Sadhana Ramaseshadri

Introduction

My name is a central part of my identity. When I think of my identity on the internet, I have always had a pretty clear picture of what I expect to show up. I am fairly certain that I am one of few, if not the only Sadhana Ramaseshadri. The combination of my first last name is obviously uncommon in the United States, but is actually quite uncommon in India as well. So, when I do a quick Google search of my name, there is not a whole lot of confusion as to who I am.

My Google Identity

Search Query: 'Sadhana Ramaseshadri'

When I search my name “Sadhana Ramaseshadri,” the first three results that come up are from my portfolio website, or from my LinkedIn. Because I doubt that anybody else shares my name, this is something that I expected.

However, when I scroll down a bit more, the results get a bit unnerving. The fourth result is from the Michigan Residents database. This includes my public records, address history, voter information, as well as links to similar information about my family members and neighbors. From all the times I Googled my name as a child, I cannot recall my personal information being so publicly displayed. Nor did I find anything when googling my younger brother’s name. Because my brother is not yet of voting age, this leads me to infer that websites such as fastpeoplesearch.com draw their information from the Michigan voter database. This also brings up the question: can the dissemination of information about voters deter U.S. citizens from voting?

As I continued scrolling through the search query of my name, every search result pertained to me, until I reached page 5, where different variations and spellings of parts of my name started to show up, such as “Sadhna” or “Ram Seshadri.”

Search Query: 'Sadhana Ann Arbor'

Because searching my full name gave such pointed results, I tried to enter in a more ambiguous search. So I searched for “Sadhana Ann Arbor.” This brought up a lot more results that I didn’t have relation to. But, my LinkedIn still showed up as the second search result, and my address was still on the first page of results.

My Identity on Social Media

When I googled “Sadhana Ramaseshadri Instagram”, I did not expect my account to pop up at all. Ever since I was young, I have been pretty private on social media, taking steps to private all my accounts and remove my last name from my bios. However, my Instagram account, which does not have any mention of my last name, was the first to pop up. After exploring further, I realized that the account I have linked in my bio, has my portfolio site linked in its bio, which displays my full first and last name.