materials and communications with external parties are kept within the same workspace. This means you don't have to worry about keeping track of emails and different versions of attachments - online workspaces in Kahootz retain archived versions of every document, and group conversations allow for comments to be added to each file. With a full audit trail of every 'person's interaction with the workspace, combined with team calendars and task management , managing any size project with users across multiple organisations becomes much simpler, quicker and better organised.

Cons: A project is only as good as the way it is managed. Plan outcomes before inviting colleagues and support teams to join a workspace and appoint effective managers to oversee progress.

Solution: Make sure that team members are clear about expectations, milestones, goals and deadlines for current and future projects. And don't be afraid of using traditional methods such as face-to-face meetings and conference calls if it helps assign tasks and manage projects.

As you can see, online collaboration brings many advantages for your organisation and improves team's productivity. There are some drawbacks, but most can be overcome by good planning, strong management, and combining online work with traditional productivity tools and methods where appropriate.
Researching online collaboration tools? Make an informed decision by downloading our guide containing the 10 key questions you need to ask a potential supplier.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Collaboration

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The advantages and disadvantages of online collaboration as workplaces modernise towards online communication among stakeholders & colleagues

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Whatever we are doing on the internet we can leave a trail of information behind us which people can use to determine what we might be interested in buying, or for other less savoury purposes such as trying to hack into our online accounts and trying to access passwords etc.

So what is a digital footprint?

A digital footprint is data that is left behind when users have been online. There are two types of digital footprints which are passive and active. A passive footprint is made when information is collected from the user without the person knowing this is happening. An active digital footprint is where the user has deliberately shared information about themselves either by using social media sites or by using websites.

An example of a passive digital footprint would be where a user has been online and information has been stored on an online database. This can include where they came from, when the footprint was created and a user IP address. A footprint can also be analysed offline and can be stored in files which an administrator can access. These would include information on what that machine might have been used for, but not who had performed the actions.

An example of an active digital footprint is where a user might have logged into a site when editing or making comments such as on an online forum or a social media site. The registered name or profile can be linked to the posts that have been made and it is surprisingly easy to find out a lot about a person from the trails you leave behind.

Web browsing and digital footprints

The digital footprint we leave after browsing websites is called the internet footprint. These are commonly called "cookies" and most websites will ask you to accept the use of cookies before you can access the site, without actually knowing what this means. If we inadvertently leave a lot of information about ourselves behind it could be passively or actively collected by other people just by using a simple search engine.

It is becoming more and more common for employers to "cyber vet" prospective employees based on their online activities. Digital footprints can also be used by the police to gather information about individuals to help them with their enquiries.

Social networking sites can also give a very good idea of an individual's life. These sites can allow digital tracing data which can include what social groups they belong to, their interests, location etc. This data can be gathered and analysed without the users being aware that this is happening.

A lot of employers will also use social media to vet prospective employees so it is important that you are mindful as to what you post on any such sites. Of course there is no limit as to how far you can go back in time on social media sites and once something is posted, there is no way of removing it completely. Others might have commented or shared your posts and this in turn will create their own digital footprint. This is something that needs to be discussed with your children and teenagers so they can be educated and are aware what might happen to that information.

So how much privacy do we really have?

Digital footprints including the meta data and content does impact on security, privacy and trust. As the internet becomes bigger and bigger it is becoming increasingly important to think about what might happen to the ownership of the photos that you own and content that you write. Remember that what goes on the internet normally stays there even if you do delete posts there will be a trail of data that you have left behind.

Talking to your child or teen

Have a chat with them when you know they are using social media sites, or on the internet.

Let them know what is expected of them and what is a "no go".

Explain the dangers of posting content that you feel might be inappropriate or controversial and the trail that can be left behind.

Ensure that they know the dangers of posting content and personal details including pictures.

Encourage them not to divulge any personal details such as age, address or contact details to anyone online.

If they feel they might have put themselves in danger, or feel in danger remember to reassure them that you are always there to support them.

Many people want to share the fact that they are going on holiday and how long they are going for - think about the impact and danger this could be placing your family in.

It is a criminal offence to use the internet to threaten or harass people.

We hope that this has helped you understand a little more about digital footprints. We have tried to make it as simple as possible so feel free to share this with friends and family who might feel a little confused about this topic.

