# Privacy Footprint
Have you ever felt like your computer or phone was listening to you and watching your every move? Well, unfortunately, you’re not far off from the truth. Our devices are constantly tracking our searches, likes, and followers collecting an elaborate database of your own personal profile. More specifically, as Brian W. Kernighan discusses in chapter eleven of his book “Data and Information,” when using the internet, search engines run on your devices record your every move, down to the specific sites you clicked on and how much time you spent on the site. Overall this information recorded by the internet is used to gain more information on who you are as an individual. Not only are our devices tracking us digitally, but they are also able to track our location. As Kernighan explains “it’s hard to do anything without leaving tracks,” as our devices are constantly being carried around with us, collecting data even when we don't notice.

In my search to see what tracks I have made on the internet, I first started by simply searching my name, ["Devon Muldoon"](https://www.google.com/search?q=Devon+Muldoon&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS896US896&oq=Devon+Muldoon&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i60j69i61l2.3491j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) in Google to see what data is attributed to my name on this search engine. The following photos are the results of my search.



As you can see, the overwhelming majority of photos and videos collected on my name are about my collegiate swimming career at Northeastern, as well as recognition for awards and achievements that I have made in swimming throughout High School and in College. Interestingly, when searching my name, my hometown and high school popped up as a search associated with my name, showing that the internet has the knowledge to find where I live and where I went to high school. Even though my hometown is public knowledge in my roster on the Northeastern Athletics site, I was a little uneasy to find that my name prompted searches that lead to my hometown and high school.

I was happy to find after searching on [Spokeo](https://www.spokeo.com/) for information on my identity, that there was no profile attributed to my name. Yet, after searching for my name, I decided to search for my parents' names and found data on my mother and father that was scarily accurate, including where they live, where they previously lived, and who they’re related to.

Next, I checked what information browsers can easily access by using the site [“What Every Website Knows About You.”](https://webkay.robinlinus.com/)


As Kernighan illustrates in his chapter, search browsers are automatically sent information seen in the image above, such as your IP address, operating system, browser version, and so on. This information is easily spread and unfortunately, we have little to no control over this information being spread.

After looking into how I manage my own privacy on Google, I realized that I have been doing a good job at protecting my privacy when it comes to location tracking.


As you can see from the photo, my location history is turned off which helps prevent browsers from stalking my location and collecting data on where I live. When looking at the timeline on Google Maps, it does not have any data on me and my location other than the state that I live in. I found it odd that Google has my home state imputed in its database even though I never specified where I lived.

Social media can also be pervasive when tracking things we like, follow, and share. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok can easily track locations, conversations, and mutual friends to feed ads to our specific interests. I use many social media platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, and Facebook. I am private on every one of these platforms where I can control who sees what I post.


My Instagram settings show that I am private and that only I can approve who can see my posts, although anyone can see when I am active on Instagram and when I was last on it, which is somewhat of an invasion of privacy.

Facebook was recently exposed for listening to people's private audio messages in Facebook Messenger, as a way to test a “transcription algorithm” as Rich Haridy explained in his article [“Facebook isn’t secretly listening to your conversations, but the truth is much more disturbing.”](https://newatlas.com/computers/facebook-not-secretly-listening-conversations/) Zuckerburg claimed that Facebook does not use device microphones to target ads to specific users, but many people were still skeptical. After reviewing many different experiments that tested this theory, Haridy concluded that Zuckerburg was in fact not lying. Although this may sound like good news, this reveals a scarier truth, as Facebook has the power to exploit information such as your exact location, friends, interest, frequently visited retail stores, purchases, and much more.