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# Privacy Footprint Wiki Assignment
##### November 3rd, 2019
#### Articles Discussed:
Brian W. Kernighan, 2017, “Data and information,” D Is for Digital, DisforDigital.net, ch=11.
[Cara McGoogan, 2016, “How did Facebook get my number? And why is it giving my name out to strangers?”](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/08/09/how-did-facebook-get-my-number-and-why-is-it-giving-my-name-out/)
### Data and Information
Are we the ones searching or are we just getting searched? It seems as though with the recent trends of online advertisement and searching, searching for something online leads in us leaving trails to be searched about. Recent technology and big data has only made it easier for Internet users to be constantly tracked and identified based on their web behavior.
Around a year and a half ago, I learned about [Ghostery](https://www.ghostery.com/), which is mentioned in the article by Kernighan and installed it to see how it works. Needless to say, I was astounded by how many trackers there were on any of the given websites that I'd visit on a normal basis.
While browsing [nfl.com](https://www.nfl.com/)
![](https://i.imgur.com/0K2QO9b.jpg)
It's almost comical at this point that there were 25 trackers on the website, many of which lead back to big names such as Adobe and Google.
The further I read on in the article, the more I wanted to question how this was all possible. We allow ourselves to put information online and let it be known what we do. Many of us make purchases and life decisions online, but this all seems to bite back at us in one way or another. For sure the Internet allows for infinite possibilities, but as I've stated in previous responses, it all comes at a cost.
### How Did Facebook get my number? And why is it giving my name out to strangers?
It's alarming to realize that there's probably less things that Facebook **doesn't** know about you than the amount of things they **do** know about you. I remember when I started to use Facebook more, and my parents gave me a quick chat to not post any personal information on there. As much as I've avoided giving out personal information to various websites and services, sharing personal identifiers such as phone numbers or email addresses are almost mandatory in order to login/use many services.
I'm not surprised by the amount of information that Facebook has access to, what's more alarming is how people don't realize just how much of their personal information is compromised. Facebook has found unique ways to obtain more information about people and their friends, and their friends of their friends and so forth. As the article noted, just by combining a few personal identifiers, we're able to learn and search about a person much better (or worse, depending on how you think of it). When I searched my name [on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/public/Kevin-Shenk), I was glad to see that I was not any of the top results. Perhaps if I didn't search while in an incognito window and had logged into some sites, maybe I would appear in the top few results.
Facebook is able to collect lots of data on us and unfortunately we've allowed it to be that way for too long. Even though McGoogan's article was published in 2016, much of what's mentioned is still relevant, if not **more** relevant now.
#### Various screenshots of search results are shown below
[Just my name on Google](https://www.google.com/search?q=Kevin+Shenk)
![](https://i.imgur.com/VsSBT0R.png)
Nice to see that my LinkedIn profile appears at the top since I'm searching for jobs!
[Searching my name through Google image search](https://www.google.com/search?q=Kevin+Shenk&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWl9Xphc3lAhXDV98KHRYKC5oQ_AUIEygC&cshid=1572749874377194&biw=1440&bih=743&dpr=2)
![](https://i.imgur.com/jgI88Yc.jpg)
First six images seem to be unrelated to me. The sixth photo interestingly leads to my LinkedIn page, but instead shows a photo of [David Parkes](https://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~parkes/), a colleague at my previous job
Interestingly, the further I scrolled down, the more images that were actually relevant to me (or my content appeared). The top right image, the bottom left image and the second to last image were actually of me (or my photo), but the others were people who I do not know.
![](https://i.imgur.com/gnxT7tF.jpg)
Conducting a [Google News](https://www.google.com/search?q=Kevin+Shenk&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfp_yTis3lAhUtUt8KHbN8A30Q_AUIEigB&biw=1440&bih=743&dpr=2) or [Google Video](https://www.google.com/search?q=Kevin+Shenk&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIkqffis3lAhXQTd8KHV1IDPsQ_AUIFCgD&biw=1440&bih=743&dpr=2) search did not yield any prominent results that actually related to me.
Luckily, the search I conducted on [Intelius](https://www.intelius.com/) yielded only vary basic results about me that could be found anywhere else.
![](https://i.imgur.com/NRdrCQo.png)