This article is supported by The Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Whatever we are doing on the internet we can leave a trail of information behind us which people can use to determine what we might be interested in buying, or for other less savoury purposes such as trying to hack into our online accounts and trying to access passwords etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
TDS Home | Home, Internet, Phone, TV & DVR Services

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
You've heard over, and over (and over) how you should do your best to protect your privacy and what you share online. Even if you're thinking, "I'm not really a private person, so I don't care what's out there" -you really should.

It's not about whether people know about that embarrassing fender-bender, or the fact that your dog Cujo has a favorite brand of food. It's about all of the individual bits of information and how it can be put together to create a picture of who you are to create a custom-designed scam.

The more information that's publicly available, the easier it is to
create a good scam.

Don't believe me? Consider this: if a scammer can find your sibling's name and where they live, they could easily create a legit-sounding imposter scam. Just picture it: you get an urgent call from a "first responder" from <insert community name where your sibling lives>. The caller says there's been a terrible accident and they need detailed insurance and payment information so they can provide urgently-needed medical care for <insert sibling name>. In your panic and freak out, it would seem entirely plausible because the details add up.

So how much information about you is on the internet? The bits of data about you aren't sitting all in one place, of course. Instead, it's spread across the internet in different public spaces. You've got to be a bit of a detective and do a little open source intelligence work-just like the scammers do.

"Open source intelligence" makes it sound like you're becoming a spy, but really you're just using online tools available to everyone-including scammers. You should know what they do to stay one step ahead.

Here are some tips:

Start with a search engine, but go beyond the basics

A variety of open source intelligence websites recommend you start by putting in your first name and last name and see what you get-and we've all probably done that. But you can also amp up your Google game by using some search operators. An operator is a character or string of characters that can be used in a search engine query to narrow the focus of your search. For example:

Search: FirstName Lastname@ and you'll see if you can find email addresses attached to you

Look for: FirstName LastName filetype:doc (exactly like this, without any space!) to see if you can find any Word documents that contain your name. You could also swap out the file extension with other popular file types such as jpg, xls, pdf, etc.

If you search intex:FirstName Last Name you'll see results showing your name anywhere in the text

Note: if you changed your name at some point in your life, be sure to check your current name and previous ones.

Search some specific sites

There are many sites dedicated to gathering/aggregating all of the publicly available information about people. For example, see what you can find out about yourself at:

You will likely be amazed at what these sites gather all in one place. You might discover there is quite the dossier about you, including your name, age, relatives, cities where you've lived, current address, previous addresses, and more.

If you're alarmed by what you see, here's some good news: you CAN opt out of many of these sites. Lifehacker published a story with instructions on how to remove yourself from many of these sites, and so has Techlicious, just to name a few.

Note: opting out won't eliminate this data, but it will make it harder to track down because it won't be aggregated into one place.

Run an image search

While you're using your favorite browser, don't forget to see what images may come up in an image-specific search.

Check HaveIBeenPwned

A Google search isn't going to tell if your usernames and passwords have been hacked-but HaveIBeenPawned can. Run by a cybersecurity expert, it's considered a reliable place to see if your email account(s) are not secure. (Reminder: using Chrome's password extension can also help).

Give yourself Google Privacy and Security Check-Ups

Google lets you have some control over what information is saved by them, including your location history, YouTube history, contacts, voice and audio activity, and more. Head to your Google Account page to look at your Privacy settings. Oh! And while you're there, be sure to run a Security Check-Up too. That will tell you which devices have permission to access your account.

Check your social media

Deactivate old accounts and make sure your privacy settings on your frequently used social media sites are locked down.

For more places to dig for information, check out OSINT Framework (OSINT stands for Open Source Intelligence). This site shows you different websites that may have information about you-including your email, IP address, social networks, people search engines, instant messaging, phone numbers and more.

About Missy Kellor

Missy works on the Corporate Communications team and reports stories to TDS employees and customers. This is right up her alley because she's an extrovert and also a big fan of research (really, she'll look up just about anything that strikes her interest). Missy is a native of Madison, Wis. with an undergraduate in Anthropology and a master's degree in Life Sciences Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interest in the Internet as a mass media shaped her work towards a PhD in Journalism and Mass Communications. She's also worked as an editorial assistant, copywriter, and production artist. In her off hours, Missy is a crafter, Pinterest addict, reader, wife, and mom of two kids.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to search and find your digital footprint | TDS Home

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You've heard over, and over (and over) how you should do your best to protect your privacy and what you share online. Even if you're thinking, "I'm not really a private person, so I don't care what's out there" -you really should.