Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Digital Tattoo Me All Over The Place Why Don't You


This week’s post is about Digital Tattoos. A digital tattoo is a permanent tattoo of any information that we post online.  However, some of our information is based on what was already known about us based on online or paper forms filled out by us about us. According to the article, What Is A Digital Tattoo & Why Does It Matter?, quoting UK Safe Internet Centre, “your digital footprint is the mark that you leave behind when using the Internet and can shape your online reputation. Your digital footprints are made up of the content you create, post and share; as well as the content that others post, and share, with you and about you”.  
This week’s project, I decided to “Data Mine” myself to see what information was online about me.  I searched my name by using  Nuwber, Google, Pipl, YouTube, Radaris, Block Shopper and Spokeo to access information about myself. I can tell you this, some or most of the information out there about me is not correct but it was fun to see. However, it was kinda of scary seeing that all know that I am digitize all over the place.  It made me wonder about how many people believe what they research about me because most of it is not true.  I have screen shots of each website that I have visited to find out information about myself below. Each website searched has a detail description about my findings.




I search my full name with and without my middle initial.  I found two results when searching my name both ways.  The first result my age range along with the city that I currently live in along with two of my relatives (my mom and one of my sisters) that are associated to me.  The second result only had my age range, the city that I currently live in.  I click on the second result for more information about myself and it showed my accurate address and a google map of where I lived.  The first result would have showed where I use to live at my mom’s house.


"Kaleena T. Woodard"
Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Nuwber.com


 "Kaleena Woodard"
Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Nuwber.com


Google (www.google.com)

I searched my full name with and without my middle initial in quotations.  I made sure that I was logged off of Google Chrome and double checked my searches using Google Chrome at work and I got the same search results.  When I search “Kaleena Woodard”, my search results showed that my name was on certain sites such as, mylife.com (which has my incorrect age), YouTube, Spoke, and whitepages.com.  Images of me or what other images could be connected to me are displayed in the beginning near the center of the page.  When I searched “Kaleena T. Woodard”, my name can be found on Google Sites, nuwber (under my mom’s address and phone number), mylife.com (which has my incorrect age), my twitter account name, ratemyteachers.com, and YouTube.com.  There were no images of me of what could be connected to me on this page.


"Kaleena Woodard"
Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Google.com

"Kaleena T. Woodard"
Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Google.com




I searched my cell phone number. I have had this cell phone number since 2007. A person by the name of David White profile appeared on the search result. This information was incorrect. Underneath David White’s profile the names “K’tanz Tanz Woodard” and “Kaleena T. Woodard (708-339-6478)” appeared.  “K’tanz Tanz Woodard” was just part of the name that I used on my old Facebook account before it was hacked.  It states that this name is associated with another name.  This “other” name was one of my friends who were listed as a “friend” on my old Facebook account.  “Kaleena T. Woodard(708-339-6478)” is my name with the middle initial plus my mom’s house number.  When I clicked on this profile it listed two addresses for me. One is my moms and the other is where I current residence, which is located in Harvey, IL.  My siblings and mother’s name are listed at the bottom as associates of mines.  The name “Kaleena Woodlar” is listed as an additional name but my name is misspelled.

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com

Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com


Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Pipl.com


YouTube (www.youtube.com)

When I searched “Kaleena Woodard” on YouTube, My profile appeared a long with an upload of my power point presentation of a project that I did for my collection development course.  When I searched “Kaleena T. Woodard”, only my collection development course video appeared.


“Kaleena Woodard”
Image property of Kaleena Woodard and YouTube.com


 "Kaleena T. Woodard"
Image property of Kaleena Woodard and YouTube.com


Radaris (www.radaris.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  My correct age, the addresses associated with me and people that I am associated with.   The city of Kankakee, IL was listed because I went to college there for one year.  The information that was incorrect on my profile was the “other “ name associated with mines which is “Kaleena Woolard”.  What was also incorrect was an 815 area code number that was not mine,  and the fact that a “Donald Woodard” or “T.W. Woodard” was associated of mine and they are not.


Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Radaris.com


Block Shopper (www.blockshopper.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  I could not search my address because it came up as an “error” page.  All my information was correct based on the mortgage papers that I signed and the recent tax bill that I just received in the mail as I create this post.


Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Block Shopper.com


Spokeo (www.spokeo.com)

I can search “Kaleena Woodard” or “Kaleena T. Woodard” and still get the same results.  All my information is correct expect, I  am not known or associated with the name “Kaleena Woodar”.  I also do not have a relative by the name of “Marcus Woodard”.  However, the only brother that I have name is “Marqie Woodard”.


Image property of Kaleena Woodard and Spokeo.com

        I also recommend search yourself on White Pages (www.whitepages.com). You can search yourself by address, any telephone number associated to you, your name and the city and or town that you reside in. This website is a good site as well to use to search information about yourself.


References

Treyvaud, Robyn (2018). What Is A Digital Tattoo & Why Does It Matter?. Family Insights. Retrieved February 5, 2019 at https://familyinsights.net/advice/what-is-a-digital-tattoo-and-why-does-it-matter/



4 comments:

  1. Hi Kaleena,

    That was an intense deep dive you did! It's amazing how many sites there are that try to collect your information, and even more interesting to see the mistakes they make. I've data mined myself on a more shallow level and found that the most mistakes made about me are based on people in my life I"m connected to. The bots doing all this data gathering still have some room for improvement, as they're often mis-representing who are actual family members of mine and where they are. It makes me wonder what it's like to be someone in witness protection or some other situation where they have to be totally private and unfindable - how do they manage this? We seem to be public by default. After I bought a home I even started getting emails from redfin and trulia telling me about "my home's value" - and I didn't ask them for this or provide them information about my purchase, and it was a totally off market purchase.

    Have you ever tried data mining a family member to see if and how the internet thinks you are connected? That's a fun activity too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good Day Eric,

      I never really thought about researching myself online and I am so glad that I did. A lot of it is false and that's why people need to be careful when spending money to use these sites fully. Wondering if the FBI uses these sites?

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  2. Thanks for including the screenshots. Don't forget to search your usernames as well!

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    Replies
    1. I search my user name ktw122381 and some of the same results came up including my blog post and my Pinterest account. That was the only things that appeared in my search. I never really thought about searching myself until now. I have to do it more often.

      Delete