My Digital Tattoos

 What mark will you leave on the internet when you are gone? Probably a bigger one than you think, even if you are just a casual internet user. This week I explored the concept of Digital Tattoos which is a term that has replaced the idea of a digital footprint because it more accurately communicates the permanence of digital identity. After learning a little bit more about this concept I did a data mine on my own digital tattoo. I used two different browsers, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox and used a few different websites to get a good picture of what sort of information I could find about myself online. The following is a rough sketch of my personal digital tattoo. Perhaps it will inspire you to investigate your own digital identity. 

My relationship with the internet 

In previous blogs I have mentioned how I have had the fear of internet permanency instilled in me from a young age. I had a Facebook page but deleted it during high school and did not get any other social media until I was 18, completely by my own choice. I am also fairly reserved with what I put on social media and have only recently become more comfortable posting things. It is a manifestation of this anxiety that what I do on the internet will be remembered that to this day keeps me from being active. So before embarking on this digital dive into my tattoos, I did not expect to find that much. 

Taking the Dive 

My first search of just my name on google in the Microsoft Edge Browser turned up four pages of results. With the first three being my LinkedIn profile, my personal (private) Instagram, and my ranking for my Powerlifting meets. The only surprising thing about these were that two Instagram's popped up the first being my main one where I spelled my name with a common misspelling, I believe to avoid being found if I remember correctly, and another Instagram I made for a class in college documenting the coming spring. I had forgotten about that account entirely. Oddly, I found just one of my grandparents’ obituaries that mentioned me. By adding my first middle initial I was able to find a few relatives that did not pop up in the initial search. However, since I do not use my middle initial professionally only four results populated for this search. These same searches in Firefox gave me the same results. It was only by searching my peanut butter review Instagram name that my partner's Facebook popped up. This wasn’t surprising because we do not post about each other that much.  

Image Source: personal screenshot

I then used PeekYou which actually led to TruthFinder when I searched for myself. Which turned up two results for my name one included my sister in potential relatives and the other included my sister-in-law but neither were on the other list. On Family Tree Now I was able to find my parents' address, my age, birth year and month, as well as my old landline phone number along with both of my parents' numbers. Also, listed were most of my relatives on my father's side. What was most surprising was that there was information related to my parents' old landlord, who's name lives in infamy in my family.  

Image Source: personal screenshot

One thing I noticed across a few of these sites was that sometimes under aliases is listed my name with the middle initial ‘D’ which is reflective of neither of my middle names. I also saw Emma A Bergholz on one site. On ZabaSearch I found this mistake along with similar information I have found on other sites with some incorrect phone numbers.

Image Source: personal screenshot

I did not show up on Clustrmaps so I searched for my father’s name who came up associated with my address, my mother and my brother and both of my brother's phone numbers, although they both reside out of state. There were also many of my parent’s neighbors listed along with previous house owners. This search also turned up one of my oldest brothers' oldest emails which made me laugh.  

Nuwber had some incorrect information including my birth year and age and attributed my mother's phone number to my name. It also listed my address but with the wrong city name which I thought was interesting. All these sites seem to have mostly accurate information, but a few things may be off or incorrect. 

Reflection 

I was expecting to be wrong and find a lot of stuff out there, but I really did not find much more than the general address, family relations, and social media accounts. I am kind of relieved to find that the internet has not gotten a hold of my phone number. It probably exists somewhere but I did not find it in my searches. I use an alias for my peanut butter review Instagram, and I keep that separate from my personal account, so I am not worried about that coming up as a digital tattoo associated with my name. I was expecting it to come up, but it didn’t which is probably for the best because it's a silly personal side project. Overall, I think I need to post more on LinkedIn to develop my personal brand a little bit more. I think it is time I got over that anxiety.