Self-Stalking

When exploring what other’s see about me when searching for me on the internet, I was not extremely surprised by any of the information presented. There were the generic links to my Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media related accounts I have created in the past few years. By searching different varioations of my name on Google, I was able to see information about my high school career, both academically and sports related. I could even look up my personal statistics and records for track sprinting times and goals/assists, etc. for soccer.

       What I did find to me somewhat alarming though was the depth in which any random person could know about my personal life. That being said, using sites such as whitepages, factfinder, nytimes, etc. one could learn information about me as specific as the average household income of my neighborhood or the demographic of it. When typing in my cell phone number, I could pinpoint my location down to the city, figure out my service provider, and even link my number to the phone numbers of my immediate family members. Whitepages.com was able to relay my general address, age, and parents’ names.

       Initially, I thought this information any give stranger could find out about me was a lot. And it is. However, considering the extent of how much information I give to various websites, it could be much worse. On the internet I have taken surveys, given my personal opinions about things, had personal conversations, given confidential information about myself, and more, yet none of that was able to be found during my search. On many of the web sites I searched, they revealed a slight amount of information about me, but in order to see the really personal stuff you are required to sign up or pay for it. Furthermore, the part I was most nervous about, photos of me in the general public’s view, were nothing more than Facebook and other account profile pictures and photos of me in various news articles—nothing I wouldn’t want disclosed. All in all, the information I was able to find in my name was somewhat revealing, however I feel as though it could be much worse.