Identity in the Networked World

My Life? Online?

I am disturbed by how much I can learn about things or people through the internet. Have a name? With popular search tools you can probably check their criminal and credit history and find their phone number. With a phone number an address may be found. Using this site an address will yield all sorts of information on property in my hometown municipality—acreage, tax value, and zoning--but I'm not showing mine ;-). Plugging my address into Google Maps yielded a satellite image of my neighborhood (I can see my house!) Satellite Murrysville If you squint a little, you can make out "Franklin Panthers" in the end zones of my high school football field! Scared yet? Franklin Panthers

The internet has unleashed torrents of private information and put it right into the hands of anybody with the time or desire to look for it. Identity becomes palpable to those across the world from us. The networked world leaves scarce little places to hide.

Our identities are becoming known in far too much depth by others in this networked world.