Shadow Footprints

Shadow Footprints describe the use of data and data processing in ways that are not transparent to formulate a picture of an individual's life without that individual's knowledge or consent. Similarly to a digital footprint, shadow footprints look at movement across the internet but refer specifically to the harnessing and creation of data through non-transparent data collection and processing, and additionally consider the entire movement of the individual and their life both in the digital realm, and in the offline realm also.

Definition & Description

The term shadow footprint was forwarded by Estelle Clements and Marcus Horwood to describe instances of non-transparent data collection and processing employed to develop in-depth profiles of individuals lives, including on and offline. The term Shadow Footprints is a composite of the terms “shadow profile” (A concept observed by David Garcia, after a data breach at Facebook in 2012 revealed that they had data about individuals who weren't signed up to Facebook) and "digital footprint" (where an individual's life and movements on and offline can be tracked using their personal data).

The observation of Shadow Footprints was made by applying a perspective of digital civics to issues of data privacy, psychology, and citizen science practices.

Operating similarly to Shadow Profiles, Shadow Footprints formulate and extrapolate data from the void. They include all of the data this is increasingly traceable across all of the profiles and platforms users have and use, all of the data that is collected consensually as they engage with these platforms, and all of the data that is collected non-consensually - that is, the data that these companies are allowed to harvest even without consent. Sometimes there is also data collected that users have made clear they do not consent to having harvested, but certain processes make it possible to collect this data regardless.

Challenges to Privacy

Because of the ways in which data can be acquired without consent, and given the increased abilities of technological tools for high levels of analysis, significant insights can be achieved. The use of demographic sampling – where a small representation of a demographic group can provide insights about the entire group – means that only a small number of individuals need to share their data willingly to provide highly accurate insights about all the other members of a demographic. Further, the application of psychological knowledge and insights can further reveal pertinent details of an individual's life. Clements and Horwood argue this means a highly accurate picture of an individual's entire life could be developed without that individual ever signing up to an online service, and never having provided their consent.  

Clements has further argued that not only can unbalanced relationships regarding data provision between capitalist organisations and users become normalised, but that events in classical antiquity suggest that once such relationships are normalised, they are very difficult to dislodge.

Application

When combined with psychological tools and insights, including behavioural modelling, Shadow Footprints can be seen playing a role in a variety of political and economic settings including: banking and finance, foreign affairs, and domestic political actions. For example, the potential of political actors, both at home and abroad, to identify and target individuals who will be most sympathic to their aims, most likely to act on instruction, and most likely to lead others, are all issues identified by Clements and Horwood that result from the intimate knowledge revealed by the development of Shadow Footprints. In the financial arena, shadow footprints may show organisations working with global financial markets how individuals and groups might react to certain developments, how this may impact markets, and express buying patterns and market trends, or open them to manipulation.