The Internet remembers everything. Any action that you have performed in the media space leaves a digital footprint. With the help of modern technologies, it is possible to track the online activity of each user, and this aspect makes people worry about maintaining privacy.

In this article, we will tell you how the authorities can use your Internet data, how to reduce your digital footprint, and whether Internet privacy exists.

What Does The Law Say? 

According to the Fourth Amendment, people have a legitimate right to the security of their person, homes, documents, and any other property from unreasonable searches and seizures. The information on the phone is also secured; however, as soon as you spread the information and share it, the status of confidentially disappears. 

Thus, the police can freely use the data that you leave on the Internet for their purposes, for example, messages. However, if you do not transfer the information and store it separately, then the police will need a warrant to seize them. 

Geolocation Privacy 

Telephone providers have an extensive database that contains information about the movement of your mobile device. This information is very valuable for the police as it can confirm the location of the alleged offender at the crime scene at the time of its commission. 

So it was in the case of Timothy Carpenter and his comrades, who the Detroit police accused of a number of offenses and used cell site location information as evidence. However, according to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, such a police action violated the Fourth Amendment since law enforcement officers did not present sufficiently weighty arguments to obtain a warrant for declassifying location information.

Thus, your geolocation data also cannot be used without sufficient evidence. An exception may be extraordinary circumstances, for example, if the police are direct witnesses of a crime. 

Data Protection Methods

You can never be sure that your data, even the most intimate, is completely protected and will not fall into the hands of third parties. 

To increase the degree of confidentiality, we recommend the following eight steps:

• Disable geolocation data in the phone settings to exclude the possibility of surveillance. 
• Use only reliable messengers with modern encryption methods. 
• Come up with strong passwords to reduce the chance of data leakage.
• Do not use public Wi-Fi.
• Do not log in to applications through other applications, for example, Facebook, to prevent a third party from accessing the data.
• If you want your activity not to be tracked, use a VPN.
• Pay attention to the site’s security token – https:// – when you visit it. 
• Refuse to accept cookies so that the data does not go to third parties. 

All in all, your data is always subject to possible hacking and its subsequent use against you, so try to protect your personal information as much as possible and, if necessary, consult with a lawyer.