User:Glwarner

My name is Guadalupe Gonzalez, but I often go by my nickname, Lucas. I am originally from San Antonio, Texas. I moved to Michigan after meeting my late biological father's side of the family nearly five years ago for the first time. I transferred to the University of Michigan last semester, so I am now currently in my second semester.

This was a really interesting endeavor to undertake. Since I go by my nickname on social media, I figured that when I did a Google search of myself by my full name that I would not turn up, which was the case. Also, I recently deleted Facebook, so I did not appear for those results either. Another issue that I assumed, correctly, was that because I share the same name with my father (the one whom raised me) that I would find results for him. I am the third iteration and he is the second. I was also aware that because the name "Guadalupe" is commonly a woman's name in the Hispanic community that I would more than likely find many women. Again, I was correct on this. However, I can assure you, that I am a man. I apologize for not being the attractive Guadalupe that you may see on Google images. If you were to use Internet Explorer (which who uses Bing?) as your browser and did a search of my full name, you are immediately shown images of her. Evidently she represented Paraguay in the 62nd Miss Universe that was held in Russia. I wonder if she met Trump . . .

As a clicked through the other pages on Google's results I did discover my LinkedIn profile. So you will get to see what I have done and the people whom I am connected with. One other thing I noticed was that the ads on their showed me websites such as truthfinder.com and beenverified.com. Since I found very little when simply typing in my name I decided to add "michigan" into the search bar and the first result was my LinkedIn profile. Although that could have been because of how their algorithm works since I was doing this all at once. Oddly, a picture of a former classmate of mine whom I am connected with on LinkedIn appeared. He was working with the same organization I was with, but in Wisconsin during the Fall. That is concerning. Not that it bothers me, but makes me wonder how much of my online footprint is being tracked exactly. Another thing I saw which was towards the bottom of the first page of results was a link to the Hispanic, Latino Commission of Michigan (HLCOM). I was a scholarship recipient, so the article they have of me receiving the award is still there.

I did stumble upon a site called mylife.com. I have a 3.85 out of 5 on their reputation score. I am not entirely sure what that is supposed to mean. It did have some information on me that was accurate, but it said I worked at a painting company and I never have. I realize my name is really Mexican, but come on. I am not a caricature of my community. I attempted to view a full report of what data they did have, because some it was accurate. For instance, they did have old addresses of mine from when I still lived in Texas. Right after the report was completed it asked for me to give my full name, age, zip code, and email. I opted not to, because I am already not happy with how much information they have and would prefer to not knowingly provide them more.

Due to this I did ask Prof. Conway to provide me with my data through beenverified.com. I had ninety-two pages of data to sift through. Again, I was disturbed by just how much data they had and also by how much of it was accurate. From where I lived in San Antonio until where I lived with my Uncle here in Michigan, they had those addresses. There was also quite a bit of addresses that I was not familiar with. So I don't know if they really are mine, but I am assuming that this is because of census data when I was younger and in the places my family lived.

What I don't quite understand is why they have possible associates and relatives on there. I am not sure what this information has to do and when I reviewed it they had people on there that I have no idea who they are. After that I saw my criminal record, which don't worry, it is just speeding infractions. In the words of Ricky Bobby: "I wanna go fast." Once I went past those I did see criminal records of people with the same name on my file as well. This I feel is certainly a violation of their privacy and I am certain that they would not be happy to have a complete stranger viewing this. Especially if they did their time.

As this all pertains to the online identity I present, I believe on both Twitter and Facebook, I am very much like myself in person, I enjoy discussing politics, sports, and reading thought provocative articles about tech, economics, health, and philosophy. On the former medium, I am certainly more vocal about my liberal politics and follow many legislators, both at the federal and state level. When I was Facebook, I had more family on their and most of my friends from Texas as well. Although I did discuss politics I usually refrained from commenting on peoples post, because the arguments lead to many head scratching moments and contempt for the medium. I can be very extroverted at times, but I do my best to listen before I speak and my approach is similar to how I do this on Facebook as well.

For the most part, the searches of my name did not really provide very much. The information like my LinkedIn and that I was a scholarship recipient is harmless enough for me to not be too worried. However, as I attempted to use these data broker sites I find myself feeling very violated. I understand that this information is public, but I do not feel they have the right to create an online profile of me, especially one that was inaccurate at times, without my knowledge. I say this, because I am disappointed to see how I was assigned a job that I never held and that it perpetuates a stereotype about my community that I do my best to prove isn't correct about Hispanics.

Haimson illuminated a very interesting point about how Facebook's "real name" policy marginalizes groups that feel forced to use their "real" name and how this affects a persons online and offline identity. I believe this applies to how online data brokers create a profile of you as well. As a person who is mixed-race, I did, for a period, struggle with how I could address this on social media and I do occasionally find it difficult to navigate offline. This was an issue, because when I moved to Michigan, I went from being surrounded by an all Mexican family to now living with an all White family. I had to learn how to handle both sides of two very different identities. This is why it bothers me that I was pigeonholed, whether by accident or racial bias, as a painter. Nothing wrong with that as a profession, but last thing I want to do is contribute to a stereotype. I believe I should only have control of this, because I never gave license to anyone to use my data like this and definitely not to make a profit. I should have the final say in how I choose to present myself in both worlds and I believe that is a right everyone should have. The internet is a fact of life now and we should be able to use it without concern for how this will be used to create an identity of ourselves that we don't believe is true.