Since I’m from a small town (Baldwin, WI), a lot of the
demographic information associated with my phone number would initially draw a
geodemographic firm to the largest town closest to me (Hudson, WI). If that’s
the only information they had about me, they wouldn’t be able to find out a
whole lot about me. But when I typed my name into Google, it brought up pages
and pages of sports statistics from high school. Neither my first nor last name
is very common, so maybe that’s why I got so many results. Someone could easily
pinpoint my hometown and a small list of my extra-curriculars while I attended
high school there. They could also figure out where I am now attending college,
because the web pages of some of the student orgs I’m involved in have my name
listed. There were also quite a few pictures of me listed under the images tab,
which I wasn’t expecting. The images are from my hometown newspaper’s site and some
of my profile pictures from my social media profile pictures (such as
Pinterest, Facebook, Goodreads, etc.). Obviously there is a lot more to a
person than where they are from, where they are living right now, and what they
like on Pinterest, but the information presented to a geodemographic firm through
a Goggle search of my name is certainly useful to companies who would want to
target me with their advertisements.
1 comment:
I totally understand what you mean about having a relatively uncommon first/last name. I think that's what makes it most surprising when you do a search with your own name and find someone else's information. It's almost a little alarming to think that someone else's information might be on the radar if someone does a search for you, especially if there's any negative information associated with their name in particular.
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