User:Victoree
Introduction
Growing up technology and the Internet have always been a big part of my life. In fifth grade I was lucky enough to receive my brother's old laptop and what resulted was uncontrolled browsing of the web. My parents and siblings were not very knowledgeable about the Internet back then so it never really occurred to me that the Internet could be a dangerous place. Thankfully they told me to never give out sensitive information like my name, age, or address, etc. But that was pretty much all the rules I had when using the Internet. My early Internet experience was fairly mundane and it just consisted of Youtube videos and online gaming. It wasn’t until the sixth grade where I started to have a social media presence.
Facebook was the first social media account I created. Although I barely use social media today, I spent hours on the site in the past. It was such a novel thing. There were so many things to do and I specifically remember spending an unhealthy amount of time on the old Facebook games like FarmVille and MafiaWars. Browsing through my old Facebook posts and messages is particularly painful. I would post daily thinking I had to keep my friends up to date on my life. It’s embarrassing looking at them now, but back then it was normal and even expected of you. Even today people make similar posts. This uncontrolled use of social media continued until my sophomore year of highschool.
I don’t know what changed but I essentially stopped using all social media. It could have been from increased school work or applying to colleges, but whatever reason I am glad I stopped. My digital footprint is much harder to track now. My Facebook profile is still public but most of the information, age, date of birth, hometown, etc., is false anyways. Taking my parents advice, I lied when initially creating my account. For example, my Facebook age says I am 60 years old. That is why I was curious to see what my data identity looked like and whether or not it would be accurate.
Google Search
First I did a basic search of my full name on Google. Apparently, “Victor Lee” is a fairly common name because none of the results relate to my identity. I looked through the first six or so pages but I could not find any of my social media accounts. Google Images has a similar result with the first hundred or so pictures being random Asian males. It takes a more specific search to bring up any information about me. Including my hometown with my name gets much more relevant information. Even then it’s not too extensive with only three of the links actually relating to me. Surprisingly, the first result is a tennis recruiting/scouting website. Although I did play varsity tennis in high school, I never took it seriously and it was more of a hobby I did in my free time.
The second result links to my LinkedIn profile which has a lot more accurate information about me. It includes my current job, past jobs, and education. However I am not worried that this information is public. LinkedIn is an incredibly useful site that lets me create and maintain a professional network. I can post my skills online and my peers and co-workers can endorse them which solidifies my credibility. In addition, LinkedIn is a great platform for job hunting. Recruiters can contact you about job opportunities based on your skills and experience, or you can contact recruiters or employees at a company you are interested in. Although I have never been employed this way, I know several people that have landed internships, jobs, or at least an interview from messages on LinkedIn. I know LinkedIn will be beneficial to me in the future so I believe keeping my profile public is worth the risk.
Going back to my Google search results, the third result that relates to me is my Facebook profile. However, as I said before, this does not worry me too much as most of the information is false. Google Images produces no pictures of me even when you include my hometown. I believe this is because none of my social media accounts have a profile picture. Oddly enough some of my old tennis teammates from highschool showed up in the search. The image linked to an article talking about our team's record and the upcoming state competition. My name is mentioned once when the author briefly mentions all the graduating seniors and how it would affect the teams future.
You might find it odd that there would even be articles for a high school tennis team but the MHSAA No. 1 singles champion was on our team. He was basically the best player in the midwest under 20 years old. Since he was a freshman in highschool he was the runner up or winner for the Michigan state championship for four years straight and even now he plays tennis for the university. I believe my digital footprint is much larger just because we were on the same team. Most of my search results relate to articles about tennis and if the best player in the state was not on our team, there would be no reason to write articles to a somewhat mediocre team.
First few results searching my name with hometown
Image results when searching name with hometown
Data Brokers
I am pretty confident of having a small digital footprint that's why I was eager and somewhat fearful of what my data broker report would look like. The results ended up being pretty boring. Information like my name, address, and family were included but I expected that as those facts are all fairly easy to find. Surprisingly, Insta Checkmate and mylife both got my age wrong.
It definitely helps that I am fairly young with no events that could expose my personal information. I have no criminal history or parking tickets and I have never been in an accident. In addition all of my close friends are very similar to me in how they use social media. Instagram is the only platform my friend group uses and even then it's inconsequential. Any posts, pictures, or tweets that could relate back to me are insignificant.
Conclusion
Although I am not fairly surprised with the results, I had an enjoyable experience with the assignment. It was reassuring in a way to know that my digital footprint is so small. There is so much of your information online and even more ways for people to steal it. With just a few facts like your age, birth, and address, people can essentially steal your identity.
Just a couple years ago, someone had made a loan in my parents name. Thankfully they were able to cancel it but to this day we have no clue how they even had enough information to make the loan in the first place. What made it even more odd was that it was through Quicken Loans, which is a reputable company.
Overall I’m satisfied with the results. The lack of my personal information on the Internet proves that my current methods are successful and I do not see any reason to change them in the future.
Below are links so some of the tennis articles:
https://usatodayhss.com/2014/northville-netters-pull-off-quad-victory
https://www.hometownlife.com/story/sports/2016/08/22/state-champion-novi-retools-lineup/89123164/
