Difference between revisions of "Nicolas Figueroa"

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My absence from social media during high school was the result of self-consciousness and the fear of being judged by the world around me. I had used Facebook for a few years along with a Twitter account, now both of which have long since been deleted. I still own an Instagram which doesn’t contain my real name and holds a lonely picture of my car. I have made a gradual, deliberate transition away from using social media since graduating high school in 2016 in order to focus my energy on connecting with people around me. I became far less shy after working at my first job and discovered the real difference between meeting people in real life as opposed to online where I much prefer the former. My goal for my digital identity is to be as inconspicuous as possible for the sake of trying to prevent distractions from the real world. Does my digital identity reflect my intentions and do my findings correlate with a positive experience outside of the internet?  
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My presence on social media during high school played a driving role in my self-consciousness and fear of judgement. I had used Facebook for years along with Twitter, though my Instagram is still untouched and doesn’t contain my real name. After making a deliberate transition away from using social media in order to focus my energy on connecting with people around me, I became far less shy after my first job and discovered the real difference between meeting people in real life as opposed to online where I much prefer the former. My only objective concerning my digital presence is to be as inconspicuous as possible in order to prioritize interactions in the real world. Does my digital identity, and consequently my real life, reflect this intention?  
  
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== They Call Me Nico ==
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== People Call Me Nico ==  
  
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I think my name is the best place to start. A unique nickname is a fantastic segue into what could be an enthralling conversation with a new person, and Nico is the best nickname I could have asked for. I love telling people that, no it isn’t my real name, along with explaining how I’m not from somewhere cool, just my dad is. My names are very common where my dad is from but sparsely heard here in the United States, which makes it easy to dismiss results from any search engine that appear in Spanish because I’ve never had a real identity in South America, let alone a digital one.   
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I think my name is the best place to start, concerning my ''real'' identity. I always tell people that Nico isn’t my real name, followed by an explanation about how I’m not from somewhere cool, my dad is. Names try to be our unique identifiers, but that doesn't apply in this digital realm, considering the breadth of the internet. My name is very common where my dad is from but sparsely heard here in the United States, so filtering out any Spanish results could help to narrow my search greatly.   
  
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Just to expand on my personal details here, in order to better critique my findings through search engines, I want to include some defining personal qualities which I feel define me. I love to code, play tennis and walk my dog. My car breaks all the time and I love to fix it. My family all lives in Ann Arbor and they are much cooler than I am, so I won’t be surprised when they show up more than I do. I attended Washtenaw Community College before coming to the University of Michigan, and I graduated high school in this town as well in 2016. I am hoping that this is the maximum depth of information which is revealed through Google and Bing.
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There are plenty of other identifying traits that are used for categorization the internet, and in order to better critique my findings through search engines, I want to include some personal qualities which I feel define me. I love to code, play tennis and walk my dog. When my car breaks, I enjoy fixing it. My family all lives in Ann Arbor where I graduated high school in 2016. I attended Washtenaw Community College before transferring to the University of Michigan. These are all superficial details, but they represent me accurately so I am using them as a threshold to determine the depth to which I can be unearthed through Google and Bing.  
  
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== The Hunt ==
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== The Hunt ==  
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=== Methodology ===  
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My high level goal while building this digital identity was to critique how well I have stayed out of search engines, mostly because I already know that I don’t have any social media profiles. I tried to do a range of queries and speak only about the few that returned results. For each search engine I simply started with “Nico Figueroa” and then built up the entry to include more intimate details in the hopes of uncovering some dark secrets. The most detail I appended to my name was my hometown, high school and other details that might be plausible to discover from talking to me in real life.  
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=== Methodology ===  
  
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[[File:BlogPic.png|thumbnail]]
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My high-level goal while constructing this digital profile was to critique how well I have stayed out of search engines relative to the personal details I provided. For both search engines I started with “Nico Figueroa” and then expanded on the entry to include more intimate details until I had searched enough to conclusively correlate any changes in my real life with my findings (or hopefully lack thereof).
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=== A Whole Lot of Nothing ===
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The most expected results from Bing are the first blog post I wrote for a class at UofM, SI410, a few weeks ago, along a few articles about my tennis career in high school. There is one picture that is captioned as containing me, but the link is broken so I can’t confirm that I might be famous without knowing it. These results align well with the amount I feel comfortable being represented online and although the blog post I wrote reveals some details about my workplace, I believe it is not personal as well as being important for a company to be transparent with its community.  
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==== False Positive ====
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[[File:BlogPic.png|thumbnail]]
  
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=== A Whole Lot of Nothing ===
  
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The one result that scared me a little bit was something I have never encountered before online. A search engine listing for mylife.com, which described exactly my age, an address and the names of all my immediate family! I will absolutely admit to being anxious to click the link, but we all know that the story comes first.  
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The most expected results from Bing are the first blog post I wrote for a class at the University of Michigan, SI410, a few weeks ago, along a few articles about my tennis career in high school. There is one picture that is captioned as containing me, but the link is broken. These initial results fall well within the scope in which I feel comfortable being represented online and although the blog post I wrote reveals some details about my workplace, I believe in the transparency of a company with its community. So far I was happy with what I could dig up, except for one search result.
  
