So Min An

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I have had my foot into the technology world for as long as I can remember. I created my first email when I was in elementary school, and made several social media accounts when I was in middle school. Though I consider my name to be unique in Korean, it was difficult to find information about me as my information was covered by two famous celebrities from Korea with the same first name. Even though it was difficult to find information about me, I was quite delighted to know that my information was somewhat on the safer side than other people. I will be splitting this page into three big sections: results from search engines, results directly from social media, and results from an online data broker. With all the information I can find online, I'll be putting all the separate information pieces together to determine my true online identity.

Google Image results when I search my name.



Data From Search Engines

I searched my name “So Min An”, on three different search engine websites: Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo. Surely enough, there wasn’t a single link about me in the first five pages of search results. Most results given were newspaper articles about a female celebrity. Occasionally, I would find links to Pinterest or Instagram accounts. However, every single one of the links were for other people with the same name as me. This is due to the fact that my name is on the more feminine side and there are many females with the name “So Min”, but not a lot of males with the name “So Min”. At first, I tried swapping my first and last name to “An So Min”, but I still had no luck with finding any information from the three search engines. In hopes of finding a single information about me for this assignment, I even searched my name in Korean as well. As I kept digging through the search results page, an idea came to my mind. For my final attempt, instead of keeping my first name as two words, I decided to combine it into one, “Somin An”. When I first made my email and social media accounts, I chose the name “Somin An” instead of “So Min An”. This change was made because I was embarrassed that my name was written in two words instead of one, I wanted to fit in with my friends. Another reason why I chose to use “Somin” was because websites would always output “Good morning, So”, instead of “Good morning, So Min”.

Search result related to me using "Somin An"

After several searches on search engines, I was finally able to find information about me. Though it was just a list of Facebook profiles with the name “Somin An”, I was still in the list. If a single Facebook profile list page was all I could find after multiple searches of myself, I thought, “Wow, I did a pretty good job keeping up my privacy online.”

Data From Social Media

Although I didn’t find much on search engines, I knew that there would be more if I searched myself on individual social media sites. The three main social media sites I used ever since I was young were: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. As I am quite careful with what I share on social media, I wasn’t able to find much public information as much as I hoped. Most information I shared on social media sites were kept private.

Facebook

The default privacy setting I always kept on my Facebook profile was somewhat on the stricter side. Unless one is added as my friend, not much information can be taken from my profile page. Viewing my Facebook profile page from the public's point of view, it was sharing my name, birth country, the city I live in, and two pictures of myself. Scrolling all the way down on my profile page shared within my friends list, my digital history dating from 2013 pop up. From all the games and pages I have liked on Facebook to all the pictures I have taken with my church group. Diving into the about section of my profile, I was astonished with all the information I have shared on Facebook. It contained the college I was attending, my email address, phone address, date of birth, and Facebook groups and events I’ve attended. Facebook was also sharing the fact that I checked in Causeway Bay Hotel on July 20, 2019. I always thought of myself as a person who doesn’t leave much traces online, but that turned out to be false.

Twitter

twitter.

Data From Data Broker

instant checkmate

My Online Identity

Piece all info together here.

Conclusion

Write conclusion here.