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Digital Tattoos

Tattoos... 1 in 5 people have one and it is over $1.65 billion industry. Typically, once someone has gotten a tattoo they are stuck with it for life, unless they want to spend a significant amount of money and pain getting it removed. Just like a skin tattoo, what is put online on the internet about a person is out there probably for life. Just because a post or picture has been removed does not mean that it gone forever, it can be found. Doing a data mine on yourself can help you see what is out there about you on the internet, some of which you may have not had any idea that it was. 

I looked at seven different sites to see what I could find out about myself. I used Safari and Microsoft Edge as my internet browsers to test the difference in what I would find. I also used variations of my name, sometimes including middle name or initial. I did the same thing with my maiden name and various middle name additions.  

Fast People Search

Using my name Brittany Kearby, I was able to find all of my address I have lived at, including my current one, my parent's landline phone number (probably one of the last ones out there still in existence) and two of my husband's phone numbers. 



Photo Credit: Fast People Search

This was the first website I used when starting my data mine, and I was surprised by the results, mostly because it had my husband's phone numbers. Yet it did not show up with my own phone number, it also had phone numbers that I have never seen before in my life and have no idea why they would be associated with me. Here is the Link to start your own data mine. 

PeekYou
Out of all of the websites I used this one gave me the least amount of information that was free. Of course, if I wanted to pay a monthly fee, I could get more information, which I was not willing to do. It gave my current address and some relatives. 

My Life
Photo Credit: MyLife

I found this one to be very interesting and wish I could splurge and pay to see what my reputation score means exactly. I had a reputation score of 3.84 out of 5. This website also had nothing under my married name Kearby, all the information from this site was under my maiden name Chesonis. A fair amount of the information that was there was incorrect, like my address and birthday. 

ClustrMaps

Photo Credit: ClustrMaps

What I found most interesting about this one was that it did not have anything with my married name and I have been married for ten years. All of the information was for my maiden name, and thankfully some of the information was incorrect. I have noticed on a majority of the data mining sites it lists my parent's phone number as being my number and I think that is because it is a landline. Here is the link to search this site. 
ZabaSearch
This website again had everything in my maiden name. One of the addresses listed I was at when I had my married name. This one also had my parent's phone number listed.

Classmates
I was hopefully about this one because I would not mind connecting with some people from high school or seeing if we are going to have a reunion any time soon, but the information was clearly very old and outdated. Some of the pictures for my classmates were clearly taken off of Myspace. I still talk to three people from high school and all of them were not a part of this website. It also did not look like there is much activity on the site.  

Nuwber
The last site I looked at again had everything under my maiden name. This was the only site out of all seven to have my correct birth date, but it had the wrong phone number and had my gender listed as male. This is the link to go to the website.

Thoughts and Take Aways
At the start of this I had decided that I was not going to do the typically websites: Facebook, Linken In, Instagram, or Twitter. I already knew what was going to be on those since I either use them often or not at all. After doing the data mining on myself using some of the provided websites, I decided to Google myself and see what came up. I was pleasantly surprised at all of information that was readily available just from doing that. The most shocking for me was that I was mentioned in my college's yearly flyer for my best friend's wedding back in 2014. What was even more surprising was that my best friend was unaware that her wedding had been posted in it. 

Like I said I was surprised by some of the information that was out there, but I was pleased that a good amount of it was either incorrect or very outdated. After having done this, I realize I do not have much of an online presence which does not bother me too much because I tend to stick with what I know and like to do. I will say I have a digital tattoo, but it a small one like on the wrist, not a full back piece. 
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Comments

  1. Karan StorlieJune 21, 2024 at 12:39 PM

    Hi Brittany-Isn't it surprising that you can get so much more information just from Google? Most of the information I found on myself was basic...maiden name, address, relatives etc, just at you said. I found so much more on Google including pictures and Google is free. I thought this was an interesting assignment, but I certainly didn't get the results I expected.

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