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[[File:Rating.png|thumbnail|left|A screenshot from mylife.com, showing an unsettling "Reputation Score"]]
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==== A (Mostly) False Positive ====
  
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I felt distinctly relieved when the page loaded, showing only publicly available government record information. The address posted is the one on my driver's license from when I still lived with my parents, there are no photos linked and the most identifying information listed is my age. There is a summary section with names of people who live around my parents, but they are almost five years old and represent public government information such as property titles. The part I found most humorous is an “Approximate Reputation Score” which you can only investigate if you start handing over your credit card digits.  
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A search engine listing for mylife.com gave me some misgivings, describing exactly my age, an associated address and the names of all my immediate family! I will absolutely admit to being anxious to click the link, but a good researcher never backs down.
  
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Phew. I was hard pressed to find anything meaningful through Bing, so I was curious to see discover any correlation with Google.  
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[[File:Rating.png|thumbnail|left|A screenshot from mylife.com, showing an unsettling "Reputation Score". The reviews are allegedly generated by members of the site but are unable to be viewed without signing up. ]]
  
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=== We Say, "Google It" For a Reason ===
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<br><br><br>
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The all-knowing Alphabet Inc. gave me some more personal results, possibly revealing the first crack through my digital armor. The only result for “Nico Figueroa” that I saw through this entire endeavor was on page 2 of the Google search page, where my GitHub profile and history shows up. I wasn’t too impressed by this because my username is uniquely @NicoFigueroa, and after all, the site is a place to host Open-Source software. It stands to reason that my public repositories are on display for the world to see. No problem there, I don’t mind sharing my “professional” work with the world.
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Two more listings I felt merited a passing mention, the first of which is a link to a Washtenaw Community College list of Honors Students from 2020 which I had never been made aware of. The second is another tennis website which broadcasts my losing record during my time in Rec&Ed tennis career. Again, there is a clear distinction to me between finding a picture of myself from a private profile and these news articles or school events. So far, I would like to report that I am satisfied with the results of my effort to remain as anonymous as possible.  
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The page revealed data which was out of date and clearly gathered from public government information providing some relief. The address posted was the one on my driver's license from when I still lived with my parents, there were no photos linked and the most identifying information listed was my age. There was a summary section with names of people who live around my parents, but they were antiquated and represented easily attainable public records. The part I found most unsettling was an “Approximate Reputation Score” which you can only investigate if you start handing over your credit card digits.
  
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==== The Empire Strikes Back ====
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I experienced slim pickings with Bing, so I was curious to see if the trend would continue with Google.   
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After typing in every combination of my name along with personal details I could think of, the only information that named me personally are “People Search” websites, which promise intimate details about the person in question. I investigated the site truthfinder.com as carefully as possible to find where they are getting this information and what my rights are to remove it.   
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[[File:Unlock.png|thumbnail|right|A screenshot from mylife.com after trying to sneak a peak at the my personal report]]
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<br><br><br><br><br>
  
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That site cites its sources as government records with offerings such as: “Criminal and arrest records” or “Social media profiles”.  The list continues to mention they scrape deep web information and social media data in order to build an accurate profile of every person in the United States. 
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=== We Say, "Google It" For a Reason ===
  
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The scariest part about these sites I stumbled upon is the inclusion of my family members and their last known addresses are listed right next to mine. I’m glad that there is very bare bones information procurable about any of them, but it is still very unsettling to me to know that it is so easy to find out the connections to people I care about through what the government deems acceptable to release publicly. Although I’m uncomfortable with a certain brand of website that I appear on, I must admit that there is far less information available through Google and Bing than I expected to find. I am comfortable with the level of exposure that I appear at, at least with medium effort searching.   
+
The all-knowing Alphabet Inc. gave me some more personal results, possibly revealing the first crack through my digital armor. The only result for “Nico Figueroa” that I came across through this entire endeavor was on page 2 of the Google search page, where my GitHub profile and history shows up. I wasn’t too impressed by this because my username is uniquely @NicoFigueroa, and after all, the site is a place to host Open-Source software. It stands to reason that my public repositories are on display for the world to see. No problems there, I don’t mind sharing my “professional” work with the world.   
  
