So I left Wednesday's TINST207 class horrified at the idea that my age, phone number, address, and other identifying information was on the internet for everybody to see. I tried searching different combinations of my name (with middle initial, without, with quotation marks, etc) and was relieved to find that there isn't much information about me. I tried Google, MSN, and Yahoo, as well as the UW site cause I was curious. Fortunately (probably because I am 20 and don't have home loan history/public records stuff, I am not on intelius.com. It sort of outraged me to think that they can post all that stuff online, and anyone willing to pay for a report could have some very personal information about me or even show up at my house.

Some of what I found was hilarious. There were a bunch of mentions of my name related to dog show stuff. This makes sense as I have owned and co-owned a few dogs, as well as participated in loads of AKC dog shows (see picture of Bastian, RIP, my first show dog and true love :)). I also found my Facebook page (which I haven't checked in probably a year). I was surprised not to find anything myspace related. The best thing I found, however, was this. I was in a circus group that performed all over the place. The newspaper and tv station came out to interview us. I was on the morning news, eight years old, in a neon colored spandex body suit, performing my trapeze routine. Crazy, I know. Good to think that since it happened before the Seattle PI went on the internet, there are no picture records of this event online. I do have the fuzzy VCR recording my parents made somewhere though. I was also a little relieved to see that there were no records of my and my ballroom dancing and sequin days.

I understand that privacy is important, and it really bothers me that there is information about me out there which I cannot really get rid of. It also bothers me that as long as the internet exists in its current form, there will be more and more personal details added. Not sure what to do about this- its sort of like telemarketing. I hate it but there's not really anything I can do that will get it to stop completely. I will stop one site, and two more will pop up.... like a leaky boat or the the moles in my parents yard that drive my dad nuts.