Zhen Lian
Contents
Introduction
Probably unlike many people who grew up in a digital age, I could not find anything about myself by simply Googling my own name. When I tried to Google “Zhen Lian”, I found some interesting details about a Ph.D. student from Cornell University and another software engineer from Google, but none of the search results were a representation of my personal data identity. Nothing relevant to my data identity was showing up, at least not on the first few pages of Google’s search results. Maybe I am buried somewhere deep in Google’s search engine waiting to be discovered.
The best representation of my online identity that I could find about myself was my Facebook posts from middle school that made me cringe so hard I tried getting rid of them immediately so that no one else has to cringe in pain if they come across my Facebook account. I am the type of person who is very cautious with my personal data and how it is shared. For example, if you ever try to search for me on Instagram or Twitter, you are most likely not going to find me because I don’t share any personal data on those platforms. And even for someone who is so cautious with data protection and privacy, there were still data about me being shared behind the paywall. But as far as open data sources and social media, my online identity is unreliable and is only a representation of me in the past.
My Data Identity
Search Engines
The most relevant search results of myself I got back from Google was when I had added my hometown after my name “Zhen Lian, hometown”. The first few results didn’t really have any relevant information about me, and the only way I even found out that it was me was because I saw my friend’s names listed next to mine on the site. The next few Google results showed my resident and voters' information, and I was surprised to find this to just show up on Google’s search engines with my voters’ information and where I lived for the public to access with a simple search query. The seventh search result from Google was surprisingly accurate about my demographic information. I found this to be kind of terrifying because what I thought was private information was not private. Anyone who googles my name with my hometown after it can find information about where I lived and my relatives or people I might be linked with. I even found some relatives who I no longer live with and neighbors to be listed on this site. One thing from this site that really confused me was that I found my cousin’s wife to be listed as someone I might know. It’s very strange that these search engines even associated me with her, like what?? And the more I think about this, the more it scared me. It made me wonder how this site even collects this information about me. I don’t know, maybe they are watching and collecting my data right now.
Data Brokers
I thought this was fun, trying to find myself and my data online. So, out of curiosity, I paid for the monthly plan for Truthfinder.com to search for my public records. It asked me for my name and the city I live in and it started searching for my public data. I was glad that the information Truth Finder found about me was incorrect. I felt a sense of relief that people can’t just search for my name on these data broker sites (this one at least) and find information about me. I was genuinely scared that I would find something embarrassing that I didn’t even know about myself on one of these sites. The report that Truth Finder had generated for me was an 82-year-old “Zhen Lian”. According to the report, this man who I have never met lives in my house and apparently, we have the same relatives as well. They got some information correct, but it’s obvious that this wasn’t me. They almost had me but associated my information with the wrong person. I then tried another data broker called BeenVerified. Although the information this site provided was very limited, it was very accurate, unlike the other data broker. It collected my demographic information, but then also showed my emails. The thing that stood out to me the most was information about my stepbrother. Under his name says, “Dates seen Aug 2017 – Oct 2018”, the year he moved out for college. This is evidence that our data is being collected constantly, then updated and put into the public database for anyone to view and use.
Social Media
As I have stated before, I am not someone that likes to share or produce information about myself on social media. In fact, I barely pay attention to any of them and I rarely check them. Most data online about me were my embarrassing Facebook posts from 7 years ago. Most of which I tried getting rid of, but some will be stuck on my timeline forever for my friends to view because it was so hard to figure out how to hide or delete all of them. However, these data available online about me are no longer a representation of who I am anymore so they are irrelevant now, but it is unquestionable that there are others who share their information online without knowing or considering that anyone could have access to it, or what kind of information the search engine will recommend about you based on your personal data. The only place online that someone would find relevant and updated information about me is my LinkedIn account. Compared with Instagram or Facebook, I think LinkedIn is a completely different type of platform. It’s like a resume-sharing platform and people want to share their data for a good reason. People on LinkedIn purposefully share information so that they can make connections and most importantly for recruiters to find them. Unlike some random Facebook post you posted back in middle school, do most people even consider how those data can be used? According to a survey conducted in 2016, it found that people struggled to understand the nature and scope of data collected about them. And 74% of the participants said it was very important to them to be in control of their information (Pew Research Center, 2016). I always try to stay anonymous online because I don’t know how this information could be used and if these companies really take the steps to protect my personal data. For example, I turned off my Facebook posts from being public to limited access, but for some reasons, people can still view some of my past posts. I always change my privacy settings so I can restrict access to my public profiles, but is it really restricted? I think the answer here is no, your data is not secure or protected. It becomes very hard for anyone to manage and protect their privacy once it’s out in the public.
Conclusion
It’s intimidating to think that anyone willing to pay for a data broker service can collect information about where you live, your family, relatives, neighbors, and even friends. It’s clear that these companies can trace your data and use it to identify who you are and information that is linkable to you. I am glad that I have kept most of my personal information to myself so that at least some data brokers like TruthFinder were not able to identify who I am. But even if someone takes the time to dig through my social media accounts, I don’t think I would necessarily care since those posts are from so long ago. Not only are these data not a good representation of me anymore, but I also have never shared sensitive or personal information on social media so it wouldn’t help them to identify who I am regardless. However, I would still highly advise you to reconsider the next time you share personal data online and think that your data is secure.
References
Rainie L. (March 27, 2018). “Americans’ complicated feelings about social media in an era of privacy concerns”. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/27/americans-complicated-feelings-about-social-media-in-an-era-of-privacy-concerns/
