---
# System prepended metadata

title: Privacy and Self-Stalking

---

# Privacy and Self-Stalking

## Basketball Related Search Results
The first website that is found when I look up my name is the [Northeastern Women's Basketball Roster](https://nuhuskies.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/izzy-larsen/7614)
![](https://i.imgur.com/tz7Bghw.jpg)

My [ESPN profile](https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4705028/izzy-larsen) also shows up in my search results
![](https://i.imgur.com/hvziGWz.png)

## Social Media Links
My search results also included links to my personal Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, FaceBook, and Pinterest, but I am choosing to not include the links to them.

## Spokeo Search
I went through the process of searching for myself on Spokeo, but once the results had finished loading, I was prompted to pay in order to see them
![](https://i.imgur.com/ahLhwbI.png)

## What Every Browser Knows About Me
On this [webpage](https://webkay.robinlinus.com/), I found the information on removing the metadata availability from your photos to be the most interesting and useful. I get very nervous and uneasy about people having the ability to access information about me through my posts on different social media platforms

## Google Privacy
This area of Google Privacy was extremely interesting to me. The privacy center gives you the option to choose whether or not you would like to have personalized search results and advertisements that are catered towards what Google believes your interests to be
![](https://i.imgur.com/JWJcmUE.png)
### My Activity
Here are the results of what my privacy looks like for my different search history options
![](https://i.imgur.com/3PsFq3x.png)
### Timeline in Google Maps
There were no results in this section, as I have my location history deactivated on Google
### Google Ad Preferences
I was not surprised by the things that Google tries to cater my ads towards. The ads are broken up into three sections: topics, brands, and sensitive.
Here is the section for topics:
![](https://i.imgur.com/nYf2NB8.jpg)
These are fairly in keeping with my interests

Here is the section for brands:
![](https://i.imgur.com/cIwqZcI.png)
This section made me laugh, as I have been heavily shopping for a new pair of shoes and Taylor Swift concert tickets recently

Here are the results for my sensitive topic preferences:
![](https://i.imgur.com/VKFkm7c.png)

## Response
Is anything truly "private" anymore? Rich Haridy dives into this concept in his [article](https://newatlas.com/computers/facebook-not-secretly-listening-conversations/) that discusses the ever evolving argument of whether or not FaceBook and our iPhones are listening to us. The overall consensus that Haridy comes to in the article is that our phones do not listen to us, but they actually have more authority over our private information than we realize. Many apps have the ability to share what we see on our screens and what we are searching for on apps and in browsers. Although phones may not be consistently listening to us and recording our conversations, this reminded me of another issue that arose in the world of invasive technology.
    The Amazon Alexa had much controversy surrounding it after many sources claimed that the device was constantly recording everything that was being said so it could have better data of what its family needed to know and how they spoke. So, this lends to the question that Haridy was trying to answer: can these devices really track us via audio? It has never been proven to be true, but it is still the main point of emphasis that people push when they are arguing that their privacy is being disrespected. Personally, I believe that this is the case due to the fact that many people either do not want to come to terms with or do not understand the fact that technology and AI have become so intelligent that they can know what you want or need based off of things such as what your friends are searching or what area of the country you live in. Computers are trained experts at educated guessing. So, is our privacy truly gone? Or is the world of algorithms and educated guessing in technology just becoming too advanced for us to wrap our minds around?
