Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Can Google be trusted to tell you who I am?
Who we are is being defined by the traces we leave on the web. This lucky man was released by his kidnappers because a quick Google search 'proved' that he was a journalist, and not a spook or US contractor.
I'm glad this man got home safely, but just how much trust do people put in what we find online? It's very easy to set-up fake traces to make people appear to be what they're not. using Google to find out people's background is nothing new, and it has become a popular way of checking out potential dates, especially in the States.
We are all prone to a little embellishment on our CVs, and as everyone gets a bit more savvy with how to beef up our online traces, just how long will it before we all maintain tailored Google profiles? and what is it that makes one source seem more reliable than another? we might not believe everything we read on a person's homepage, but what about a news story that we find about them? as the phishers have shown us, it's very easy to make a page appear as if it comes from somewhere it doesn't, and web marketing already lets people get their pages to the top spot in Google whether they deserve to be there or not.
difficult questions, not many answers right now.
I'm off to update my online CV with details of my career in the circus.
Who we are is being defined by the traces we leave on the web. This lucky man was released by his kidnappers because a quick Google search 'proved' that he was a journalist, and not a spook or US contractor.
I'm glad this man got home safely, but just how much trust do people put in what we find online? It's very easy to set-up fake traces to make people appear to be what they're not. using Google to find out people's background is nothing new, and it has become a popular way of checking out potential dates, especially in the States.
We are all prone to a little embellishment on our CVs, and as everyone gets a bit more savvy with how to beef up our online traces, just how long will it before we all maintain tailored Google profiles? and what is it that makes one source seem more reliable than another? we might not believe everything we read on a person's homepage, but what about a news story that we find about them? as the phishers have shown us, it's very easy to make a page appear as if it comes from somewhere it doesn't, and web marketing already lets people get their pages to the top spot in Google whether they deserve to be there or not.
difficult questions, not many answers right now.
I'm off to update my online CV with details of my career in the circus.
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(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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