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== How Did I Do? ==
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Two more listings merit mentioning, the first of which is a link to a Washtenaw Community College list of Honors Students from 2020 which nobody had bothered to invite me to. The second is another tennis website which broadcasts my losing record during my time in Rec&Ed tennis career. Again, there is a clear distinction to me between finding a picture of myself from a private profile and these news articles or school events. So far, I would report that I am satisfied with the results of my effort to remain as anonymous as possible.   
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The intriguing facet of my digital profile is whether my lack of public information has truly affected my real life in the way that I hope. I was very happy to find that I had a difficult time uncovering any dirty laundry about myself, aside from records which could be physically attained as well through City Hall.   
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To answer my own question from the beginning of this journey, I would say that my data identity does reflect my digital intentions. The second part is the convoluted answer, where I cannot say with definite certainty that this change, I am trying to make has resulted in bettering myself and the people around me. The strongest quality that I have noticed improving in myself since giving up social media is how much more I try and understand other people's point of view. Online it can be so difficult to see people as people, but I am really trying my best to be open minded every day.
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[[File:Unlock.png|150px|thumbnail|right|A screenshot from truthfinder.com after trying to sneak a peek at my personal report]]
 +
 
 +
==== Cutting it Close ====
 +
 
 +
After typing in every combination of my name along with personal details I could think of, the prominent results were “People Search” websites similar to mylife.com, which promise intimate details about the person in question. I investigated the site truthfinder.com as carefully as possible to find where they are getting this information and what my rights are to remove it. 
 +
 
 +
That site cites its sources as government records with offerings such as: “Criminal and arrest records” or “Social media profiles”.  The summary continues to mention they scrape deep web information and social media data in order to build an accurate profile of every single person in the United States.  
 +
 
 +
The scariest detail I stumbled upon was the inclusion of my family members and their last known addresses are listed right next to mine. I’m glad that there is scarce information to procure about any of them, but it is still very unsettling to me to know that it is so easy to find out the connections to people I care about through what the government deems acceptable to release publicly. Although I’m uncomfortable with a certain brand of website that I appear on, I must admit that there is far less information available through Google and Bing than I expected to find.
 +
 
 +
== The Verdict ==
 +
 
 +
My initial hunch that names are not useful as unique identifiers was mostly confirmed in my case, after finding dozens of Nico(las) Figueroa’s. This served to bring me some peace of mind when I considered how difficult it would be to single me out in the sea of Nicos. Names alone are clearly not enough today, outside of some circumstances, to be a completely discrete form of identity. Therefore, I wanted to consider a threshold of information that could be combined with my name to build an unmistakable profile of myself online. Were the requirements met?
 +
 
 +
My failure to find any significant search engine listings relevant to myself argue that I am safely under this threshold, while doing good job of convincing me that there is a strong correlation between the results presented here and my journey through life.
 +
 
 +
This aspect is the most intriguing to me; whether my lack of public information has truly affected my real self in the way that I hope. I was very happy to have difficulty finding information about myself, and although not having a LinkedIn or Facebook profile may hurt my employment options, this is outweighed by exceptional relationships with my family and friends. My improved mental health since starting college also seems to correlate with my findings, providing strong motivation to continue with the goal of staying invisible online. I may not be able to stay invisible online forever, who knows that the future might hold in terms of digital presence, but I hope carry on emphasizing to myself the importance of real-world interaction. This digital profile was an exciting experience to self-reflect and I think that I am headed in the right direction.

Latest revision as of 20:31, 5 March 2021

My presence on social media during high school played a driving role in my self-consciousness and fear of judgement. I had used Facebook for years along with Twitter, though my Instagram is still untouched and doesn’t contain my real name. After making a deliberate transition away from using social media in order to focus my energy on connecting with people around me, I became far less shy after my first job and discovered the real difference between meeting people in real life as opposed to online where I much prefer the former. My only objective concerning my digital presence is to be as inconspicuous as possible in order to prioritize interactions in the real world. Does my digital identity, and consequently my real life, reflect this intention?

People Call Me Nico

I think my name is the best place to start, concerning my real identity. I always tell people that Nico isn’t my real name, followed by an explanation about how I’m not from somewhere cool, my dad is. Names try to be our unique identifiers, but that doesn't apply in this digital realm, considering the breadth of the internet. My name is very common where my dad is from but sparsely heard here in the United States, so filtering out any Spanish results could help to narrow my search greatly.

There are plenty of other identifying traits that are used for categorization the internet, and in order to better critique my findings through search engines, I want to include some personal qualities which I feel define me. I love to code, play tennis and walk my dog. When my car breaks, I enjoy fixing it. My family all lives in Ann Arbor where I graduated high school in 2016. I attended Washtenaw Community College before transferring to the University of Michigan. These are all superficial details, but they represent me accurately so I am using them as a threshold to determine the depth to which I can be unearthed through Google and Bing.

