Ava Randa

A child of the digital age, I’ve been using the Internet ever since I can remember. In elementary school my parents created me my very own email address. Although my email and the sites I was frequenting were monitored by my parents, I’ve had a digital footprint probably since I was 8 years old. Considering my young age, the sites I used to go on, were, for the most part, child friendly, and quite anonymous. I used to play social computer games all the time from Toontown to Club Penguin to Webkinz. Likely before Reddit was even created, I was on forums regarding the cartoon Winx, and I think some other forum for young girls about “growing up.” Since it has been 10+ years and a majority of these sites are shut down, and because I was using these sites under a pseudonym, nothing comes up for these accounts when searching ‘Ava Randa’ on Google. However, a lot appears when I search my name on the Internet; I have quite the digital presence. In high school I was an avid user of Flickr, and at the time, I even thought I was going to pursue a career in Photography. Because of that, I was okay with putting my first and last name on my account. The fourth site listed when I Google myself is my Flickr, and a majority of the photos that appear are also from my Flickr account. I licensed the majority of my photos with Creative Commons, so bloggers and newspaper writers all around the world have used my images for their articles. Even though I don’t post on Flickr as much as I used to (perhaps once every four months), it’s surprising to see that my older photos are the first to show up. One of my favorite photographers in high school, Rosie Hardy, emphasized that self-portraits were a great way to experiment and grow as a photographer. At the time, since I had no one willing to model, I took her advice, and took conceptual self-portraits. Although these photos are not inappropriate, they’re certainly “creative” and I can’t help but chuckle when they’re the some of the first photos that appear in my Google Search. The other information about myself that is immediately available and on the first page of the Google Search is my LinkedIn, Facebook, Vimeo, and one of my many (but less used) Youtube accounts. Since all of these accounts have my first and last name, I am not surprised that they appear. It’s curious that my other Youtube accounts, which do not have my last name, but were once linked to my other social media accounts (like Flickr and Twitter) do not appear. I’m also shocked that my Twitter doesn’t appear either; even though it is now a private account, and I have removed my last name, I’m still surprised there are immediately available remnants of it on Google. Other information about me on Google are photos of me taken by my photographer friends, articles about my accomplishments in current and past student organizations, photos that I took for The Michigan Daily from when I used to work there, and my name listed as a relative in obituaries. A couple Google pages in, and you can find some of the articles I wrote for The Odyssey Online. My time writing for the Odyssey was short lived, approximately 6 months, and even though my account has been deactivated for 3 years, none of my articles were ever taken down (quite unfortunately). A lot comes up when you Google ‘Ava Randa.’ There’s nothing on Google about me that is too shocking. I’ve carefully curated my digital presence, always aware that anyone could find anything once it’s online. It is a bit heartwarming to see how strong of a creative presence I have maintained online. Unfortunately, however, my personal website for photography, videography, and UX (ava-randa.com) appears absolutely nowhere on the first few pages of my Google search. However, I suppose this is an SEO problem. Still, I’m surprised it isn’t attached to my name like Flickr, The Michigan Daily, or The Odyssey. Aside from my creative work, I’ve always been quite “private” on my other social media. Almost always, I keep my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram private, only letting people I personally know in on my digital life. Even though I use the protective privacy settings, I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything too personal that could jeopardize my reputation or safety. My Twitter account is perhaps the most “scandalous” of them all (but not really), since a lot of what I post on there is less intellectually stimulating, and more for laughs. My personal report form the Databroker was also nothing out of the ordinary, given my digital presence. The report from InstantCheckmate had few inaccuracies. The possible relatives who were listed were correct. My deceased grandparents and uncle were listed, as well as my parents (who are alive). I’m assuming this information was collected and grouped that way because of their digital obituaries. My grandmother, who is alive, was listed as a “possible associate” because she shares my home address, but was not listed as a relative. Everything else from my databroker report was fairly accurate. I was surprised to see that under possible education it had listed my previous potential majors. This was startling until I remembered that every time I officially or unofficially changed my major at Michigan, I had also changed it on my LinkedIn. It is interesting, however, that the databroker was able to get a hold of that old information, but that my once public Twitter does not appear on Google or even on the data broker.