Sunday, October 14, 2007

My Biography Online

After reading NPR's "Startups Help Clean Up Online Reputations", it really made me think about all the pictures of me I recalled seeing on the internet. The scary thing is that the article said, "Even when you delete images from the Web, they sometimes live on search-engine files." I did not know that. In addition to creating positive content about yourself through blogs and webpages, my first solution would be to initiate privacy features on facebook and any other social networks I belong to. You can restrict what certain people see on your profile and limiting potential employers is essential in today's age.

On the same topic, Mark Cuban discusses in his blog, "Your are what your search results return and so are your kids", an online profile using search engines. The difference is, Mark likes the fact that these pictures and details are online and shared, because it is an easy way to document his children as they grow up. I would have to agree with Mark, because today, it doesn't make sense to pay to print out every picture you take. We are in the digital age and we should take advantage of our technology. The old physical photo albums are obsolete and are being replaced by sites like snapfish, flickr, picturetrail, and smugmug. I'm ok with this change, considering I rarely ever processed pictured the old fashioned way.

1 comment:

Mike said...

Pictures on the Internet scare a lot of people (maybe not as much though as video) probably because it makes offline recognition that much easier. it also takes the online dimension to the next step. I can give a description of my appearance, but by seeing my picture you get a perfect visual image (of what I looked like at least at the time of the picture). it makes it more rea.

If I was a parent I would be paranoid of stalkers/predators grabbing my children. There are a large number of them out there. There is a difference though between putting up every picture and printing every picture. Many people still like actual photos as compared to online anyways. I sometimes am one of those. Additionally, there are many photographers who say that with digital cameras, the colors are too linear as compared to something like a SLR or a 35mm.

I guess though we shouldn't worry but more or less take precautions. I'm positive all of our lives will eventually be available for download courtesy of Google Stalker (or another service) sooner or later.