I affectionately call him Dr. Ryan P(last name excluded for his own protection).
I checked some of my numerous analytics logs of some of my numerous web sites and did some geo-located, network and keyword search intersections in google analytics.... and what did I find? Yes, the good Doctor's (RP's) sometimes "alarmist-sounding" advise about coporate intelligence was fully confirmed... about 7 major employers who have interviewed me were glaringly surfing my name (some for 15 pages and some for more than 11 minutes of surfing on my CulpeperHouse.org profile pages!).
Now this got me curious about how long this may have been going on... and I have more research to do, but it appears that my name gets searched much more than I ever expected. In a google search of my name, there are more than 11 pages of results (yes, all me) because of numerous articles I've written over the years and had published, numerous music reviews I've done, numerous MYSQL forum postings I've done and numerous church involvements I've had. Fortunately, my blog is buried at the very end of all that and, well, I guess it just has me thinking more about what I put on my blog. Is it better to be upfront about all one's personal, religious and political beliefs on a blog and spread your views to the world or is it wiser to avoid overt messages that would certainly come to haunt me if ever the world came looking for dirt on me? There's certainly plenty in my blog. And well, once it's there, it's there for the whole world for all time (by using google cashe and waybackmachine).
So Dr. R.P., this one's for you, bud. You're not in law for nothin' and I'm thinking twice about the legitimacy of your own double reinforced net-anonymity.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
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3 comments:
Well, duh! I just went through a hiring process. You think I didn't Google the candidates? That's public info - of course employers are going to check it out.
That said - whatevahz! Live bold, be who you are - not because you're safe from the principalities and powers, but because fuck 'em. This isn't good advice for everyone, but privileged white male oppressors like you and me, with highly marketable job skills, need to be bold, IMHO.
Which "The Man" are you worried about, anyway? If the government becomes so oppressive that you need to worry about imprisonment (or something) for your views, do you really think net-anonymity is going to save you? Are you, of all people, really going to try to hide in the event of that kind of injustice, as opposed to fighting the good fight of nonviolent resistance?
Or if the "Man" you're worried about is employers - come on. You don't need to be. Just look at your recent job search - something like 5 or 6 offers? And as you say, they certainly Googled you and didn't care that you're a wacky church guy. Not every line of work is like this, but web design? Come on. For the foreseeable future, there will be plenty of companies in an area like this that don't give a crap if you have radical views as long as your web pages come out functional and pretty.
Anyway, that's my $0.02.
Er - this is a null comment. I meant to check the "email me follow-up comments" box on the other comment. So I'm checking it now. :-)
I completely agree with Mike. There is nothing that you can hide that the government can't find out if it wanted to.
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