I have a Google Alert for “Kalle Alm” (I’m vain that way) and I get some surprises occasionally. Like this one:
http://pipl.com/directory/people/Kalle/Alm
The accuracy of those keywords are scary all by themselves. But I think this is an awesome thing for the world to have, because it does efficiently remove that illusion we seem to have about privacy online. We post a detail about ourselves here and another one there and then somehow link the two together, and then we go on like the dutiful spiders of self-leakage that we are and eventually, there’s a network of information about ourselves, and it took us no effort to produce it. Nor do we even realize its existence. But with the above services (Pipl is not the first “people search” I’ve seen, and definitely not the last either) the illusion will be dispelled.
Sunday, 30. September 2007
I agree that sites like Pipl are scary yet cool. I just think that its fascinating to see the way data works together online.
Granted, I have some reservations about its use. Personally I think its unethical for recruiters to view information people post on social networking sites (at least those sites not specifically for job info like LinkedIn). But more employers and recruiters are using it as a common way to screen applicants.
To me, that strikes me as being akin to delving too deep into someones personal life. I mean, think of those social networking sites - how many people list intricate details about their sexual orientation, race, show pictures, etc.. so many things that allow a potential employer to make a prejudicial decision based on certain things about that person. Heck, its one the potential employee may never even know about - they just don’t get a call back.
So in the workforce, I think they overstep their bounds when they seek out information too personal, and I think they should stick to information that reflects the ‘work’ persona of someone, rather than how they are after work.
For personal, those sites have good and bad also, but then again, there’s that old saying ‘if you don’t want someone to know what you’re writing about them - don’t sign your name’.
For me I don’t have a ‘work’ boss, but I still don’t want my clients being able to Google and read some of my ‘edgier’ or more bitchy thoughts. It just strikes me as unprofessional if they are going to group that in with how they evaluate my business. But then again - if I want a site that I can be edgy on - thankfully there are tools around these days to help you create a significant amount of anonymity online.
But hey, it’s still cool, I just think that people for ‘business’ shouldn’t search in ‘personal.’ I would like to think that businesses and clients sort of ‘avert their eyes’ when they search a site like this and see links to obviously personal pages, but I’m just being deluded. So long as the human mind is voyeuristic and people are helplessly nosy and love gossip - it won’t change. However, that doesn’t make these sites any less cool for PERSONAL use .. I just have issues when they are used for business too.
Sorry for the rant!
Wednesday, 3. October 2007
> Granted, I have some reservations about its use. Personally I think its unethical for recruiters to view information people post on social networking sites (at least those sites not specifically for job info like LinkedIn). But more employers and recruiters are using it as a common way to screen applicants.
This is part of what I mean. I know of at least one guy who didn’t get a job because they found his blog, which was filled with exactly what he thought about a lot of things. Freedom of speech is great, but people need to realize they’re not as anonymous as the damp light in their curtain-draped room implies. This kind of service removes that illusion, which in return will make people more careful about what they “put out there”, which, in turn, will lead to their increased privacy.
Without these “engines”, people who still have the illusion that their rants about how the Israel/Palestine conflict sucks balls and how they think that 1/3rd of the U.S. foreign aid going to Israel is a bit steep, will suddenly realize that their employers or their government or whoever “they” might be at the moment, know, because Google is there, and Google is what these services are based on, to 98%.
Wednesday, 3. October 2007
And if Google wasn’t there, Yahoo or MSN Search or Altavista or whatever other replacement, would, so it’s not a “Google is evil” deal either.