I’m starting to look for new employment and I wanted to see what was out there in my name.
So apparently, if you have a FaceBook with your complete name, there is a site out there that finds info on you and documents it in one place. What is really creepy about it all is, I have 2 MySpace accounts (the 2nd I created when i was locked out of my original acct for a month or so and finally gained access again). Anyway, when I created my MySpace accounts, I never used my real name in the setup… YET, for some reason this one particular site has a link to my two myspace accounts which could be searched for by searching my name. How could this be? How did they do this? I’m really creeped out…
the site is www.spock.com
That site isn’t doing anything that Google et al aren’t already doing, just presenting it in a different way. And apparently I’m “A member of the Texas State University system in Huntsville, Texas” in my first result, and if something is that inaccurate then you can relax.
As for the second Myspace account…you may not have used your name in signing up, but think about links TO your account, if they involve your name, especially if it’s an unusualy one.
Facebook has privacy settings that can keep your account from being seen by just anyone. Mine doesn’t show up on a google search because I’ve done a lot of tinkering with the settings to have it at a level I’m comfortable with.
Here’s the bad part. the link in spock.com was to the tag name “ball breaker” of all things. so there was a list of people linked to the tag ballbreaker, and I was one of them…
so if a potential employer did a search on my name, they’d come across a link to to spock.com/ballbreaker… and my profile or link to my two myspace accts would be in there.
Isn’t that nice.
So I cleaned up my profile, and removed the word ballbreaker, but it’s too late. The tag is still there. damn luck.
yeah, live and learn. It was a fairly new profile, and I didn’t bother with privacy settings. I mostly create these profiles to communicate with my nieces and cousins…
Hmmm. I searched my IRL name, and it turned up five people, none of them me. I searched the e-mail address I use most frequently – nada. I searched my Doper name, which I use in a couple of other fora – nada. If I want to find myself, I do better with Google.
Do be aware that your Amazon wish list is public (unless you make it private) and can come up on Google searches of your name, or a book or author, or a product on your wishlist.
'Cause I’m a foreigner, I didn’t expect anything to show up, but …there’s someone with a RL name close to mine who’s a pharmacy recruiter somewhere in the States. FWIW.
When I Google my full real name I get five pages of listings…all of them me, from websites for various science fiction conventions where I was either on staff or attended.
I’m on there maybe 5 or 6 pages back. At least it has a decent picture. The odd thing I found was that it showed a fellow Doper and friend as a “relative”. I think their spouse would have a problem with that. LOL Not to mention that I find it completely odd.