Traces of your digital existence

So... ...what's out there about me? If someone enters my name into a search box, what comes up?

Before diving into the "ego search" or "egosurfing" territory - where search results are highly dependent on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of the "big sites", let's take a step back.

As a reminder from my previous post, you don't always have full control of what's available and presented online about yourself.

Level of control

Remember, there is a certain level of control on what you can and can't do with the found sources:

• Personal Website: Full control over content
• Code Repositories (e.g. Github): High control over content
• Social Media Profiles: Moderate control over content
• Content Platforms: Moderate control over content
• Professional and Networking Sites: Limited control over content

First, you want to know where are all the online accounts you created in the past, maybe some of them got out of sight, but they still exist (and come up in search results).

More importantly, where do you have accounts - or publicly available profile pages - which were NOT created by you!

The Sherlock Project

Created to simplify hundreds of searches, it helps you search across hundreds of websites, by just entering your username or online alias.

❯ sherlock andraskora
[*] Checking username andraskora on:

[+] About.me: https://about.me/andraskora
[+] ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/andraskora
[+] Discord: https://discord.com
[+] Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/profile/andraskora
[+] Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/andraskora
[+] Freelance.habr: https://freelance.habr.com/freelancers/andraskora
[+] GNOME VCS: https://gitlab.gnome.org/andraskora
[+] GitLab: https://gitlab.com/andraskora
[+] Gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/andraskora
[+] HackenProof (Hackers): https://hackenproof.com/hackers/andraskora
[+] HackerEarth: https://hackerearth.com/@andraskora
[+] Instagram: https://instagram.com/andraskora
[+] kaskus: https://www.kaskus.co.id/@andraskora
[+] LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/andraskora
[+] Mydramalist: https://www.mydramalist.com/profile/andraskora
[+] NationStates Nation: https://nationstates.net/nation=andraskora
[+] NationStates Region: https://nationstates.net/region=andraskora
[+] PepperIT: https://www.pepper.it/profile/andraskora/overview
...

...and that's about it.

Once you've got your list it's worth checking them one by one, sometimes the profile page does not exist but the website responds to Sherlock as if it would.

Yes. So please, be mindful.

Is it a comprehensive tool? No.

Are there better alternatives out there? Yes. More on this in a next post.

The results

Once you've got your list of links, I'd recommend asking your favourite chat bot to sort them, and turn them into a bookmarks file that can be easily imported into your favourite browser.

Then you have a list of links to click through, categorise, sort and decide.

Is it really MY profile page? Yes/No/Can't decide.

• if yes, can I log in and change it?
• if yes, how much control do I have over it? Was it created (generated) automatically, without my knowledge and consent?
• if no, then you can decide to remove it from your bookmark list.

Is it something that CAN be associated with me (same username, clearly)?

• if yes, how does it affect my online reputation?
  • does it come up on top of search results?

At the end of this exercise you have an (almost fully comprehensive) list of online profiles which are either yours (and you have some level of control over them) or belong to someone else.

Finally, it's worth doing this exercise from time to time to see if there are any changes in the online space.

Wait! Profile pages NOT created by me?

How is that even possible?

There are a few uncomfortable truths:

• websites that "scrape" the web, extracting data from public sources and re-publishing them under their own domain names
• "free" online tools and platforms which publish your online "history" regardless you giving them your consent or not (example: online movie watching sites, which publish your watch history)
• "shadow" profiles: you visited their services once and maybe you also logged in; they keep some basic data about you and the platform auto-generates a publicly available profile page

What's next?

• Wouldn't it be great to also search for variations of my username?
• What about being able to find alternative/secondary usernames that also belong to me (which can be linked to the one I used for the search)?
• What about searching for email addresses?
• What about searching or phone numbers?

Let's continue in the next post...