Data Mine
Data Mining
What exactly is data mining? Data mining according to IBM is "the process of uncovering patterns and other valuable information from large data sets." In simpler terms it means, the process of conducting searches through different search engines, websites, and databases. I think this can be done on various levels. On the most basic level, someone can conduct internet searches with a particular name or key phrase. On a larger school this can be seen as an extensive background check. I did some data mining on myself this week.
How to Data Mine
Below is a wonderful table of different sites to conduct a data mine (or dig) on yourself courtesy of Nicole Zumpano. Some tips she recommends when conducting a data mine to NOT sign into your browsers, utilize multiple and different browsers, as well as to put your name in quotations.
The Searches
- Microsoft Edge
- "Mackenzie Childs" in InPrivate Browsing of Microsoft Edge
- This brought results for the famous ceramics and home décor retailer, something I knew going in would keep bringing up. For the record, I unfortunately have no affiliation with the company MacKenzie-Childs.
- "Mackenzie Elyse Childs" in InPrivate Browsing of Microsoft Edge
- This yet again gave results for the famous ceramics and home décor retailer MacKenzie-Childs.
- "intext:Mackenzie Childs" in InPrivate Browsing of Microsoft Edge
- Same results for the ceramics and home décor company, are you seeing the trend here?
- "Mackenzie Childs filetype:doc" in InPrivate Browsing of Microsoft Edge
- You guess it:
- Google Chrome
- Unfortunately, all searches would end with the same results as pictured above.
- I searched myself on this site with inputting my first and last name as well as the state I've mostly lived in. Despite that, I would strangely only get these "14 Matches in Shipping Bill of Lading Search." These all stated that apparently myself or at least another Mackenzie were a consignee for different shipments coming in from China. All of these results were from 2014 and 2015, which is safe to say I was not the actual consignee for these shipments as I was just a junior/senior in high school and lived overseas in Europe.
- Here I searched myself with my first and last name as well as on of the cities I lived in for a quite awhile. I was pleasantly surprised that there was an actual accurate result for me. The relative information was correct, my age, aliases, and has lived in were also all correct. If you wanted you could pay to view more information but I chose not to. I'm not sure if it makes me feel great that it is easy to search someone up like this but I definitely appreciate for once I did not have to the company Mackenzie-Childs.
3. TruthFinder
- Shockingly this has been the site to provide the most accurate information which the inclusion of other states I have lived in. So far most of my "actual" people searches have only provided 1 result. I guess there are not many other Mackenzie Childs in the world.
- This initially stated that there were 10 results for me but kept reloading to a different search site/database every few seconds so I could not see what the 10 results were or how accurate they would be. I might have spoken too soon about how few Mackenzies there are in the world.
- There are finally other Mackenzies in the world! I might have had a play in this and chose to not input a state, city, or zip code. It was crazy to see other Mackenzies across the US especially with the same last name! I have only ever met one family with the same last name while living overseas of all places and we were not related so it is a little weird to see more results with the same surname as mine.
6. My Life
- This site only asked for a name so I knew going in that I would get a variety of results. Shockingly I was near the top of the results with an accurate address. What is most interesting with this site is that each result is given a "reputation score" and can be tagged with "COURT RECORDS FOUND." My personal result thankfully did not have a court tag and had a green reputation score.
7. PeekYou
- For my final search with this data mine I did this site and the results that were yielded included a variety of Mackenzies but interestingly did not have an accurate result for myself. There were no matching phone numbers, relatives, or address as well.
It was fun to see that there were other people with my name in the world in a variety of places and and even more diverse age range. I've never known another Mackenzie growing up so it was always an outlandish idea that there would be other people with my first name and let alone my last name. Some results were surprisingly really accurate and the broader searches mostly did not include me. I wasn't super concerned with the results on all the sites. I think it is easy to find information like this as shown but it doesn't provide much. I'm terrible at telling the post office to forward my mail to a new address so I knew going into this data mine that in theory it would be "easy" to "find me." I think that this would be helpful to teach students about digital footprints and maybe even the dangers of the internet. The digital world becomes more accessible by the day and I think with the COVID-19 lockdown and the dependence of technology, people feel more entitled to things such as information and what other people put out digitally. I am not entirely sure how young teachers and parents should educate students on this. I got my first phone when I was 10 but technology has come so far since then and there's a bigger dependency on technology especially with "iPad kids." Maybe it is better to start as young as comfortable and possible to create a more informed new generation.
References:
I was also surprised by how many people with my name were around Illinois, much less the world. I never had anyone have my last name before in my life (other than my family) and yet there are so many people out there. I kept getting Google results for for a famous dancer so I understand your journey with the ceramic and home decor company. I came across the same problem with some of the sites where they would lead me to a different site and then I would have to pay for that site and it was just a mess. I was surprised at the accuracy of my past addresses as well and it seems like where you live is the most public information out there, which in my opinion is one of the most private to be out there and so easily accessible.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it's ok to start teaching young students how to protect their personal identifiable information. Information can be scaffolded so it isn't too overwhelming for them. Imagine if we started in kindergarten. If every teacher focused on teaching bits and pieces of digital literacy by time students hit high school they would be so well informed about how to protect themselves!
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