I’ve been thinking a lot about privacy on the Internet lately. Unfortunately, I may be 4 or 5 years too late on this. Some valid points were brought up on my blog vs Twitter entry, regarding the death of personal blogs due to the accessibility of the Internet (and Google) to employers. It seems that a lot of things can jeopardize one’s chances of acquiring work… so we should pretty much all become strict Mormons now, am I right? 
How easy is it to find information about yourself online? I stuck my name into Google the other day, and came up with about 10 pages worth of results, all of which relate to me in some way. I wasn’t too put off by this. I thought “So what? I’m sure Google has info on everyone!” So, I searched for a bunch of my friends. Mainly, their Facebook pages would come up, along with maybe one or two abandoned social networking profiles. It wasn’t anything at all like my results, which included a LOT of crap, including a list of a bunch of stuff that I ate (grabbed from Twitter or something).
It could boil down to the bit where I have a rather uncommon name. And, that I’ve been around for a while. Still, while there isn’t anything even remotely incriminating, it is a little bit weird.
Then there’s this blog. On Google.ca I come up #1 for my full name (obviously), and #5 for just my first. I’m not ashamed of my blog, and as I’ve mentioned I love my blog. Other than Lissa, it is my longest relationship with anyone who isn’t part of my family. The problem with it is that it does span from when I was a rather idiotic 18 year old girl (and even 16 in some parts), and it does include emo rants and angst that still hasn’t completely gone away to this day. I like to think that it’s taken more of an interesting and grown-up turn, but in reality, I still get into stupid fights with family, I still spend days behaving like a child and colouring with my brother, and let’s not even get into the gong-show of inappropriateness that is The Ling Show.
I’m not saying it will be changing in the slightest (at least not this week), I’m just sort of thinking aloud (in writing… which is silent… except for click click click keyboard click… but whatever).
Stick your name into Google, and tell me if anything interesting comes up. Do you think there’s anything that would make an employer perhaps choose someone else, or that would get you dooced from your current job? Does it influence the way you blog?
I’m still amused by your Google results.
It probably depends on whether you go by your real name online or not as well. Obviously you do, but for me, I tend to go by aliases and keep my real name for just my website and facebook (I still try to keep a lot of personal stuff about myself private or at least viewable only to a limited number of people though..).
I think I’d be fairly safe even if an employer found my stuff, because I tend to be self-conscious of the fact that others are watching.
The only thing that came up for my online nickname (Crissy) was…well a bunch of people. So I added my blog name and got two results. One being ys.nu, which I haven’t used in years. If I put in my real name, I get other people…nothing on me. I guess I’ve been pretty quiet on the interwebs. It’s always freaked me out to have everyone be able to access everything about me, I don’t know why.
The only thing related to me that comes up when I search my name is my facebook and an article I wrote on helium forever ago.
Well, lucky for me there seems to be a semi-famous pianist who shares my name. So it’s mostly him that comes up.
But my Twitter and Facebook fan page come up. The first sight of my site is on page 8 and is just a link to one blog entry.
Um, I’m 18, so I don’t think I have too much to worry about right now. Although I might be screwing myself over, since Google caches everything. But, uh, my current plans involve me being famous anyway. SO WHATEVES. I’ll deal with that stuff in the future and if I have to, make my Facebook page really legit and be like “THAT IS NOT MY BLOG YOU ARE CRAZY IN THE BRAIN.”
You can get my whois information (I actually just paid to protect it), but other than that – nothing, really. You get a flyer for some charity work I did about 1.5 years ago, and some image credits on my mom’s site, but nothing like what you have!
I tried searching for my name in Google, but I couldn’t find anything about me except my Google profile. I guess that’s what happens when you have a common English first name and Chinese last name. :/
My Linux related blog is on front page (Google.fi) when you search with my complete name, there are also some facebook profiles but not mine. On second page you find my launchpad profile. Anyway I’m pretty Google able, if you are interested to search me, but I’d like to think that most of the stuff you find about me thru Google isn’t something that would cause me difficulties with workplaces for example. They’ll find out that I am girl who likes Linux, sewing, music and piercings.
There’s not much for me because I don’t use my full name online!
Hopefully a potential employer would see how cool/creative you are from your blog, and not get the wrong impression…
You could probably apply for credit cards in my name with the amount of info I have about myself on the interwebs.
I don’t worry about getting fired because of my blog (I know my boss reads it sometimes) but I do hate the thought of my personal and professional worlds colliding when it comes to clients. They don’t need to know the intimate details of my life.
