Privacy Please

Is there such thing is complete privacy anymore?  Who the hell knows.

Internet privacy is a huge topic of concern because of this generation’s heavy reliance on technology.  Information is key to success, progress, and innovation and there no doubt that the internet comes with advantages and disadvantages. People all over the world (maybe not China and North Korea) use the internet to communicate, collaborate, share ideas, and further research.  It allows information to be easily accessible and convenient, like fish in the sea. But what happens when the wrong information gets caught in a net…. haha get it?

Anyways, there are more and more news reports of how big name corporations encounter a breach in security or a business has been selling information to third party organizations.  Now sensitive information about individuals are released and public. Take this blog for example, it’s on a public space, accessible to whoever comes across it.

So for this class, we were assigned to Google someone you know and then a random stranger.  But first I Googled myself.  Unfortunately, I was able to find everything… my face, my phone number, my previous phone number, my address, my previous addresses.  It was very spooky and discomforting so I went ahead and submitted requests to multiple sites to remove my information.  I’m crossing my fingers that it worked. 

Second, I Googled my family and my friends.  Again, I found everything. I considered removing them myself but then I figured that my family and friends should know themselves that their information is public too.  When I talked to them about, some were very disturbed and some said something like, “what’s the point? It’s already out there.”

The random person that I decided to look up was the person who owned my current phone number.  I changed my LA phone number to a local 808 mid last year and I’m still receiving calls from his grandma.  She’s left a couple of voice messages and I felt bad so I called her back to inform her that her grandson, Ryan, has gotten a new phone number.  So, who is this Ryan person? Well, let’s say I am officially a stalker.  I pretty much know everything… I think having a job as a private investigator has become pretty easy now.

Okay so, now that I requested to remove my information on a couple of sites, will it every completely be gone? Probably not. I don’t think my information like pictures, phone number, email address and address is going to be completely and permanently private, especially because I have social network accounts.  But what I can do is read the fine print of privacy and security policies of certain applications, keep up with the news about breached companies that I might be associated with, and every so often Google myself and remove my information whenever I see it.  Spring cleaning!