"We discovered that only about half of your digital footprint is related to your individual actions—taking pictures, sending e-mails, or making digital voice calls," IDC senior vice president John Gantz said in a statement. "The other half is what we call the 'digital shadow'—information about you—names in financial records, names on mailing lists, web surfing histories or images taken of you by security cameras in airports or urban centers. For the first time your digital shadow is larger than the digital information you actively create about yourself."
An IDC research study sponsored by information management giant EMC provides insight into the explosive growth of digital information. IDC uses a complex formula to estimate the size of the "digital universe," the total volume of digital information that is created and replicated globally.
