Have You Ever Googled Yourself?

I do it a few times a year to see what comes up about me. The one thing I hate the most is that if you put my name up, you can see not only exactly where I live but how much I paid for my house!! I would have rather that not be so easily accessible.

I have and the only thing that came up was my facebook and my photography stuff (I own a photography business). Nothing else though :)

I have googled myself. I didn't realize how many of me there were!!! There are at least a dozen...from age 21 to 60...

the only way to go "radio silent" is to NOT post on ANY social networking site, blog, etc. if you sign up for something - don't use your real name...but alas...you will be in the IRS system and Social Security system...

What do you have to hide? I guess for me? I don't care. If people want to post stuff under my name? GO FOR IT! I've seen where SUPPOSEDLY I have posted under my name on websites I have never been to. Oh well. My security clearance is good.

My single name is very common and my married name is the same as that of a d-list actress so it takes pages and pages to find anything related to me. And even that stuff is pretty boring. You would see that I was a member of the garden club a few years ago, was a PTA treasurer, and have staggeringly slow 5K and sprint triathlon times.

If I google myself the first person that comes up is a very successful European business women who has won awards and all kinds of stuff. When my husband googles himself a (not famous) film director comes up. However if I google myself and put in my town I find information about where I live, where I used to live, etc. The first time I did it a couple of pictures of my kids came up which really shocked me. I realized that I didn't have the correct security settings on my Facebook account. Glad I was able to fix this.

Its public knowledge. It starts from tax records and goes from there. Good luck!

Yup, all my private info is out there plus Google did a drive by on my house so looking on "street view", you can see all the way into my backyard. So glad they didn't do the photos on a day I was outside working in my yard... hair tied up, wearing the goggles, face mask, and camo pants to spray for weeds.

My married and maiden last names are fairly common. So there are several women here in Bend with my same first and last name, and and endless list around the country. That doesn't help block access but it would confuse someone doing a search on me.

You may not be able to block access in a search, but you can control what people see by starting a blog, having your own website and getting your name on articles that will come up first when searching your name.

I have a very common name. When I google my first and last name I get an African-American man.

I do so every few months on purpose to ensure that I am remaining the low internet profile I want. However there are far more people who share my name than I thought.

It is really scary how much info is public. I HATE that you can see our exact home. My husband has thousands of patients, a number of whom could get upset with him at any time, so it scares me. I haven't figured out how to get our name and address removed from the real estate transaction records.

Good heavens, I have never thought to do that. I assumed "boring" was my middle name.

So I just did, and got 17 or so solid pages (as illustrator of 50 books, plus some random quotes trailing off through later pages). I never would have guessed. But I don't do social sites much, so didn't find much there.

I don't have anything I feel a need to hide or protect from the public, so I don't really mind. I have little curiosity about other people's homes/yards/lives, so I don't go prowling on Gmaps unless I need to know how a business looks from the street. But I can see how this might be useful to someone with evil intentions. I choose not to worry, beyond taking common-sense steps for security and identity protection.

I did when I was job searching. I wanted to know what people would find when they googled me. It definitely made me aware of what you can find out about a person from the internet.

I just googled myself. Hardly anything came up. I am very boring.

My SIL googled me to find that the portfolio I had developed for a portfolio development class was available for the world to see with all sorts of personal information. I thought I had tight security. I think I have made it private now.

My last name is very common and I don't have a middle name. So, googling my name turns up hundreds of different people. I'm pretty anonymous.

Just did it. Thankfully, nothing bad!! (well, info on my most recent speeding ticket, but if you were to just ask me, I'd willinging offer that I get pulled over regularly! haha)
Also, there is one person a state over with my name. But there are 3 people in our state with my husbands name (including middle initial)

I am a public employee, so my pay and job title are online. As for the public records with your county, you may be able to block the information, however, it is is still transparent on sites like Trulia with a google search of your name.

My husbands family tree came up. I guess someone started it and posted it online or worked on one via an online site. I find the family tree on that side of the family funny because his grandmother was so private she had her first initial and last name on her checks, with no address. As well, they all have PO Boxes.

Also, social security numbers of dead people will come up too. When I google my dad's name a photo of his head stone comes up.

For those with common names, the trick is to google first name, last name, city, and state. That is unless you have a name like Pat Lee.

so I never do and I just did. There is a mylife page that says the year I was born and the city I currently live in as well as 2 prior cities I lived in but they are missing 2 in between. It also says I am related to 2 people that I am not based on my maiden name which I did not search. 1 person I had never heard of and the other I am 99% sure I know him. My maiden name is the same as his last name and we grew up together but are so not related. This is really weird.

ETA: So I just did the spokeo thing mentioned above. I am listed as a male and my husband as a male too. This makes me laugh. I am not sure who it is more funny for me being a guy or my husband being "gay."

I thought this post by Coolmomtech was kind of spooky so I went through the steps they suggested to remove my information.

http://www.coolmomtech.com/2012/09/how_to_get_your_person...