Week 1 Vanity Search

I found this assignment to be enjoyable! In the past, I have done Google searches of myself. I knew it as egogoogling. However, I had never gone to such a depth. Less than two years ago, I legally changed. I only kept my middle name and my paternal last name. This made my search challenging because my previous name was very long. I had to play with it because I found multiple combinations of my name. The searching techniques learned from my previous Library Science classes came in very handy. My maternal last name, which was part of my previous name, is Fauvet which is not common. I have never met someone with that last name that is not related to me. Once I searched "Velasco Fauvet," all the results were either my sister or me. There was not much to be found that would be categorized under social media because I have those accounts set with an email that I only use for online accounts and subscriptions, and those are all linked to my nickname. I purposely did that to keep my privacy from my students and their families, and I am happy to know that it worked. 

However, I also found out there is no such thing as privacy. Anyone who searches my name can find my current address, along with all the past addresses I have lived in since becoming an adult. My phone number and the people I am associated with are also listed, including my family, ex-husband, and the day we married. It turns out that if I wanted to lie about my age, I would get caught very quickly. 

Since I am a teacher and my salary is paid through government funds, my annual salary from previous school years is also public. And of course, I expected to find many search results of me with Garland ISD, especially after adding the tag teacher. 

I also came across subscriptions I have created for school by doing this search, such as Kahoot, Quizlet, along with other accounts I may have used once and forgotten about it.  I also came across my e-portfolio and blog. 

I was so intrigued that I spent hours doing my vanity search. One search result would lead me to others. My mouth kept dropping, and I kept scratching my head while I repeatedly kept asking, "how the heck do they know all of this?" Everyone knows that the internet holds on to everything, but this search made me realize how true this is. Your digital footprint is there to stay. Even though I might be revealing myself, I believe I have to share and show my students how exposed they are. Your digital footprint can be a great thing if you have been a good and positive person, but unfortunately, it is human to makes mistakes. I didn't come across anything on my vanity search that was troubling, but I am sure that it could also be tracked just as easily if I had something to regret.  I am sure that as time passes, my digital presence will continue to grow and never shrink. 

These are a couple of my search results that shocked me. The True People Search had all the different names I am also known as with direct links. 

https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/find/person/p6l6084ru60nrlln0ul9 

https://govsalaries.com/velasco-fauvet-maria-49296620

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