Very interesting to think about, especially since I’ll be finishing up my degree and going out on the job hunt by October.
Putting my name into Google, I come up with my Facebook page, one of my amazon wish lists, and a couple articles about making honor roll and deans list from the local paper. So any potential employer could see what books I want to buy, that I’m a good student and have been for a while, and the “Amanda only shares certain information with friends” page on Facebook. They could see my picture, but I usually have one of my head, or one of my head with my husband’s head in the frame. There’s nothing relating to me beyond the first page of Google.
I don’t think I have my last name on my blog, and it’s not in the title (or on a domain registered by me — I’m a sub domain). And the blog hasn’t been around for a while yet, so that’s probably why it hasn’t popped up.
Interesting to think about though, I wonder what policies there are in workplaces about your (the general you, not you specifically) internet presence when they hire people?
When I google myself, my Facebook page is first, followed by some random automatically generated “identity” page full of broken links and misinformation. Lol.
My website is third.
I personally think that if an employer doesn’t want to hire me based on my personal blog, I wouldn’t want to work for them.
I’m more than happy to follow rules about not blogging about work etc., but I’m not going to stop blogging altogether!
If I type in my full name, the only relevant result is a list of marks from my 3rd year of uni (and that’s thankfully a 10 – i.e. 100% :P), and the e-mail I used for this comment.
As for my first name… haven’t got around to digging quite that deep, yet.
I made certain that I’m as untraceable as possible. See my facebook name.
The only place on the internet I use my full name is twitter, and when I google my name that’s the #1 result.
My name is pretty uncommon, though when I was halfway through my surname it came up as a suggested search, with 4980 results. I was like ‘how many of me are there? :L’
I spent years trying to get my full name off the searches and it’s all gone except for my school/portfolio sites. My nickname generates tons of pages though.
As I’m trying to enter the workforce and things, I’ve started to create different email addresses to attach myself to. I share my full name with several famous people, so I never come up, but put it in conjunction with my domain name, and you get all sorts of stuff. But now I have an email address for school/professional purposes, one for my domain, one for family and accounts, and another, finally, for social networking. This keeps all of my personalities separate. I know it’s weird, but my social networking sites I actually try to keep separate from my website. My social networking self, ironically, is probably my most “real” self!
When I google my full name, my Facebook account is the first one on my list. Luckily, my personal blog(s) don’t show up on the list simply because I do not put my full name in my blogs. Either way, ever since I changed my layout, I have been careful about what I post on my public blog. I do not want to jeopardize anything when I apply for med school.
When I google my name, my blog comes up first, followed by my Flickr, Facebook and Twitter account. If an employer were to Google my full name on the résumé, they wouldn’t find anything related to me at all. My given name by my Dad isn’t on my birth certificate but it’s used in my daily life and also in the online community. I only share my full name with some of my close friends. I use my given and surname on my blog and anywhere else on the Internet. I don’t ever use my full name unless there’s a need to.
I’ve typed my name into Google a few times and almost all of the times, I’ve come up with next to nothing. This time, only one of the entries relate to me but it was on the second or third page, which is good but when I clicked on it, there’s no traces of it anymore.
I like to think this is due to me using a username. =)
If I Google “Manda” my blog is on the first page of the search results. If I Google my full name, I find a heck of a lot of other people that share the same name as me but nothing much about me
Seeing as my real name is shared with a Taiwanese pop artist, I’m not too worried about people finding real info about me. But if you search my nick name the first 5 links are me and I think they link back to my real info. So, who knows. I’m not worried about being famous on the internet. I’ll just continue to gain fame from my famous friends. LIKE YOU! Lol. Love.
The first thing that comes up when I google my name is actually my Twitter – and there’s some random stuff that comes up relating to my ex-boyfriend’s ministry that I did some design work for (which is a little awkward), as well as my deviantART. Otherwise, there’s enough Ashley McQuaids in this world that my stuff is pretty much balanced out!
This is why I love being named Jessica Smith. I am 99% unGooglable. There are so many hundreds of Jessica Smiths in the world that if I am on Google’s results at all (I probably am with 28,000,000 results), it is nowhere near the front! Even if I select “pages from Australia”, I’m nowhere wear the front; there are tons of people who share my name even in my city.
In fact even if I add my middle name, I don’t turn up. Now that is one excellent name!
When I google my full name my twitter account comes up 4th in the list but when I google my nickname – chimmykins pretty much the whole first page is my website or places I visit online with those names.
I was worried when I had a job about blogging about it after some people talking about the company online had gotten fired for what they said. Now, I don’t name names when it comes to any companies and am very general.