Jacob Leslie

From SI410
Revision as of 17:09, 19 February 2021 by Jles (Talk | contribs) (pics in)

Jump to: navigation, search

My data identity gives a fairly basic, but accurate representation of who I am and what I like to do. A quick scan of my Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter will uncover plenty of my interests and passions, along with where I’m from, who some of my friends are and even my sense of humor. These platforms may have information that’s a bit outdated because I’m not very active, but with not a ton of work, one could find out a lot about me even without subscribing or creating an account on any of the platforms I just mentioned.


Jacob vs Jake

Jacob was actually the most common name in the U.S. for baby boys born in 1999 so inevitably, when I was in third grade, there were three other kids in my class named Jacob. Naturally, two of us took nicknames to make differentiating easier and this led to the birth of “Jake Leslie” at the ripe old age of 9. After that, every year in school, I would spend the first week deciding whether it was worth it to ask a teacher to call me Jake instead of Jacob and as I grew older, I became more assertive and attached to using Jake. Now, I’m really only occasionally called Jacob by my grandparents or my parents when they’re mad. This preference for Jake has carried over to my online identity (with the exception of my first year on Facebook as Jacob), so all of my public accounts are accurately under the name “Jake Leslie”.

Googling Myself

One thing that could arguably make my data identity slightly more private is the fact that my name is quite a common one. However, with the amount of information web browsers are constantly collecting and using, it seems as though anonymity amongst the masses is becoming less viable. An example of this is that even when I google “Jake Leslie” in an incognito window (so the computer doesn’t ‘know’ it’s me), the first result is a long list of Facebook profiles sharing my name, of which I am 17th. Additionally, I don’t appear in the google photo section until around the 10th row of results. These are both indications that I may be somewhat hard to find if you only know my name, but Google is more clever than that.

Google search results for "Jake Leslie"

Google can see my location and it seems as though that was used to populate the rest of the google results. Of the next 4 results in google, 3 of them are links to my specific account on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Interestingly, two Twitter accounts that are not mine show up next in the results. My theory is that Google recognized my location as Ann Arbor and suggested my LinkedIn and Facebook pages because both have multiple posts about the University of Michigan and then suggested the Instagram account that is linked to the Facebook account. My Twitter account, on the other hand, has notably less of a connection to the University (both in terms of content and network of followers/friends) which could contribute to why it doesn’t appear in the first page of results.

What About “Jacob Leslie”?

As expected, when I use my full first name the results are less personal to me. Again, a list of Facebook profiles comes up, but I don’t appear on the first page of results. My specific Facebook profile does appear as the second google result, however, likely because I first created that account under the name Jacob. Other than that, the first page of google doesn’t pertain to me and the same goes for the image results.

My Facebook profile viewed without logging in. Note the link has the name Jacob in it.


Public Vs Private

One major decision every person has to make when creating social media accounts is what level of privacy to put on their account. Each service provides different levels of customization when it comes to privacy, but they all can essentially boil down to the question of public or private. My accounts are all public (or default in the case of Facebook and LinkedIn), which makes my information all that more accessible. On Instagram and Twitter, this means that anyone (with or without an account) can view all of my posts, how many followers I have, and how many accounts I’m following. All it takes it to be logged into an account to be able to also view who is following me and who I am following.

Facebook and LinkedIn have more flexibility in terms of what is viewable by whom, but the default settings make it so my profile on each platform has certain basic information that is shared to anyone regardless of whether they’re logged in or not. On LinkedIn, logging in gives one access to pretty much the entirety of my profile, but Facebook still keeps my posts private until I’ve accepted a friend request.


Concluding Thoughts

Given the privacy settings on each of my main social media accounts, my online data identity is fairly complete and accurate. Even though sites like Facebook and LinkedIn protect my posts and information from parts of the internet, these accounts aren’t very active, so it’s protecting some outdated information. My Twitter and Instagram accounts, which are only active in comparison to the previously mentioned dormant accounts, share much more personal information about me. In fact, all you need is a Twitter account to see every tweet I’ve liked. This availability always lives in the back of my mind when interacting on social media and I think that’s been a good way for me to make sure I’m aware of my online identity. Overall, this meant I wasn’t very surprised by anything I found and I’m pretty comfortable with what a basic search for my name turns up.