The Hunt

Methodology

My high-level goal while constructing this digital profile was to critique how well I have stayed out of search engines relative to the personal details I provided. For both search engines I started with “Nico Figueroa” and then expanded on the entry to include more intimate details until I had searched enough to conclusively correlate any changes in my real life with my findings (or hopefully lack thereof).

BlogPic.png

A Whole Lot of Nothing

The most expected results from Bing are the first blog post I wrote for a class at the University of Michigan, SI410, a few weeks ago, along a few articles about my tennis career in high school. There is one picture that is captioned as containing me, but the link is broken. These initial results fall well within the scope in which I feel comfortable being represented online and although the blog post I wrote reveals some details about my workplace, I believe in the transparency of a company with its community. So far I was happy with what I could dig up, except for one search result.

A (Mostly) False Positive

A search engine listing for mylife.com gave me some misgivings, describing exactly my age, an associated address and the names of all my immediate family! I will absolutely admit to being anxious to click the link, but a good researcher never backs down.

A screenshot from mylife.com, showing an unsettling "Reputation Score". The reviews are allegedly generated by members of the site but are unable to be viewed without signing up.




The page revealed data which was out of date and clearly gathered from public government information providing some relief. The address posted was the one on my driver's license from when I still lived with my parents, there were no photos linked and the most identifying information listed was my age. There was a summary section with names of people who live around my parents, but they were antiquated and represented easily attainable public records. The part I found most unsettling was an “Approximate Reputation Score” which you can only investigate if you start handing over your credit card digits.

I experienced slim pickings with Bing, so I was curious to see if the trend would continue with Google.






We Say, "Google It" For a Reason

The all-knowing Alphabet Inc. gave me some more personal results, possibly revealing the first crack through my digital armor. The only result for “Nico Figueroa” that I came across through this entire endeavor was on page 2 of the Google search page, where my GitHub profile and history shows up. I wasn’t too impressed by this because my username is uniquely @NicoFigueroa, and after all, the site is a place to host Open-Source software. It stands to reason that my public repositories are on display for the world to see. No problems there, I don’t mind sharing my “professional” work with the world.

Two more listings merit mentioning, the first of which is a link to a Washtenaw Community College list of Honors Students from 2020 which nobody had bothered to invite me to. The second is another tennis website which broadcasts my losing record during my time in Rec&Ed tennis career. Again, there is a clear distinction to me between finding a picture of myself from a private profile and these news articles or school events. So far, I would report that I am satisfied with the results of my effort to remain as anonymous as possible.

A screenshot from truthfinder.com after trying to sneak a peek at my personal report

Cutting it Close

After typing in every combination of my name along with personal details I could think of, the prominent results were “People Search” websites similar to mylife.com, which promise intimate details about the person in question. I investigated the site truthfinder.com as carefully as possible to find where they are getting this information and what my rights are to remove it.

That site cites its sources as government records with offerings such as: “Criminal and arrest records” or “Social media profiles”. The summary continues to mention they scrape deep web information and social media data in order to build an accurate profile of every single person in the United States.

The scariest detail I stumbled upon was the inclusion of my family members and their last known addresses are listed right next to mine. I’m glad that there is scarce information to procure about any of them, but it is still very unsettling to me to know that it is so easy to find out the connections to people I care about through what the government deems acceptable to release publicly. Although I’m uncomfortable with a certain brand of website that I appear on, I must admit that there is far less information available through Google and Bing than I expected to find.

The Verdict

My initial hunch that names are not useful as unique identifiers was mostly confirmed in my case, after finding dozens of Nico(las) Figueroa’s. This served to bring me some peace of mind when I considered how difficult it would be to single me out in the sea of Nicos. Names alone are clearly not enough today, outside of some circumstances, to be a completely discrete form of identity. Therefore, I wanted to consider a threshold of information that could be combined with my name to build an unmistakable profile of myself online. Were the requirements met?

My failure to find any significant search engine listings relevant to myself argue that I am safely under this threshold, while doing good job of convincing me that there is a strong correlation between the results presented here and my journey through life.

This aspect is the most intriguing to me; whether my lack of public information has truly affected my real self in the way that I hope. I was very happy to have difficulty finding information about myself, and although not having a LinkedIn or Facebook profile may hurt my employment options, this is outweighed by exceptional relationships with my family and friends. My improved mental health since starting college also seems to correlate with my findings, providing strong motivation to continue with the goal of staying invisible online. I may not be able to stay invisible online forever, who knows that the future might hold in terms of digital presence, but I hope carry on emphasizing to myself the importance of real-world interaction. This digital profile was an exciting experience to self-reflect and I think that I am headed in the right direction.

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