Social aggregators (know who your daddy is)

December 21st, 2008 | Published in Technology | View blog reactions

There have been plenty of tech articles warning us of the dangers of posting information about us online – especially when it comes to naughty pictures and compromising comments. However, not many people know that there are special search engines out there whose aim is to scavenge all the information you have disseminated on the web, and put it together in one single place – for the pleasure of HR recruiters everywhere. These engines can scavenge an incredible amount of information, including information that others have posted about you, and on which you might have little to no control.

I stumbled into one of these engines simply by chance – I decided to look for the mailing addresses of one of my references online, as I did not have it in my address book and I was planning on sending out a holiday greeting card. I went to my usual source for when I have no idea of where else to start – Google. And the first entry was something generated by another search engine, which is using the capabilities of Google to look for information, and then organizing it neatly for anyone to see. I am talking about pipl.com. Try to search yourself, and you will see how much information there might (or might not) be out there about you. Most importantly, notice how public profiles of social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are included in the results of the search. Which means, the looser your privacy settings on those applications and profiles, the more the search engine and aggregator will reveal about you. Also, and most importantly, if your contact information is posted anywhere on the net, including a PDF document, the engine will be able to find that and show it.

There are other tools available for nosy ex-boy/girlfriends and HR recruitment professionals out there. Some of these look to me almost malevolent: Spokeo decidedly targets HR recruitment firms and professionals, offering to go “a step beyond”, and automate “candidate researches across 41 social networks“. Other tools are targeting anyone who would like to feel more in control of their online identity, and therefore see all the information about them in one single place – Profilactic is among them. I do not know how much such a tool would really protect you, regardless of what the name might be implying…

On the other hand, as a reaction to the new generation of social aggregators, other tools are being created to allow you to basically censor anything potentially embarassing or even dangerous that has been posted about you online. The one most easy to find at this point is ReputationDefender. But if you wish that some government records or published materials were removed from the net, you are out of luck.

What does this mean for the average internet user? That you really need to be careful about anything you post on the web – anywhere. You need to be particularly careful about privacy settings in any sites that offer you the opportunity to show public profiles – and, if there is information that would like others rather not know about you, then refrain from posting that altogether. Also, be responsive and fast if someone asks you to remove from the net information you have posted about them. Last but not least, it might help to have a personal website, where people can look for up-to-date information about you, ad where you can effectively manage your online identity (or persona, for that matter).

Further reading: 20 Ways To Aggregate Your Social Networking Profiles on Mashable.com