Searching myself on many different websites
opened my eyes to why people have a problem with the information available on
the Internet. I have Googled myself
before, but I’ve never gone any further to find everything about myself that is
available to anyone on the Internet.
I began with Whitepages.com where I
entered my phone number. With that
input, I could immediately find out the phone number’s general location, and with
a payment of $3.99, anyone can get the homeowner’s name, address, average
income, and home value. Then I entered
my zipcode on Factfinder, which allowed me to see the racial, income, and
family demographics of the area. Then I
explored different areas of the New York Times distribution map, which showed
the racial, income, and educational demographics of different areas. For both of these websites, I found the
results very interesting, and I considered it general enough that it doesn’t
give away very personal information about any individuals. I couldn’t find any results with Access Dane
with the information I put in.
Then, I began the research on my
individual self and started with Facebook and other social media websites. I was relieved to learn that I could not find
my Facebook profile by just searching for it on Google. Then, I looked at my Facebook from a friend’s
point of view. There wasn’t anything bad
that I would be embarrassed of on my profile, but I did notice there is a lot
of information I share about myself that is available to the 800+ “friends” I
have on Facebook. When I did the Google search, I used both my
computer and a general Wisconsin computer.
When using my own computer, the results brought up more information and
images relevant to me than the results found with the public computer. When using the general computer, I could not
find anything when I used just my name.
I had to put in more specific facts about myself to come up with
anything relevant to me. The first Google
image brought forth was one of my Facebook profile pictures, but then most of
the following pictures were not of me but still relevant to the subject I was
searching. For example, when I included
my high school, I couldn’t find much but my track results and pictures that had
been on the school’s homepage. If a geodemographic firm was researching me,
I believe my “digital puppet” would paint me as a female teen from a Northwest
suburb of Chicago along with the demographic information that can be found with
those facts.
Overall, I don’t think people can
gain a very descript idea of me without having known other information about me
already. I have a pretty common name, so
there are pages upon pages of other, better known “Michelle McGuire’s”. I felt that the reverse phone number look-up
on Whitepages.com was the website that made me the most uncomfortable. With just a phone number, anybody can find
out the owner’s address and annual income.
All of the results I found didn’t necessarily surprise me, but it made
me realize how I should be very aware of how my image could be perceived on the
Internet. There is already enough
information on Google about myself that I did not post, so I should be careful
about what sort of pictures and information I should post and how my privacy
settings are set on each social media site.
1 comment:
I had very similar results to yours when I searched my name. I agree that the whitepages search was eye opening. The fact that someone can find out that deep of information with just a phone number is unsettling. My social media searches failed as well. Which was surprising because I though my name wasn't that generic, but turns out there's a lot more of "me" than I thought.
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