Dan Conway Google Identity

The geodemographic search of myself showed me that every single detail of our lives are completley public.  Everything from being able to get a Google maps picture of my house by using my home phone number, to a detailed map of the average income in my neighborhood shows the extent to which our lives are exposed.  I did find it interesting that I was untraceable through white pages, due to the fact that I do not own a home.  The census and New York Times site gave the same basic information, but I thought the New York Times site mapped it out in a much more easily understood manner.

Due to the fact that I have such a common name, a general Google search does not come up with any specific information about me.  If I type in my name and hometown, then Google is much better at tracking me down. I came up through my high school website.  I also came up through my youth baseball team.  I never would have thought that something so long ago would still come up as relevant information through Google.

In narrowing my search to social networking sites, I became slightly more visible.  A search in these sights still required me to supplement my name with other information.  Entering my hometown with my name is a sure way to make myself show up on the first page. My twitter is set on private and for the most part hidden, but I was still able to see what my friends tweeted at me, if theirs isn't on private. This is just one of the many loopholes to a "private" twitter. In regards to Facebook, my profile is decently private.  One of the main loopholes with Facebook, is that if the person searching for me has mutual friends, they are able to see my entire profile. Overall, my common name makes me hard to differentiate between the millions of Dan Conways on the sites, but if they are able to find me, they can see more information than what I would expect.