My Life, Your Life . . . Does Online Privacy Exist?
While searching for jobs you get all kinds of advice. And some would tell you to downplay your age by not including significant dates on education and other such time-line events. I actually take offense to that, but then again we are in a throw-away economy.
So, in addition to that advice I was also told to go online to various sites to check my online profile to see if there was accurate information about me. There are websites out there that use all public record data to create profiles about you. One big player in this field is mylife.com.
When I went there it was shocking to see how much inform information was on my profile, such as phone number, relationships —even the fact that my mother was 97-years old. All I had to do is put my name and city into the search field and voilà it was all there. But there was erroneous information there too. I called them up and told them about this. Their answer was that I could pay $7.99, open an account and fix it. I asked if I could just delete it. Their answer was that I could pay $7.99, open an account and delete it.
What a racket. I did get them to delete it (that's a separate blog), but the bottom line is this was just the tip of the ice berg. We are living in a public information age, and so any information about you that is part of the public record is out there.
According to Joshua Waldman, author of "Job Searching with Social Media," there are ways to "check your temperature" online — whether you are healthy or sick?
You can try the following:
Google Grader — (bit.ly/google-grader) "When you enter your name, the program provides several pages of Google search results. You choose the results that apply to you and then you click the 'Grade Me' button." (page 105)
Online ID Calculator — (www.onlineidcalculator.com) "This offers more than just a letter grade, it tells you where you may be deficient and offers some practical suggestions for fixing it." (page 105)
MyWebCareer.com — "Is the newest and most advanced tool for figuring out your online reputation." (page 105) This is based upon your social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) plus your Google rank.
Then there are the programs that human resource departments use daily to check on candidates' backgrounds. One of the most used ones is www.spokeo.com. "Spokeo pulls your name and other contact information from a huge database of public records to put together a demographic profile of you." (page 106) You REALLY should check this one out as the data can be inaccurate and you can get them to correct it.
Then there's zoominfo.com, which allows you to claim your profile. Once you've claimed your profile you can modify it. It is also probably a good idea to check this one out, too — as it is free.
There are also other social media sites that you can check to see if people are talking about you:
And there really doesn't seem to be any reason in the world to mask your age, so now I am flaunting it as a positive when I am applying for contract work. I say that's what separates me from the younger inexperienced contractor. I also talk about how the work ethic from my generation is very different than recent grads — "nose to the grindstone" and all that stuff.
Happy hunting!
All quotes from: "Job Searching with Social Media," Joshua Waldman, John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 2011.
So, in addition to that advice I was also told to go online to various sites to check my online profile to see if there was accurate information about me. There are websites out there that use all public record data to create profiles about you. One big player in this field is mylife.com.
When I went there it was shocking to see how much inform information was on my profile, such as phone number, relationships —even the fact that my mother was 97-years old. All I had to do is put my name and city into the search field and voilà it was all there. But there was erroneous information there too. I called them up and told them about this. Their answer was that I could pay $7.99, open an account and fix it. I asked if I could just delete it. Their answer was that I could pay $7.99, open an account and delete it.
What a racket. I did get them to delete it (that's a separate blog), but the bottom line is this was just the tip of the ice berg. We are living in a public information age, and so any information about you that is part of the public record is out there.
You can try the following:
Google Grader — (bit.ly/google-grader) "When you enter your name, the program provides several pages of Google search results. You choose the results that apply to you and then you click the 'Grade Me' button." (page 105)
Online ID Calculator — (www.onlineidcalculator.com) "This offers more than just a letter grade, it tells you where you may be deficient and offers some practical suggestions for fixing it." (page 105)
MyWebCareer.com — "Is the newest and most advanced tool for figuring out your online reputation." (page 105) This is based upon your social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) plus your Google rank.
Then there are the programs that human resource departments use daily to check on candidates' backgrounds. One of the most used ones is www.spokeo.com. "Spokeo pulls your name and other contact information from a huge database of public records to put together a demographic profile of you." (page 106) You REALLY should check this one out as the data can be inaccurate and you can get them to correct it.
Then there's zoominfo.com, which allows you to claim your profile. Once you've claimed your profile you can modify it. It is also probably a good idea to check this one out, too — as it is free.
There are also other social media sites that you can check to see if people are talking about you:
- www.pipl.com — Human resource departments will use this one because it includes public records, social media and multimedia mentions.
- Search.twitter.com — This is a simple way to see if anyone is talking about you on Twitter.
- WhosTalkin.com — This is a social media search engine who looks through blog sites, news sites and other social media.
And there really doesn't seem to be any reason in the world to mask your age, so now I am flaunting it as a positive when I am applying for contract work. I say that's what separates me from the younger inexperienced contractor. I also talk about how the work ethic from my generation is very different than recent grads — "nose to the grindstone" and all that stuff.
Happy hunting!
All quotes from: "Job Searching with Social Media," Joshua Waldman, John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 2011.
Comments