Digital Tattoo

Digital Tattoo

When I first started reading about this weeks topic, I thought to myself that I was going to have a pretty big digital tattoo. I thought I would be able to find everything about myself very easily. It's scary how easy you can find someone online by just having their first name and where they are from. I started having social media when I was in 7th or 8th grade. At the time, the thing to do was to post all the pictures you could with your friends. I went from having 1 social media account when I was in 7th/8th grade to now having almost at least one account on any platform you could think of. Do I use all of these accounts still? No, but at some point in the past 10/11 years these accounts were active and in my name. 

Gif source- Giphy

Google: I started off my deep dive by googling my name. My full name is Caitrionagh O'Connor, but I never really go by that name. My family will sometimes call me Caitrionagh but that's pretty much it. When I googled my full name, nothing came up. It actually kept asking me if I meant "Caitriona". I then googled my nickname, which is the name I normally go by in my everyday life, Cait O'Connor. I did not find anything when I googled myself either. I then decided to try to Google my name and then add Chicago to the end. When I did this the only thing that came up was my personal twitter account, which is private. 

Facebook: When I googled my nickname I did not see anything come up that was public. My facebook account is not under my nickname anyway so I think that adds to this. I use my nickname and then my middle name. Even when I did search the name I use on facebook, nothing came up other than my profile. 

True people search: When I searched my name on True people search there were no records found. I then searched my nickname and still no records that were me were on there. 

Image source: personal photo

Radaris: When I conducted a search on Radaris it told me that my first name was unknown. I then typed in my nickname and there were no results found for a Cait O'Connor in Chicago. 

Image source: personal photo

I also conducted searches on Truth Finder, Instant Checkmate, and Intelius. On all 3 of these sights I entered my full name and the city. It told me that the search was too broad so I entered some more information (middle name, age, gender, etc) and it still said the search was too broad. It would not show any of the results so I could not go through them. 

Overall, I was very surprised with this search. I thought that all of my social media accounts would have showed up or that my information would have been on at least one of the public records sights. I thought that I would have been an easy search since my first name is so unique. I was confused that it said my search was so broad after I had given my full name, middle initial, city, age, and gender. I would be very surprised that there would be another Caitrionagh O'Connor that is my age living in Chicago. I was very surprised that there is hardly anything that pops up when I search myself. I also know how easy it is to find those public records. I remember seeing my parents on one of these sites before, it having their correct addresses, email, phone number, relatives, etc. I'm not sure I would say this skill would be at the top of my list to teach students about. While there is nothing wrong with it, I think it would be more beneficial to teach students about safety online and the importance of privacy settings. Not only teaching them about online safety and privacy settings but also to be mindful about what they are posting. This is something that can come from teachers, parents, and really any adult in a students life. I know I tell my cheerleaders that they always should be mindful about what they are posting, especially if they are wearing anything that represents the school (uniform, clothes, etc).