Getting Inked: My Digital Tattoo

 Digital Tattoos

    Getting a tattoo is a very personal experience. Personally, a lot of thought was put into the planning of my tattoos before I went through with the commitment of permanently inking something on my body. However, what doesn't get a lot of thought or attention are the digital tattoos that everyone has. Also known as a digital footprint, a digital tattoo is like a dark mark or scarlet letter-- everything you post, and even some information you personally don't post, is out there on the Internet, ripe for the picking. For your safety and peace of mind, it is important to know what kind of information is out there. Watch this video to learn a little bit more about the impact your digital footprint can have and how to use your digital footprint to your advantage!

Detective Work

    I first had the opportunity to learn about the concept of digital tattoos and data mining back in 2022. Since that time, I haven't thought to do some detective work and check to see how my digital tattoo has evolved over the course of two years. While this is a practice I should probably do more regularly, sometimes I feel that the less I know, the better off I will be. When writing my initial blog post on this subject, I remember reflecting on the feelings of stress and anxiety that had been stirred up as a result of my deep dive. While feeling a bit daunted, I soldiered on and got to work. Here, dear readers, are my findings:

PeopleFinders- Starting off on a positive note, I could not find myself on this website! I conducted a search using my first and last name and my full name, but all results that showed were for people who are older than me or do not live in my area. It was interesting to learn that there are at least 4 other people who have some variation of my name!

TruthFinder- This website seemed like it was going to provide me with a very comprehensive report about myself, but it was unfortunately locked behind a paywall. The website did prompt me with questions asking about certain relatives and places I have lived, which told me that the information in whatever report would have been about me and not another Kelly Barker. While I would have been intrigued to see the kind of information listed in this report, I have to admit that I began to panic slightly as the program cycled through all of the topics that the report would cover- locations, known relatives, address information, online profiles, traffic offenses, photographs, phone numbers? How much could one site really know about me or be able to find that much information? Thinking about it for too long started to make my skin crawl.

True People Search- I was interested to use this website again in my data mining journey because when I had first searched for myself two years ago, this site had almost every piece of information on me that a person would want to know. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't even find myself in the results! I tried everything- using past zip codes, searching my full name, and filtering the age, but nothing worked. The closest result I could find is someone living in Texas with the same first, middle, and last name, but is three years older than me.

Radaris- Radaris finally gave me what I was looking for- I actually found myself! This website was able to accurately state my previous locations, relatives, and my birthday. Out of all the websites I had used up until this point, Radaris gave me the most amount of information without asking me to create an account and pay to see more in-depth details. However, I did think it was interesting that when I clicked on the hyperlink to view more details about myself, I was redirected to the Truthfinder website!

Intelius- While the majority of the Intelius report was locked behind a pay wall, I thought it was interesting that the two results both contained accurate personal information, but vastly different ages! I wonder how there are two Kelly Barkers with similar relatives and locations, but are somehow 41 years apart? 

MyLife- MyLife's information on myself was a bit of a mixed bag. It was able to give accurate details on both my current address and the address of my childhood home. It also listed a censored email address that I can only assume is from when I had my AIM account in junior high school! However, none of the people listed as associates were people actually related to me. I think I saw one or two names of people who lived in the neighborhood I grew up in, but all of the others were strangers to me. I also thought it was interested that the profile claimed to have pictures of me, but of the three depicted, none of them were actually of me. 

Google (via Safari and Firefox)- When searching for my first and last name on both platforms, the first thing to come up was a website for an author who shares my name. When I made the search more specific by including the city where I currently live, the first result was the sports roster picture and information from my senior year in college, where I played golf at Benedictine University. When searching my name and the city in which I work, I was able to find results for my school district's website, listing what building I work at and my work email address.

Data Mine Musings

    While I was apprehesive to conduct another deep dive of my digital tattoo, I feel that my first experience was far more revealing than my second. While I still felt a bit of stress/anxiety seeing how much of my information is online, I feel that I had more questions this time around. Have I really been less prevalent online in the past two years where the same sites from 2022 that had profiles on me had no results in 2024? Is there really a Kelly Barker that is 41 years older, knows similar people that I do and has lived in the same towns as me, or do I need to sign up for LifeLock Identity Protection? How can this be applied in my classroom? Is it even appropriate to talk about yet? 

    In my opinion, the short answer to my final question is "yes". While I work with students under the age of 13, the minimum age for most social media sites, I am well aware that a lot of my students have unfettered access to the internet in all of its glory. While I feel teachers have a responsibility to help students develop their digital citizenship, it isn't entirely fair for this burden to be placed solely on our shoulders. If parents are going to let their children use social media before they are even legally old enough to do so, they need to help keep their children safe on these platforms and on the internet in general. In my district, we send out monthly videos to parents that cover various topics under the umbrella of cybersafety, created by law enforcement agents who specialize in cyber crimes. While we can't force every parent to watch these videos and talk to their kids, it is one way to engage parents in the conversation about social media and safety. Now more than ever, students need to understand that their actions (in person and online) have consequences, some that can last a lifetime.