I started my research thinking that I would not find much about myself online. What a surprise! When I looked up my phone number in the white pages, I was surprised at what I found. Though it online let people see that I had a cell phone, was from the Twin Cities, and used AT&T, I was horrified that my name and address were available for the price of $0.95. They are making money off of my information. Shouldn't I have to first, allow this to happen, and second, share some of the profits? On the U.S. Census Bureau website, I first typed in my Madison address sip code. As of 2010, there was a population of 15,757 in the zip guidelines. I then typed in my home zip code and found that there was a smaller population of 8,840. I don't see how this affects my presence online much. I typed in on Access Dane the address of the sorority house I lived in and was surprised to find that the value of the property was public information. On Mapping America NY Times, I could only get as close as the information of my county. I was unsurprised I am from a county that is 88% white. When I searched myself on Google Images, only two pictures of me came up. One, was my high school yearbook picture, and the other was my old Twitter profile picture. Some images I had pinned on Pinterest also came up, but they weren't of me. On Twitter, my image and cover photo are available for the public to see, but none of my tweets are. On Facebook, you can see my profile picture, my school, where I live, my age, and my previous job where I no longer work. I surprisingly can't find myself on LinkedIn (one of the few placed I'd like people to find me).
Overall, I think I have a good online presence. The most personal information they would be able to find is my address and my phone number. I have very limited pictures online. A geodemographic firm might be able to use my pins on Pinterest to target me for marketing reasons, but besides that, I think I'm doing okay.
1 comment:
I agree it is a little ridiculous that a company is able to sell your personal information for as little as $.95, especially since an average person would probably be able to find that out with enough information given. Also, with pinterest, I feel that information would also be valuable to employers as they would want to know as much about you before they hire you (interests, hobbies, political standing), but I'm sure nothing on there would really surprise them too much. Hope you can figure out how to get your LinkedIn on google as it would show you are in fact a prospective business professional.
Cheers.
Post a Comment