Digital Tattoos

    Has anyone seen in recent weeks the trend on TikTok in regards to digital footprints(tattoos)? Most of the time, it is school students looking up their teachers on the internet or social media and search for an old photo of the teacher in their younger years. They typically try to look for an embarrassing photo and then the students will take the photo to their teacher and ask for an autograph. Upon the teacher seeing their students found an old photo they had forgotten about usually laughs in embarrassment and amusement covering their faces and asking them how they found it. Regardless, what goes on the Internet is forever.

@nurs3bettyb Can I have your autograph #middleschool #middleschoolteacher #teachersoftiktok #secretariesoftiktok #principalsoftiktok #principal #nurse #nursesoftiktok #fyp #fypシ #stlouis #blowthisup #viralvideo ♬ original sound - Big B

@nyjets Replying to @paige you asked, we delivered 😂 #nyjets #oldphoto #nfl #football ♬ original sound - New York Jets

media source: TikTok

    This week I decided to check out my digital tattoo and see how easy it would be to find out as much information about me as possible. I was trying to put myself in the perspective as if a complete stranger was looking into me. As a stranger, I should know very minimal information so I would only search myself with the following information at hand: My first and last name, my maiden name, and the state I live in. I did not want to use any personal computers because the data would probably become skewed so I went to my public library and got on a public computers. I searched my limited information on Google and Firefox browsers. I also opened up incognito windows for private browsing as well. 

    Typing in my name alone and my maiden name into the search engine I am safe. There are more famous people than myself that completely covered the results for multiple pages, I went through at least six of the result pages on regular and incognito browser tabs and would not even steer close to a result mentioning one additional piece of information that could lead to me. My current name has results for many pages of a famous painter. My maiden name has a popular news reporter that shows up page after page. I decided to click on "images" results at the top of the browser pages and scrolled for a couple minutes to see if myself or anyone I knew would pop up. I was yet again safe. 

    I started the search engines over and added the term, "Facebook," after my first and last name(both current and maiden name). For Facebook, it typically requires you to set up an account to view results of individuals with the name you typed in but sometimes, if you click the right link it will bypass the login and show you the list of results. I got to that link and after scrolling for many people I still was not appearing in the results, this made me feel confident that I had taken necessary precautions to keep my online presence as private as possible. 

    Next I went to search my information with public record sites. The sites I used were USA Public Data Search, PeekYou, InstantCheckMate, Clustrmaps, Family Tree Now, Radaris, Intelius, and Truth Finder. I did not appear anywhere at all on Intelius or Truth Finder. For USA Public Data Search my current name did not appear anywhere in the results but it did appear with my maiden name. The information they had was a property record, it was the first house I bought over a decade ago. While it did not have a lot of information about me personally, it did have a lot of information about the property, including the day I bought it and for how much.

    For many of the other sites I noticed a pattern, I would find myself but only because one piece of information would be correct. Many of these results would either have incorrect or outdated information. Quite a few of them have my middle name wrong, a couple of them claimed I lived in California briefly, and a lot of them have my childhood home landline phone number listed as my current phone number (this phone number has been disconnected for two decades). By far the most amusing piece of information I found was on PeekYou were they had a list of possible socials for the name selected. On it the only social they had listed to me was my old Myspace username! I chuckled and clicked their link and sure enough it took me to my old page. However, I think Myspace's data formatting is to old for new computers to read because despite my profile being public, all photos and graphics would be a large "X" through a camera outline or message saying, "could not load." The only photo that would load was my profile picture.

image source: photo taken by author

    Only two of these site stood out more than the rests, Family Tree Now and InstantCheckMate. Family Tree Now would give results on the names searched for and their possible associates. Both of my names I searched came up and contained huge lists of names, all accurate. There were names of family, relatives from both of parents, in-laws, and even friends. The one associate that blew me away they had listed was my husband's ex step-mother. She quickly eloped with my father-in-law over two decades ago and they were divorced within a year. Although my husband had great memories that one year living with her, they never maintained a relationship after that. She moved states away and they never kept in touch. The one and only time I have met her was when she came to wedding. Even though she is distant and is not tied to the family at all, she still appeared in my results.

    When I searched both of my names with the state I live in on InstantCheckMate, the complete opposite happened compared to the other sites. I actually appeared among the first results. Looking at the information they had listed under my profile every thing was correct. They had all of my present and previous addresses. They did have the landline phone number I grew up with and additionally my first cell phone number that I had over a decade ago. The site has an option where you can select, "download full background report," I did click it and unfortunately at the end of the download they ask you to pay for it which I was not willing to do. During the process of the report downloading they would show you "previews" of information they collected and my jaw dropped on one of them. 

image source: photo taken by author

    An exact number amount of my assets! In my first blog post I mention that I am fixing up a house. Instead of trying to figure out ways to afford a decent home in today's expensive housing market, I bought a nearly condemned house at a sheriff auction to fix up. I also own my car paid in-full. Those two assets together equal that exact amount and InstantCheckMate has it listed right there in a preview. I hope no one will be paying money for background check on me because I am not sure how much more personal and sensitive information is on there. 

    After analyzing these results, I do feel like my digital tattoo is still probably better than most since I was not appearing among the first results and all my social media accounts are private. Even though my accounts are private I still do regularly think about "cleaning" them out by deleting old pictures and posts. That way I do not have to worry about any one asking for my autograph. ;)