Digial Footprint

While at taking part in the Google for Educators NECC Remote session See earlier post), an interesting question came up in my mind: How concerned are instructors with their "Digital Footprint" (a digital footprint consists of the accumulating body of work that a user leaves behind while online, such as Facebook entries/comments, Twitter posts, blogs, wikis, YouTube/TeacherTube, etc.)?

I advanced-searched for images on Google that were tagged with variations of my name, then my family, then some of the presenters at TIE, and NECC. Some personalities had images attached to their full name online, which was disconcerting to me since identity theft continues to grow exponentially each year. Aren't these people positioning themselves to be targeted with so much identifiable information online?

Next thought: If students begin using online tools in elementary school, it would seem to me that teachers need to be even more aware of what content/quality of content is going out to the world so that their future is not accidentally affected. Tech-savy businesses are already scrutinizing an individual's online presence as part of their hiring procedures, so something not published as carefully as it could've been during class could make a difference in the long run.