A real-life experiment has just shown how easy it is to compile the story of your life just by following the traces you're leaving on the Internet.
I first read about it in the French national Le Monde, but many French media outlets have now reported on the mésaventure of a young architect in France who not long ago discovered the entire story of his life published in the French independent magazine Le Tigre.
With the aim of showing how careless we are with the dissemination of private information over the Internet, Le Tigre drew its "first google portrait" by collecting details of the young architect's professional and private life from Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. The article first appeared in print in December and has since been replaced on Le Tigre's Web site with a softer and more anonymous version at the young architect's request.
The young architect suffered no serious consequences, but the story shows that you may encounter pieces of yourself on the Internet that you'd rather not see aired quite so publically. As Alex Türk, the president of the national French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), said in that same Le Monde article:
"During a job interview, a young man saw himself being shown a picture of his buttocks. His potential employers had found it on the Internet. This image was the consequence of a night with plenty of wine. He didn't get the job."
Have you tried googling yourself recently?
See also: Opportunities: E-Persona Non Grata
