Upon typing my name into Google a wide assortment of results are returned. The results Google returns are rather disturbing to me. The first website that shows up is for a blog discussing a Chris Lesch who has made repeated calls to them. Apparently, this person has been running a scam. The next index is of a website that claims they can find me. By simply following this link, anyone with a basic knowledge of how to use a computer would be able to find out where I live, who I am related to, where I went to high school, what sports I played in high school, and my Facebook profile picture. Fortunately, most of the links that appear on Google are for a different Chris Lesch. My name appears in 779,000 different Google indexes, but most of these are not me. Thus, I would say my name is not very Googleable, and I am glad of it.
The ease with which someone could gather all of this information about me is disturbing to me. Even though the top website wasn't me, it gives my name a bad reputation. Furthermore, people who do not actually know me in person may believe that one of these other people who share my name is actually me. In a generation where employers look to the internet for information about potential employees, I am certainly apposed to Googleability. I hope to keep my name off of the Google search. The best way for me to avoid the dangers of internet privacy is to avoid posting information about myself. I hope that I remain ungoogleable.
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I think that the Google results you turned up are very interesting. Though I too would not like to be associated with anyone running a scam, I think for our purposes this result brought a good chuckle. I think that any potential employers or people seeking to find information about you will recognize that out of such a large quantity of searches, most information is unrelated to you personally. Not posting information about yourself is the only certain way to prevent others from finding it, but this is not always within your control since other people have access to the internet as well. However, I wouldn't be too concerned. Not even Google can tell every personal detail.
ReplyDeleteI, too, was glad that my name was not very googable, thanks to my common name. There were too many results that showed up when I searched my name. However, I also had some concern about people believing that one of those other MinJungs is actually me. I guess in order to stay ungoogable, I just have to be careful about what I post on the internet and keep personal information to myself.
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