When I googled myself, I found that I am not very “googlable”. The only information about myself that came up were this Blogger page and another page on Facebook. Many other results were related to people who have same or similar names. The reasons for not being very googlable could be because I have a Korean name with relatively uncommon spelling and many of the sites I use or have accounts for are Korean-based websites that are not easily googlable. I actually felt comfortable to be able to find only so much about myself on google. I have no problem with pages such as Blogger, Twitter and Facebook, related to myself, appearing on google search engine because any of the posts there were the ones I actually wanted to share with other people, so I knew that they could easily go public. However, I would not want to be any more googlable because it can possibly threat my privacy.
Of course, there are advantages of being googlable if someone wants to promote his or herself or draw people’s attention to anything they want to share with the public. Being googlable will definitely attract others. However, we are all well aware of the fact that once online, it will stay online forever. It would be a serious threat to private life if any information that one does not want to share with others anymore can be searched online. Even worse, it is not fair for employers or college administrators to be able to access prospective employees or students information without any permission. Therefore, appearing on google search engine risks one’s privacy and future.
I definitely agree with you in being comfortable of being googleable to a certain extent. Part of the reason I post stuff online is for exposure, so that other people can see it. With facebook, twitter, and linked-In you can choose what information people see; I like this and feel control over how googleable I am.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I also have a fear that information can leak out of its apparent safe holds. I rarely if ever read the disclaimers on signup sites and am afraid of the possibility that some private information will leak out one way or another.
I agree with what you said about once your online you're always online. Things that get posted about you will always be out there. It could seriously affect your future, such as getting a job or into college, like you said. I'm with you on keeping myself ungoogable. It's a scary thought that your privacy is just a few types on the keyboard and a click away.
ReplyDeleteVery true! I agree that once online, forever online. There just is no way to completely erase an internet trail or downloaded internet information. Even if you could potentially eliminate all sites related to something, you could never delete all the downloaded information to private computers. It is impossible. Also you make a good point about employers or other authorities accessing information without permission. It is a huge risk to one's future by being googlable since one cannot know exactly what an employer might take offense to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with two of your points that you make. Firstly I like your take on posts that appear in social networks. When anyone is posting information through twitter or facebook, they are making a conscious (or not) decision in that they know that this information will be open to the public. Therefore finding it on Google shouldn't be very surprising. The second idea I agree with is that I too do not find it fair for institutions to look you up online/ on Google, in order to base your opinion. This is a new practice, and I believe that it affects my privacy.
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