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Have you ever googled yourself?

Posted: August 14th, 2007, 4:56 pm
by pktrekgirl
Startling and disturbing results, I must say.

Especially if you have an even marginally uncommon name.

I don't think that I like it one little bit that people can find out all sorts of stuff about me - where I live, where I work (seems I made it into Spoke.com's business directory), my interests, my religion, my 'causes' (from which one could likely derive something about my politics). Even the RADIO STATION I listen to (or one of them, anyway)!

And the thing is, I didn't put ANY of this out there on the web itself, except for a couple of articles that I wrote for a Catholic website about 10 years ago...and a few book and DVD/video reviews I did for Amazon.com back in the day.

You turn up at an event, you write on an email mailing list (not even a web-based one), you speak at some function or other, you review a book about Evita Peron, you work at a big company...and BOOM. There you are, all over the internet.

And it doesn't just apply to 'real names'. Usernames too yield alarming results.

And Google is FAST too - I gave someone a 'friendly reminder' of the rules on TrekBBS yesterday, and there it is Google, for the whole world to see: Bad spammer! Bad spammer! :P I have about 25,000 posts on that board....I wonder if Google has cataloged them all? :shock:

They certainly will have cataloged this one by tomorrow.

Have any of you guys ever done this? Googled yourself?

And if so, what did you find?

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 8:15 am
by movieman1957
Doesn't it hurt?

I looked for something film related and one of my TCM posts came up. Apart from that I've not looked. I've had a pretty dull life.

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 8:41 am
by knitwit45
Wow! I've got 217,000 references!!! I was married in 1826 in Virginia and 1828 somewhere else, I hold a PhD, I'm a forensic pathologist, a missionary (!!!) :roll: :roll: :roll: and I'm only on page TWO!!!!. Guess I'm not as dull as I thought I was.

:lol: :lol: Thanks, PK, I had no idea I was so multi-talented!

Seriously, there are some really disturbing sites, give lots of personal info, phone numbers, addresses, etc. Guess the more uncommon your name, the easier it is to look up your information.

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 11:47 am
by benwhowell
knitwit45, are you sure you're not Shirley MacLaine? :)
Thanks, pktrekgirl-I never thought about Googling "usernames." Found some interesting "info."

Barney Google

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 11:51 am
by Moraldo Rubini
knitwit45 wrote:Seriously, there are some really disturbing sites, give lots of personal info, phone numbers, addresses, etc. Guess the more uncommon your name, the easier it is to look up your information.
Actually, the more common the name, the harder it is to cull through all the information. When I google my name, it assumes I'm looking for information on public spaces in Italy and restaurants all over the world. But with some sleuthing I found information on anonymous(!) gifts that I gave to a local historical society (so much for anonymity) and the time that The Village Voice asked me a question as the "man on the street". I hated the picture and begged them to take it from the other side (no, I'm not Claudette Colbert); they refused; and yup, I hated the pic. Take note: when dealing with The Village Voice, demand photo approval.[/u]

A google for your thoughts...

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 12:18 pm
by benwhowell
Marco, would you like to share the "man on the street" question with us...and what street were you on?
When I was still in Memphis, I went to a "newstand" every week to buy The Village Voice. Loved it! (Where else could you read reviews of window displays?) As for the photos-they always had a Diane Arbus quality about them.

Re: Barney Google

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 12:41 pm
by pktrekgirl
Moraldo Rubini wrote:
knitwit45 wrote:Seriously, there are some really disturbing sites, give lots of personal info, phone numbers, addresses, etc. Guess the more uncommon your name, the easier it is to look up your information.
Actually, the more common the name, the harder it is to cull through all the information. When I google my name, it assumes I'm looking for information on public spaces in Italy and restaurants all over the world. But with some sleuthing I found information on anonymous(!) gifts that I gave to a local historical society (so much for anonymity) and the time that The Village Voice asked me a question as the "man on the street". I hated the picture and begged them to take it from the other side (no, I'm not Claudette Colbert); they refused; and yup, I hated the pic. Take note: when dealing with The Village Voice, demand photo approval.
Yes...I think you get more 'real' hits if your name is unusual. Mine is, so while there is a fair amount of irrelevant trash that pops up, there is also a fair amount of info that really relates to the 'real me'.

Just for comparison, I googled a couple of my friends who also have unusual names and who I know alot about. For them, also, there are alot of relevant hits.

I think I am most annoyed about the fact that my professional stuff is on there - where I work, what I do, my work address and my work phone number. I suppose that my company itself must have put it out there (the company that bought us, that is - as an internet security company, we would have NEVER put that sort of info about our employees out on the net before the merger), but since I'm not in a sales or PR position, I really see no reason why the world (including every whackjob in Metro Atlanta) has to know precisely where I work and what I do. That info, combined with a trip through 411.com, followed by a few selectively stolen pieces of mail, can put someone in a prime position to commit identity theft....with very little effort.

