Your Online IdentityDiscovering Managing Controlling

Kimberley R. BarkerEmerging Technology Librarian

DiscoveryFind out what information about you is just a search away by mining the “deep web”.

The deep web is “World Wide Web content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines.” –Wikipedia•

Characteristics of the deep webInfo in unlinked sites, so cannot be found with regular search engines (which depend on hyperlinks)Site categories: Dynamic; Unlinked; Private; Contextual; Limited access; Scripted; Non-HTML

Vast- in 2000, the size of the deep web was estimated at 7,500 terabytes & 550 billion documents

• Pipl.com returns results from:• Anywho• Spokeo• Whitepages• MyLife• PeopleSmart• Archives• Moore Library News• Ebay• Amazon

Searching the Deep Web

• Quick facts• Contact details: phone numbers & physical

addresses• Background reports• News articles• Social networking sites• Vital records• E-mail addresses

pipl results are categorized:

Let’s take a look at pipl in real time!

More on searching the deep web

Kosmix.com: “…combines deep and surface results, breaking them down into categories such as videos, documents, books, blogs, discussion forums, and websites.”

Take steps to manage your privacy, and thus limit info that may be found on you.

• http://www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Facebook-Privacy-Settings-Pt-1

• http://www.butterscotch.com/tutorial/Facebook-Privacy-Settings-Pt-2

Managing

• Below is a list of companies who make your info available. To have your information removed, follow the links and follow the directions.– Public Records Now http://bit.ly/fIF1yZ– Ameridex http://bit.ly/hszkFl– Intelius http://bit.ly/cNyMW5– Pipl http://bit.ly/frflWh

– For a more exhaustive list: http://bit.ly/hNlnEb

Controlling

• Reputation.com

Controlling

• Take a more active role towards controlling the information that people can/will find about you with a service like Reputation.com

“…the only reputation management services that can affect

Deep Web results. The company’s monitoring tools will alert you whenever new information appears online, and Reputation.com offers products designed to remove Deep Web information if you find something you don’t like.”

Controlling

• Reputation.com offers different packages for controlling your identity

Controlling

• Let’s take a look at Reputation.com in real time

Controlling

• Removing your information from the web

Controlling

Below is a list of companies who make your info available. To have your information removed, follow the links and follow the directions.

Public Records Now http://bit.ly/fIF1yZAmeridex http://bit.ly/hszkFlIntelius http://bit.ly/cNyMW5Pipl http://bit.ly/frflWh

For a more exhaustive list: http://bit.ly/hNlnEb

• All kinds of information about you is freely available on the Internet.

• Pretending that it isn’t there is not the way to handle this.• Do the searches and discover what information is there.• Take steps to limit the information that is available about

you.

In conclusion…