Here’s an interesting video on how easy it is to find all sorts of information about something, based solely on their first name and the fact that they’re in your class. In a matter of five minutes of Internet research, they were able to collect full name, employer, and other information.
About Michael J. Faris
Assistant Professor of English with research areas in digital literacy, privacy and social media, and queering rhetorics.
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Absolutely great video. As a technology-guru, where do you fall (or what are some interesting thoughts you currently have) on information on the internet, Michael?
I’ve been hearing a lot of the feeling a need to participate on the Internet (work reasons/social reasons) but recognizing the loss of privacy (and inability to control messages – your last post about Clark Kent’s “closet” outing) when you participate.
Oh you mean you don’t do this regularly? I mean, I do everything but the last thirty seconds worth of stuff. The trick is to use an online alias most of the time except for the stuff you want to be found. So for instance I use Joshua Call for stuff I wouldn’t mind being seen for in ten years. For everything else I use a pseudonym. I check this out pretty regularly. In fact, if you want to know about me you’ll find more by searching “etherfire” than you will “Joshua Call”. Then you’ll find all my stuff, from my last.fm profile to my Halo 3 gaming record (I suck).
Josh, I wouldn’t say I “stalk” regularly, but I’ve certainly done it. Not to the extent that this video entails. I used to be similar to you, using an avatar name, but now I usually have that connected to my real name.
And I wouldn’t say Halo 3 sucks 😉 Though I don’t play it, haha.
Sam, I’m usually pretty open to being transparent and open with information, probably in sometimes unsafe way (e.g., paying with credit cards through open wireless occasionally). My concern with videos like this is that it poses a problem but doesn’t offer any heuristics for how to deal with it in order to maintain control — the answer it seems to pose is a dichotomy: give up control, or don’t have anything online. However, using digital media is a lot more nuanced than that.