This week I conducted a data mine of myself. The websites I used were: PeopleFinders, Nuwber, Google, LinkedIn, Spokeo, FamilyTreeNow, InstantCheckmate, and ZabaSearch. This data mine was very eye opening because I got to witness my own digital tattoo. I found a lot of my personal information posted online for anybody to see. The information I found was from my past and my current life too. I now understand a little bit more about how everything that is posted online is like a digital tattoo because it can’t be easily erased and it stays online forever. My thoughts and feelings throughout my data mine were: at the beginning I was surprised by so much information I found online of myself, throughout my data mine I was intrigued and wanted to keep digging up more information and see what else was out there about me, and by the end of my data mine I was shocked to see how much accurate information there is online about me and anyone who looks me up can see it. I plan to be more cautious of what I post online about me and double check that my settings are set as private.
I started my data mine by searching the username I use for most of my social media accounts on Google. This is what came up:
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Image Source: Screenshot of Google search
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The very first link sent me directly to my instagram account:
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Instagram account |
I’m glad that my instagram is private because I don’t feel comfortable for anybody to see my posts, especially my students’ parents. And it’s not because I post anything inappropriate, it’s mostly because I post pictures of my family and where I’ve traveled to, and I’d rather share them with people I know.
The next search I did was of my first name and one of my last names on Google. I used to only use one of my last names until I became a teacher because it was more convenient for me. This is what I found:
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Image Source: Screenshot of Google search
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Through my second search, I found my Flickr account with 498 photos public! I was very surprised to have found my Flickr account and was a little bit scared of the public photos I had on there because I didn't remember which ones they were. After looking through the photos I remembered that I created this account because of the photography course I was taking during my undergrad. Some of the photos there were of my nieces and nephews, as well as one of my first jobs, and I even had photos of my siblings too. Unfortunately, I don't remember my credentials to login but I plan to revisit the website to figure out how I can set the account as private.
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Flickr account |
The next search I did was using my first name and both of my last names on Google. This provided me with even more information about me. This was my result: |
Image Source: Screenshot of Google search
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Here I easily found my Pinterest account. Even though I have the boards I've created set as private, anyone is able to see the boards I have saved. As you can see below, Pinterest is where I get inspiration to do fun activities with my students:
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Pinterest account |
It is interesting to learn what other people can see from my Pinterest account, because it comes to show that I have to be more careful and learn how to set all of my settings as private because I was unaware that my saved boards were public. Although I don't have saved anything inappropriate or malicious I just assumed that my settings were private ever since I opened this account.
From searching my full legal name I also found the exact dates of when I purchased my home, how much it cost me, and whom I purchased it from. As well as my house's previous buyers. You can see that information here:
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| Image Source: Screenshot of realtyhop.com |
I knew that this was public information, but I didn't know that I could find exact dates and costs. From this search I learned that my house is 111 years old!
I then continued with my data mine. I looked to see if I could find jpgs with my name on them and I couldn't find anything, as you can see here:
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Image Source: Screenshot of Google search
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Then I looked myself up on
Nuwber, I found a 100% match. On this website I saw my name, age, the city where I live, and the names of my siblings listed. I was intrigued and kept looking to see if I could find more information about me, but then it quickly came to an end when I had to pay for more information. A pattern I noticed throughout my data mine was that my brother was listed in almost every every search I did.
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Nuwber |
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Nuwber |
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Nuwber |
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I then searched myself up on
PeopleFinders but didn't get very far before being asked to pay:
I also searched myself up on
LinkedIn, but couldn't find myself. I remember I created an account in high school or my first year of college but I don't remember my credentials and I didn't come up on the search list. I think it may be because it's been several years since I've logged in to my account.
When I searched myself up on
FamilyTreeNow, I found my current address, my cellphone number, my landline number, and my fiance's number.
When I used
Spokeo, it took a long time to search for information about me but it didn't give me any results because it wanted more information from me, as you can see below:
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| Image Source: Screenshot of Spokeo |
I didn't get a chance to take a quick screenshot but while I was waiting for it to give me the results, it said "YOU MAY BE SHOCKED TO FIND OUT WHAT IS IN DANIELA’S RECORD". This made me chuckle.
I tried searching myself up on
ZabaSearch, but it didn't give me any results, as you can see here:
Lastly, I looked myself up on
InstantCheckmate, and I learned that I'm on the Government Watch List. I'm not sure how true that may be. On this website I found some more accurate information about me such as my name, the city I live in, my age, my mother's name, and two of my siblings names.
After completing my data mine, I learned that my digital tattoo has a lot of personal information about me and information that describes the type of person I am. Such as, a teacher, a homeowner, a cellphone owner, a 27 year old female, and much more. It was interesting to learn that a lot of my personal information is public and it also reminded me that I need to revisit my settings more often because websites and apps that I thought were private, aren't. I plan to conduct another data mine in the future to learn how much more information I can find about me.
This is a very thorough data mine, Daniela. Thanks for sharing the results with us.
ReplyDeleteHello, Daniela! Having completed a past data mine on myself, I definitely understand the shock of finding the information that anyone and everyone can learn about you online. The "YOU MAY BE SHOCKED" messages also made me laugh, and yet, we are sometimes shocked by what we find. It's a great point that we might not always realize which information is set to public by default (yet assumed to be private), such as your saved Pinterest boards. I had a similar experience where I looked at my Facebook from the perspective of a public visitor. I'd set a few posts public without even realizing it, including a photo that showed exactly where I worked. It goes to show how helpful it can be to view your profiles as an outside visitor, so you can see what everyone can see.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your insight that this public data not only contains your information, but also by piecing together this information, this data describes the type of person you are. To me, a key takeaway from your blog post is ensuring that your digital tattoo accurately reflects who you are.
On a side note, it's neat that you learned the age of your house. Happy 111th birthday to your home!