Mining for Gold: Data Mining and Digital Tattoos

Digital Tattoos 

Digital footprints are records of your online activity. As these records are things that can never really go away, I think a more accurate term would be digital tattoo. This video from Common Sense Education outlines the importance of being mindful about what you do while on the internet and thinking about what kind of digital footprint/tattoo you want to create for yourself.  

Image Source: SafeSitter

Growing up with technology being used more widely in schools, I remember adults in my life constantly warning myself and my friends about being mindful about safe searching and surfing the internet. Particularly in middle school, the phrase "once you put it out there, you can never get it back" was being thrown at us in regards to posting on social media. I remember thinking to myself, "what's the big deal?"; I was just a kid and didn't think that what I posted mattered. That lesson came back to bite me and, I believe, had a large impact on why I'm so private on social media now as an adult. While I am private while using the internet, I was sure that there was still some sort of information about me somewhere, so I decided to do some detective work and investigate.

Data Mining My Life 

As a person who has several tattoos, I remember being very careful and thoughtful when deciding on the "what" and "where" of getting ink. As both of my tattoos are in more "hidden" spots, so too is my digital tattoo-- or so I thought. Through engaging in some data mining about myself, I found out that a lot of my information is out there on various websites, ready for the taking! 

To conduct this data dive on myself, I started with different people searching websites, like as Radaris, Nuwber, and Spezify. While I didn't find anything about myself on Nuwber and Spezify, Radaris had information containing my full name and people who were potential relatives of me. I wanted to go a little deeper on what personal information could be out there, so I also decided to check out True People Search-- the floodgates broke right open! This site had almost every piece of personal information on me from my age and birth month/year to my current and previous addresses. It even somehow knew my childhood phone number and had a list of known associates that included the majority of my aunts, uncles, and cousins from both sides! This was right about the point where I started to get a little unsettled. I finished up my short data dive by searching my name via Google on both the Safari and Chrome browsers to see if I would get any different information. The top result on both Safari and Chrome's Google pages was my Teacher Page with my name, picture, job title, and professional contact information. Additionally, Google on the Chrome browser showed me different pictures and articles from when I was a high school and collegiate athlete, while Google on the Safari browser brought up my Instagram account and Facebook accounts of other people who are also named Kelly Barker. 

Image Source: Just Total Tech

While going through this process was very informative and eye-opening, it also caused me a lot of anxiety. I have always tried to protect my privacy online because it makes me feel more secure to browse the internet inconspicuously. It's unsettling to know that some of my private information is out there without my permission!

Student Impact

So, what does this all mean for our students? How can we prepare them and educate them to be cognizant of their digital tattoos? The short answer is teaching digital literacy and etiquette. Finding resources from reputable sites like Common Sense Education and taking time to teach about Digital Citizenship can go a long way. Maybe consider starting with this video on social media oversharing and your digital footprint! Unless we take the time to have these conversations with our students and educate them on why it is important now and long-term, they won't fully understand the importance of monitoring their online presence. Rather than having them learn the hard way (like many of us did growing up and experimenting with technology), we need to be giving them the tools to use the internet and social media safely so that they can lead successful digital lives.