So Min An
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.
Contents
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”.
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.
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.
Though I haven't used my twitter since October 2015, it was a hidden gem that made me blush. My twitter was mostly used to receive rewards from games by sharing the game on Twitter. From all the links I shared on my favorite youtuber, to all the tweets I sent in hopes of receiving free gift cards from scammy websites. Several tweets I wrote were about promoting my youtube channel made in 2013.
YouTube
In 2013, I made a youtube channel for uploading my Minecraft gameplay videos. I won't be sharing the channel here as it's one of my most embarrassing moments. Though I have uploaded around seven or eight twenty-minute videos, no one would be able to tell as I didn’t use my real name.
Data From Data Broker
After viewing my embarrassing past, it made me curious on what an online data broker can find about me. I used Instant Checkmate to look for my data publicly available ranging from personal information to public data available. The results were as expected, I wasn’t able to find any information about me. I’ve tried different data broker websites, but nothing was found. The only possible explanation I could think of was that I wasn’t a US citizen. However, when I searched my father’s name and city, I was able to find his. It showed me his phone number, all previous addresses we had, and family information. Surprisingly, I was mentioned in the family information page. Though they wrote my name as “So-min An”, I was clearly visible under my father’s name. I came up with the conclusion that I haven’t done much publicly to have my information public. I was pretty confident with this idea as my younger sister was never mentioned anywhere.
My Online Identity
Piecing all information that I could find about me, only the most basic information about me was publicly available such as the city I lived in and my birth country. In order to view more in-depth information about me, they must be added as a friend. Any private information related to my hobbies that I shared were only available up to 2015 as if my online identity stopped developing. As I imagined there wasn't much public information available. However, there also wasn't any false information as well. Though most information about me was produced directly from myself, the only other possible way someone could know more about me was if they found a picture of myself included in someone else’s profile. However, I do not have much control over what others post and I will continue to keep my most sensitive information offline.
Conclusion
Through discovering what information about myself is available to the public, I’ve learned that having a name shared with a celebrity helps cover up my personal identity pop up on search engines. However, if someone has the intent to track down my personal information and personal life through social media, they’ll definitely be able to find a few data points about me. Currently, I’m extremely happy that nothing was found through the searches I made with an online data broker. Although my name has been mentioned in my father’s online profile, I haven’t been able to find any personal information through Instant Checkmate.
Nonetheless, I’m sure my personal information including my phone number and past addresses will be available once I become an active member of society. Even if that ends up happening, I believe it’s important to try to limit the amount of information I share to the public sector of the internet. Everyone should always remember, whatever you share on the internet will always be online. I can control what information I share to the public, but I can’t control the information that has been spread by others.
