Digital Tattoos
Doing a data mine on myself is kind of nerve wracking for me. I was a little nervous to see what information was out there about myself. I am someone who keeps all their social media accounts private. At one point in my life, I didn’t have my last name on any of my social media accounts. When I first started teaching, I didn’t want it to be easy for my students or their families to find me on the internet. So now, I am very interested to see what is out there about me! When doing the data mine, I put my findings into a chart to show what was found on that site. Green represents that site had it and red means the site did not.
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| Source: Created by Blog Owner |
My first search was in a Safari browser using Google. I searched my name “Ashley Pesch”. Immediately pictures of myself popped up and I was nervous. However, I realized most of the pictures that popped were from my wedding website (which is public). Google was able to show my teacher Twitter/X account and teacher Instagram account as both of those are public and have my first and last name attached to them. Therefore, someone would be able to find out where I work and my job title if they were to click on the social media accounts.
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| Source: Google Search |
Nuwber REALLY surprised me with the information that is available about me. When I searched my name, multiple people with the same name popped up. However, if you know some details about me you would be able to pick which one is me. This website was able to tell my age, my immediate family’s names (my sister, mom, and dad), my full address, my HOME phone number, and somehow my moms email address. My full address and home phone number are something I have never put on the internet before, so I question how this website got access to this information. In order to get any additional information, the site wanted me to put in my email address to receive a “full report”. I did not feel comfortable giving them my email address as they already had too much information about myself.
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| Source: Nuwber |
This website was another that surprised me. It provided a lot of similar information as Nuwber. However, this website did not give my full address - only my city and state. It also did not have my current job title but the job title I had from when I was in high school and college. Which was a cashier at Taco Bell. One thing that really stood out to me with this website was the list of relatives available. This list not only included my immediate family, but it included my dads parents and his brother. My paternal grandpa died when I was only six weeks old so I don’t really have any connection to him. My uncle passed away in 1989. It was interesting to see his name there. There were also people listed there that I never heard of before. When I asked my parents about the unknown names they were also unsure. I am curious where these additional names came from
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| Source: Radaris |
This website definitely tells you an extent of your family tree! They were able to give me my family members' names including their middle initials. The website also included their birth month and birth year. A surprising piece the website had was my step grandmother’s information. I didn’t think she would be connected to me on the internet like that. However, as I continue to go through more websites, I truly wonder where they receive their information from. Family Tree Now has my mom listed twice as a relative of mine with two different birthdays. My sister is also listed twice with the same birthdays but different middle initials. It is interesting the variations these websites come up with!
I have a Facebook account, so I wanted to see if you could find my profile by searching my name in a search engine and adding “Facebook Profiles. This then takes you to a link to search all profiles on Facebook with that name. I scrolled through a list with names that were close to mine, however I could not find my profile in this list. This made me happy that the precautions I have on my Facebook page seem to be working as my profile is not easily accessible to others.
At first, People Finder seemed promising. It seemed like they would provide a lot of information. However, after several minutes of the website saying it was “analyzing” the information all it came up with was my name and my immediate family. In order to receive any other information, you would need to pay to see the full report.
Intelius was very similar to People Finder. It was another website that looked like it would give me a lot of information however it did not. It only provided me with my name, age, town/state, and my family. To receive more information I would need to submit a payment. If I were to have submitted a payment it says I could have seen things like my full address, phone numbers, and things like traffic violations.
My Key Takeaways
There is a lot of information about you on the internet that you may not realize so be careful what you share because other websites will house that information for people to find.
Nuwber provided the most exact information with my exact address and phone number
Most websites will provide you with someones name, age, family members, and area in which you live
Many websites want you to pay a ridiculous price to receive a “full report”
Switching between different browsers can have an impact on the information you find
Many websites have a sense of your family tree, some more extensive than others.
Websites don't usually share your interests, gender, school, social media accounts, and occupation
Hi Ashley!
ReplyDeleteI want to start out and say I love your post background. The pink and black really drew me in to read your blog. Your google search is so many pictures of you, at least they are good ones! I should definitely look into making my twitter account public just without using students faces to show my parents what the students are doing in the classroom. Also, good idea blocking out your address, I should've thought about doing that. I like how you put your key takeaways and that one of them is that you have to pay to receive the full report because that was most of my results too. Thanks for sharing!
I love a good chart! Thank you for that along with the deep dive into what you found. I've never paid for any of the services but I imagine they probably wouldn't offer anything more than you can find on your own.
ReplyDeleteAshley, I loved how you created the chart to organize the content found on each of the sites used for the deep dive. What a great idea! Similar to you, I feel that Radaris had a lot of information on me. I personally feel that with the paid sites, like PeopleFinder and Intelius, they try to scare you with all of these messages about bad things you could find in the results, but then they won't show you everything unless you pay. Kind of seems like a cash grab to me!
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