User:Ojjegede

My Identity

• 

  google search

• 

  youtube thumbnail

The Truth

After searching my name on google and receiving the background report on my identity, I've come to the conclusion that this experience is both very intriguing and a bit frightening. Let's start with the google search first. When I searched my name, The first thing I saw was a combination of image results based on the search. The amount of information that I actually found that was accurate blew my mind. What I immediately noticed was that within the image results, I found the profile picture of my twitter, GitHub, and LinkedIn accounts, two pictures that I posted on twitter, my father's profile picture, a thumbnail of a Kevin Durant video I commented on(what??), and the profile picture of a U of M talk show called "Candid Conversations" in which I was featured on the show. Once I searched through the images tab and used keywords like "Michigan", I found even more information. I found my Instagram profile picture, a picture of me from a program I was a part of, more photos I posted on twitter, and another thumbnail from a youtube video that I posted a comment on. I also found thumbnails from videos that I remember watching on youtube as well. The fact that simply looking at images gave me this much information on myself was so fascinating and worrying. That was before I even looked at the actual Google results. Once I got into the Google results and the background report on myself, I found even more information that was almost disturbingly accurate. From voter's registration, my address, my neighbor's addresses, to tv interviews I've done and possible family relatives along with their ages, there was a lot of information about me that was out there and available for all to see. What I also noticed about the online data profile is that despite how much was true, there was a lot of information about me that was surprisingly false. What I mean is that despite all the true information about me that the profile found, there were simple things that were very wrong. It makes me wonder which aspects of the data profile are more focused on certain areas of data rather than others.

Profile Search Websites

Another aspect of this data profile exercise that gave me pause was the number of background check/profile websites that were available online. In my own time, I did my own research on just what was capable with these sites. What really struck my interest was just how easy it seemed to find these websites and use them. Though most of these websites require a monthly subscription to use, there seem to be no other major barriers. As long as you have the financial means to pay these websites, you seem to be free to look for whoever you want, when you want to. This, for me, brings up a lot of potential issues. Suppose there is a scenario where a stalker/kidnapper wants to search for a person of interest. There can be instances where these individuals can search for people if they have the financial means to do so. How do we prevent people like that from using these types of resources? Let's say that these websites have security measures that block people with past criminal records from using these background checks or suspend them for a certain amount of time. If there is no past criminal record, what security do these websites even have to stop people from committing these acts? I just found it very interesting how, seemingly, simple easy it was to gain full access to these sites and use them to search for any person.

Then And Now

When I look back on my online presentation and how it has changed over time, I've noticed how much more I use the internet now as compared to high school, when social media was still growing at a rapid pace. Even though I used the internet a lot when I was in high school, I did not have a social media presence besides youtube. For instance, I joined Twitter in 2015 and Facebook in 2016. Those were my junior and senior years in high school. I joined Instagram in 2018. You could say I was really late to the party. But over these past few years, I believe I've used social media and the internet more than all of my high school years combined. I believe that goes to show how much it has become a part of our lives. Most of us can say that when we wake up, the first thing we check is our phones. As opposed to my high school years, now I'm more present and visible. If you tried to search my name on google in high school, I believe you would get very sparse results. Now, due to the influence, social media has had on me and how much it has become a part of our culture, it's not to difficult to find information on yourself anymore.