Data search

There is a decent amount of personal information on the internet. Some of the links did not have my information because the setting was disabled but I do not know/remember how I did that. The information that Google had on me was a little random since a lot of it is stuff that would not seem that important. I guess search engines see a lot of what people are interested in and what is important to them. Due to the high volume of information in the databases, search engines like Google want to tailor the sites to the users. Google is also unique because of Google Drive and the other unique aspects that people can utilize to store their information.

Facebook is even more personal than Google because there are settings and a bio that encourages people to willingly enter all of their personal details. A lot of times, new users will not understand how to properly maneuver the settings and privacy controls. This may lead to unwanted privacy settings and it may allow people you have never met to access your personal information. For example, in middle school, my naive self tried to friend as many people as I could, whether I actually knew them or not. I am also pretty sure I had a good chunk of details about myself up so that whole situation had the potential to develop into something dangerous. Luckily, nothing ever really happened.

The amount of information that the internet carries about me does not surprise me. Although I had never really seen all of it first-hand before, I have heard about the vast amount of stuff that the web might store from just your searches or Facebook posts. It is a little scary what someone like a hacker could find out about me at the touch of a few buttons. In that respect, I do not like having all of my personal details out in the open. On another side of things, though, I do not have anything to hide so if someone wanted to do a really thorough background check on me, my search history and other data information might actually help.

I know that many people have intense fears and suspicions about the government using their personal information. Those fears may very well be valid and may carry truth to them but not using the internet and social media is almost improbable. It would be very difficult to stay away from computers, smart phones, etc. Such devices help many people function and do their jobs on a daily basis so there is an issue here of how to best combat the situation.