EDU 776/LIS 724 Week 7 Data Mine and Digital Tattoos

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Digital tattoo is so much more of a fitting term than digital footprint.  The term tattoo gives the feeling of permanency as compared to a footprint that can be wiped or washed away.  While I have tried to limit the size of my digital tattoo, I know there is still one there.  My caution about what I post online started when I was working for the federal government overseas, and today, it is because I have been fighting identity theft this year.  So much information can be found online now making identity theft fairly easy.

For this post, I checked my name on seven different websites that either I use now or have used.  I decided to start with LinkedIn because I closed my account several years ago because the website was hacked, and my information was stolen.  I was curious to see what would pull up.  I am happy to say that nothing for me pulled up.  

Google was the next site I picked because, well, we use Google for just about everything.  I thought more information about me would be pulled up.  Only two things related to me showed up on the first page: my Pinterest account and my Dad's obituary.  It actually makes me relieved to see so little showed up.

I next checked Facebook.  I use Facebook just about every day even though I don't post that much anymore.  I appreciate that you can't search Facebook without having an account.  While it shows that I have an account, my settings keep people who aren't my friends from accessing it so settings do work.

I have been working on my family's genealogy for a couple of years using Ancestry.  Just putting my name in the search pulls up many records, most of which are not mine.  I tried adding my year of birth, and many records related to me pulled up including some high school yearbook photos.  I was quite surprised as to how much information was available on Ancestry about me that I didn't know about.  I haven't made my family tree public, so if someone wants to look at it, they have to ask me for permission.  In addition, Ancestry has now connected AncestryDNA to Ancestry accounts so my DNA results are a part of my account.

I decided to check the website for my undergraduate alma mater, Rockford University.  I didn't find anything in the general search, but when I searched issues of the alumni magazine.  I found information on my level of donating to the school.  This information is the same information that is found in the hard copy magazine that is mailed out.

Instagram is the next site I checked.  I originally opened an account a number of years ago to look at my niece's wedding ideas.  I don't post anything to and only follow a handful of people.  I was shocked to find that I have 52 followers and that I know most of them.  I had never checked to see if I had followers before.  Since I have followers, am I allowed to call myself an influencer now?  😁

The final site I checked was PeopleFinders.  PeopleFinders promotes itself as being free.  It is and it isn't.  I found basic information on myself such as towns I had lived and people I might be related to.  Any in-depth report costs extra.  If someone really wants to find out more about me, I guess they will have to pay for it.  

As I was checking these sites, I thought the most information would be from Google or Facebook so I was very surprised to find that it was Ancestry that provided the most information on me.  A person doesn't need a paid account to do a search on this site.  There is so much information that can be found on me and my family with very little effort.

I think that younger generations are so used to posting things online that they don't really think about the consequences.  It is so important to consider what you are posting and who might be reading it.  It is great to share photos and information with friends and family, but we need to be cautious about who else has access to that information.


Sites Checked:

www.google.com

www.facebook.com

www.linkedin.com

www.ancestry.com

www.rockford.edu

www.instagram.com

www.peoplefinders.com



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