Bailee Stirn

Before being prompted to search myself online I had never thought much about the uniqueness of my name. In fact, ever since I left my hometown for college it feels like everywhere I go there is someone else around my age named Bailee or Bailey or something of the sort. When faced with googling myself, however, I was lucky enough, or perhaps unlucky depending on how you see it, to find that the combination of the spelling of my first and last

name provides me with narrow results all specific to my real life. When realizing this I was at first pleasantly surprised because that meant I did not have to work as hard to find results actually about me and anyone else searching me would not confuse me for someone else. On further thought, however, I have become slightly nervous, wishing for there to be hundreds of other Bailee Stirns out there to be confused with me so that no one will be able to tell what data is mine. My brainstorming immediately hoped for a means for obfuscation when it came to online profiles, something entailing making various fake facts associated with my name so as to hide the truth, but really this would not address the root of the privacy and ethical concerns here.

In Dean Cocking's Plural Selves, he writes that privacy depends on one's control over self-presentation, so a simpler solution might be policies allowing people to take things off websites about themselves. Unfortunately, there are not many tools in place in the U.S. for that and there is the issue of deciding what can and cannot be withheld from the public. So for now, I may continue to be associated with any and all online results for "Bailee Stirn", no matter what they are or what patterns they represent.

Ultimately, I found that my online identity is built on the idea David Shoemaker discusses in Self-exposure and exposure of the self where individual results suggest patterns both significant and irrelevant to my self-identity. Further, although many aspects of my self-identity are being presented accurately, they have stolen my chance to present them in my own way, suggesting a serious lack of informational privacy.

Google Search

The results from a google search of my name mainly fell into four categories: middle school and high school sports and clubs, academic pursuits, social media, and logistical information. The first category included various websites containing statistics, action pictures, awards, and newspaper appearances for games and other community events I participated in through student organizations. The second category included articles about my academic achievements from high school and different assignments I have created both in high school and college on public websites like Prezi and Vimeo. The third category included the only two online profiles I have associated with my name which are for Twitter and Pinterest. Finally, the rest of the search results contained information about me such as my address, sex, birth year, and relatives- all of which were accurate.

Data Broker

Another level added to the formation of online identities is data brokers holding all kinds of information on individuals, usually found behind a paywall. When using Instant Checkmate, one such data broker, to search my name, facts such as my exact birth date, all members of my immediate family, my pinterest account, my address, my neighbors and some of their personal data, sex offenders in the area, and possible associates (whatever that means) were available. Everything that Instant Checkmate's report on me included was correct, except the category of possible associates, which subsequently gave me the most concern in my uncertainty. It said that a possible associate of mine was a person with the name Diego Peralta and under his list of previous addresses, was that of my family's home. I know this is untrue because my family built our home when I was young on property that was family owned, giving it a brand new address. It makes sense that these reports would often have mistakes such as this, however, I am still labeled as an associate of this person unknown to me for anyone who chooses to see.

Patterns

When they get it right

Picture taken from a newspaper article written about me and my high school volleyball team

Growing up in a very small town, I made peace many years ago with the fact that my privacy in the sense of the control I had over what was published about me, was minimal. Choosing to participate in many community-based affairs, I knew that I had been featured in numerous local newspaper articles and was therefore not surprised to find any of these results in the first three categories. Of course, that does not mean that I am not embarrassed by some of it, especially pictures like the one to the left. But because I had adjusted my life to expect these things many years ago, I found myself not as distraught at first glance to find it publicly available. In addition, they are all showing things that I contribute to my self-identity and am generally proud of like being involved in a community or striving academically, so I ask myself should I really get to complain? I am still unsure of how wronged I ultimately feel, however, there is something to be said about my lack of ability in presenting these things on my own time, in my own manner. For example, sharing my successes and failures in playing sports and how this has become a part of my self-identity to some people would feel comfortable, but doing so to others might not be, or I might only want to reveal the successes. While this may be a relatively low stakes example, the privacy implications are still there and important to acknowledge for when the case has bigger consequences.

The online information on myself where at first glance I was slightly more concerned by the accuracy was the

When they get it wrong

ij;ijkk