In the digital age of today, information is transferred across the globe with exceptional ease. People can share data about pretty much anything with pretty much anyone. Be it cooking recipes, popular culture references, material of more malicious nature or the everlasting internet standard: images of cats, everything can find itself on the internet in some form. Social networking sites dominate the scene, allowing people to indulge in their need to connect, socialise and - naturally - self advertise their existence. However, this availability of information begs the question, how private is my private data? To aid the answer of this question I've decided to perform a small experiment on myself, to see exactly how accessible my information is to 3rd parties.
There's good reason to this. I am a very private individual, so I like to keep any info I provide under strict supervision. My Facebook account is as "data-tight" (yes, I just made that word up) as I could make it, and any works I have published are under obscure usernames or, in many cases, as a guest at blogs of friends. Therefore, not seeing any results in such a popular search engine means that I'm succeeding in my endeavour to remain private and keep my personal data safe from misuse. However, this privacy may prove to be a double edged blade.
It is common knowledge that many potential employers will attempt to snoop around their applicants online activities, an unethical practice if you ask me, but a reality nonetheless. Having no results on Google eliminates any unfortunate mishaps, but it can also act as a deferent, as some may want to rely on this method to ascertain what kind of individual I am.
Now, this is contextual as, for some, many hits on google may prove beneficial in their search for a job while the same amount of results could be detrimental to others; it all depends on what one is searching for. Nevertheless, quality over quantity is something we can all agree to be the better option.
Logging in and viewing it as a guest, I am greeted by my current profile picture (my goodness, I'm THAT good-looking?) and a couple of cover photos, one being an image of a dog I took on a holiday sometime in my life, and the other being that of Link from the Legend of Zelda(TM) sitting on an Iron Throne comprised of many swords from popular gaming. That actually says quite a lot about me. I mean, only reading the previous sentence, you're probably beginning to make an entirely different image of me in your head. Nonetheless, the information visible is so little, that I have no qualms about anyone seeing anything, and have no concern that it's content will cause an employer to not give me a position. I hope...
Hah! No privacy or security risks, no inappropriate content and 81 for the Reppler Image score (whatever that even means). Clearly I'm a paragon of the internet community, with absolutely no blemishes - assuming I'm not creating one right now.
In the end I guess I'm either too secretive, or too boring to have any internet drama. And to be honest, I don't think I mind too much...
Thanks for your time!
Google Myself
Lets begin with the staple of any search on the web: Google. Upon searching my name, I came up with some interesting results. To begin with, the search engine seems to think that I've misspelled my own surname, something that - although insulting to my pride - I try to ignore. After skimming through all 7 pages of the Gooooooogle search, I find that not a single of the 60 or so results coming from all iterations of my name (perks of coming from a multinational background) are in reference to me. Admittedly, I am not an active member of the internet community - not under my real name, anyway - so I didn't expect many results to begin with. I noticed that amongst the people who share my name, a few close relatives made an appearance, but nothing in reference to me, not even my Facebook profile. (Maybe I should look into Google's Alert mechanism, just in case uni makes me into an internet celebrity...)There's good reason to this. I am a very private individual, so I like to keep any info I provide under strict supervision. My Facebook account is as "data-tight" (yes, I just made that word up) as I could make it, and any works I have published are under obscure usernames or, in many cases, as a guest at blogs of friends. Therefore, not seeing any results in such a popular search engine means that I'm succeeding in my endeavour to remain private and keep my personal data safe from misuse. However, this privacy may prove to be a double edged blade.
It is common knowledge that many potential employers will attempt to snoop around their applicants online activities, an unethical practice if you ask me, but a reality nonetheless. Having no results on Google eliminates any unfortunate mishaps, but it can also act as a deferent, as some may want to rely on this method to ascertain what kind of individual I am.
Now, this is contextual as, for some, many hits on google may prove beneficial in their search for a job while the same amount of results could be detrimental to others; it all depends on what one is searching for. Nevertheless, quality over quantity is something we can all agree to be the better option.
Facebook(TM)
Moving away from a simple Google search, let's see what my Facebook profile looks like to the public eye.Logging in and viewing it as a guest, I am greeted by my current profile picture (my goodness, I'm THAT good-looking?) and a couple of cover photos, one being an image of a dog I took on a holiday sometime in my life, and the other being that of Link from the Legend of Zelda(TM) sitting on an Iron Throne comprised of many swords from popular gaming. That actually says quite a lot about me. I mean, only reading the previous sentence, you're probably beginning to make an entirely different image of me in your head. Nonetheless, the information visible is so little, that I have no qualms about anyone seeing anything, and have no concern that it's content will cause an employer to not give me a position. I hope...
Reppler(TM)
But that's enough of me patting myself on the back, let's see what an actual 3rd party thinks of my internet activity.Hah! No privacy or security risks, no inappropriate content and 81 for the Reppler Image score (whatever that even means). Clearly I'm a paragon of the internet community, with absolutely no blemishes - assuming I'm not creating one right now.
In the end I guess I'm either too secretive, or too boring to have any internet drama. And to be honest, I don't think I mind too much...
Thanks for your time!
