Avatars, online personas and suchlike

[Mr. Bloom]

My persona is "me"...but I'm still careful with that. If I google "me", I'm all over the internet:

• Full Name: 14 hits including public filings that reveal my income for the world to see , membership on the board of a national organization, and other bona fides and accomplishments
• Casual Name: Fortunately, there are about five other folks in america with the same casual name...two attorney's, a business owner, a disney imagineer, and a basketball player. So, they have stuff that dilutes the ease of "finding me". But, if you know what you're looking for, you'll easily find residuals of our family website (even though I've taken it offline), the non-profit boards I'm on, non-business press releases that I didn't know I was quoted in , church committees I served on 10 years ago!, and directions to our house

So, by going through this exercise, I'm convinced that privacy is something that requires ACTIVE PROTECTION, since plenty will happen WITHOUT ANY EFFORT.

[kelownagirl]

My persona is "me"...but I'm still careful with that. If I google "me", I'm all over the internet:

• Full Name: 14 hits including public filings that reveal my income for the world to see , membership on the board of a national organization, and other bona fides and accomplishments
• Casual Name: Fortunately, there are about five other folks in america with the same casual name...two attorney's, a business owner, a disney imagineer, and a basketball player. So, they have stuff that dilutes the ease of "finding me". But, if you know what you're looking for, you'll easily find residuals of our family website (even though I've taken it offline), the non-profit boards I'm on, non-business press releases that I didn't know I was quoted in , church committees I served on 10 years ago!, and directions to our house

So, by going through this exercise, I'm convinced that privacy is something that requires ACTIVE PROTECTION, since plenty will happen WITHOUT ANY EFFORT.

I googled "Mr. Silver" and got all kinds of info!

[Mr. Bloom]

I googled "Mr. Silver" and got all kinds of info!

Yeah, but did you google my full name: Mr. Golden Sterling Silver, IV

Did you know that Silver's first name is "Hi Yo"...?

[Zen]

You mean that isn't you playing the accordian? I'm crestfallen.

Before Surgery, (or BS)

Yeah, but did you google my full name: Mr. Golden Sterling Silver, IV

Did you know that Silver's first name is "Hi Yo"...?

I thought your real name was Max Power.

[sgtiger]

When I've googled my name, I didn't find anything about me. Surprisingly, I'm not the only one with my name in the U.S. though.

[HappyAnika]

Googling my maiden name comes up with a few things about me, mostly academic. Googling my married name comes up with nothing about me in the first 10 pages, all other people with the same name. I had a very unique maiden name, not so unique married name (and it's only two letters off from a very, very, very famous actress, so Google asks "Did you mean blank blank?").

I'm cautious with my real name, address, date of birth, place of employment, for stalking/ ID theft purposes. Personal stuff I'm careful of in terms of prospective employers. Googling potential job candidates is becoming very common, and I don't want anything on the web that could be construed as a negative against me when job searching.

[boy in a kilt]

I don't have a picture because I hate having my picture taken. Gir likes having his picture taken so I used his.

I don't use my real name because I don't want to. Might be hearing from Bruno about my name sounding like an Irish fish and chips Pub or something.

If I google my name, I get two or three hits that relate to me, all of which relates to some research I did in college and a paper I co-wrote (both are painfully boring).

As far as stealing my identity, the US Government has done more to ensure that happens than anything I can possibly manage. At some point, government carelessness has enabled the theft of records containing my entire military record up to 2006 and my employment info while I was a federal employee. If someone got their hands on that, they could re-create me better than I could.