Generally speaking, Google is a good thing, of course. But how do you protect yourself from identity theft when others (including your own employer) are providing all sorts of info about you on the internet?

Re: A google for your thoughts...

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 1:43 pm
by Moraldo Rubini
benwhowell wrote:Marco, would you like to share the "man on the street" question with us...and what street were you on?
When I was still in Memphis, I went to a "newstand" every week to buy The Village Voice. Loved it! (Where else could you read reviews of window displays?) As for the photos-they always had a Diane Arbus quality about them.
I was living in the Bowery then and was walking through Astor Place when The Village Voice caught me. Their offices were right around the corner and the question was about street crime. As I recall it was soon after an attack in Central Park when there were many witnesses, but no one helped. I told them about my experience from only a few days earlier, when I saw a couple of guys fighting at Astor Place and I called 911.

And yes, the photo was very Diane Arbus. I look as if I'd just set down my toy hand grenade. It's just that I would have preferred a shot more reminiscent of her Marcello Mastroianni portrait or least of Mae West in bed with her pet monkey.
ptrek wrote:Generally speaking, Google is a good thing, of course. But how do you protect yourself from identity theft when others (including your own employer) are providing all sorts of info about you on the internet?
Contrary to my appearances on an internet forum, I'm basically a luddite and feel uncomfortable with internet access. I avoid buying on-line whenever possible, enjoy talking on my rotary dial telephone, and shudder at all the tales of ID theft.

"Boy with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, NYC"

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 3:05 pm
by benwhowell
I wonder whatever happened to that kid?
Image

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 5:27 pm
by Dewey1960
Ben mentioned: I never thought about Googling "usernames." Found some interesting "info."

That's interesting. I googled "Dewey1960" to see what might come up and, aside from a number of my posts for this site, there was a profile for someone who also uses this name in Maryland with a "user profile" not even similar to mine. Odd that there would be two Dewey1960s!

Posted: August 15th, 2007, 10:01 pm
by pktrekgirl
^ That is pretty interesting. Do you use that username everywhere on the net?

I use my username all over the net - in the scifi community, the Sims community, and the classic film community.

There is one girl in the Sims community who goes by the name PKTechGirl...but that is reasonable because that is the 'real' name of a particular episode of the scifi show Farscape. I just switched it around for my own use because I like Farscape as well as tons of other scifi shows. However, what is odd is that this other girl is not visible in the scifi community itself - only among a bunch of women on the net who play Sims. In the Sims community many could not understand why we had similar names - especially since alot of them don't even know what Farscape is! Needless to say, sufficient hilarity ensued. 8)

Usernames are a funny thing. You'd think there wouldn't be duplicates often if the name is fairly unique...but I guess there must be....

The trip to Bedrock.

Posted: August 18th, 2007, 10:32 am
by Rusty
The information written below was accurate five years ago...no attempt has been made to update information after 2002.

Did you know? Internet white pages for the United States lists NO "Fred Flintstone", but I found one address for a "Pebbles Flintstone"?

Rusty

Posted: August 23rd, 2007, 3:32 pm
by sandykaypax
Ben, I just laughed my head off at the Arbus photo of the boy with the hand grenade! Perhaps it's not really a laughing matter...but HIS FACE! Oh, my goodness!

Marco, I hope that photo doesn't resemble you in the slightest!

:lol:

I googled myself once. Not much out there--a good review of a piece I directed in a 24-Hour theatre project, so that was nice!

Sandy K

Posted: August 23rd, 2007, 4:03 pm
by movieman1957
sandykaypax wrote:Ben, I just laughed my head off at the Arbus photo of the boy with the hand grenade! Perhaps it's not really a laughing matter...but HIS FACE! Oh, my goodness!

Sandy K
I've looked at that picture several times and didn't notice the hand grenade. It's very much a "Monty Python" expression. Maybe it's Graham Chapman.

Posted: August 23rd, 2007, 4:33 pm
by sandykaypax
Yes! He looks like a young Graham Chapman! good call, Chris!

Speaking of Monty Python, my husband teaches at a parochial school and he kept complaining about the new vicar. He hated when the vicar presided over chapel service because hubby claimed that the vicar sounded just like a Monty Python character--a nasally, high monotone speaking voice that put him in mind of Michael Palin. In particular, a character from Life of Brian where he is listing all the animals--"and the stoats and orangutans..."

I thought that hubby was exagerrating until on Easter Sunday when the vicar got up to do a reading...I almost lost it! He sounded unreal. Exactly like a Monty Python character. It was the highlight of the Easter service for me! Almost made it worth trudging out in an April blizzard.

:lol:

Sandy K