Digital Tattoos

 

Image: Personal Photos

Google Search

I started with just a simple Google search of myself and my name.  One of things that is difficult is that potential names involve both my nick name (Katie) and legal name (Catherine) with a maiden (Waldron) and married last name (Brennan).  That meant that I did multiple searches with a few different combinations.  I also have a somewhat common first name and nickname with a somewhat common last name.  The name is is probably least common is my last name. 

Image: Personal Photo

I started with my social media user name: keightbrennan.  Under this search, Keith Brennan was the most common link provided by Google.  I searched through a good number of pages and nothing really came up.  Next I search for Catherine Brennan.  Catherine is my legal name and what is used for all official doucments.   The first page of searches were for Catherine Brennans that were professors, real estate agents, lawyers to name a few.  I added IL into the search and this time Catherine Brennan real estate agent as the top search.  I did pause when I saw Illinois Answers Project which reports on the salaries of teacher but this search highlighted an Assistant Superintendent for CCSD 93.  While I would love that salary that was not a positing for me.  There were a few obituaries and I looked through those as my husband's grandma was also named Catherine Brennan.  I then searched for Katie Brennan.  This is my day to day name and what I normally introduce myself as and use on social media.  This search was a bit more promising and I finally popped up about half way down the page on one of my former employers webpage and few more links below was my current employer.  I thought it would be fun to search under my maiden names which was a bit before social media but I did have a small presence.   The search under Catherine Waldron was pretty similar to the search under Catherine Brennan.  I did stop to search a link that was Catherine Brennan with a user name of  mauldronwaldron which made me stop since my sister's name is Maura.  But the link didn't show anything out of the ordinary.  The last search I did was with Katie Waldron.  This search didn't pull up much on me as well.  I then added in the word Redlands.  I went to University of Redlands for undergrad.  When I added that into my search, I was able to see my presence more then beflroe.  There were references to me to my former softball organization as well as my university.  

Image: Personal Photos

InstantCheck

For this digital check on InstantCheck.com, I decided to start with Catherine Brennan.  That is my legal name so all of my phones, houses, rent, etc is under this name and not my nick name Katie.  My inital search pulled up a lot of Catherine Brennans but none of them were me.  Many that have this name were in their 70s, 80s, and 90s.  I even found my husband's grandma in the search.  When I finally found myself some of the information was incorrect.  The biggest one is that my name is spelled Waldrow not Waldron.  I have never lived New York City, Brooklyn, and Goodwell, OK which makes me wonder if someone has been using my social.  When we purchased our current house I was asked to sign a paper saying that I never lived in NY.  This is the correct link as the people associated with me are my husband, parents and siblings and my current living city are correct.

Image: Personal Photo

BlockShopper     

I have searched Blockshopper.com a few times usually looking to see who owned a certain property or check a previous address.  When I search Catherine Brennan, several different links showed up.  I clicked on the IL option and nothing showed.  I found this search a bit interesting as I have owned three properties with my husband.  So I decided to search the address to see what shows up and nothing did.  I even search my husband and nothing showed as well.  

Peek You

The last search that I did was under PeekYou.com.   I took the same approach as my Google searches and decided to look for the four different name combos.  My first search was under Catherine Brennan.  This search came up with similar results and had very little presences.  I was on page 9 when I called it quits.  I then searched under Katie Brennan.  This was a pretty quick search and I found myself quickly.  The picture was an old one from my Facebook page before I switched it to private it.  It was pretty cool to see as it was one of the first pictures that my husband and I took when were dating.  It also has my current city as my first home purchase so much of that information is outdated.  The search for Katie Waldron and Catherine Waldron did not show any presence for myself.  

Reflection

When I become a teacher I decided to hide my social media presence as much as possible.  To access both my Instagram and Facebook account you need my approval.  Almost all of my schools districts have strict guidelines in their employee handbook.  Most state that you can not be friends with current students and have protocols to provide boundaries for both staff and students.  I have always liked to keep some of my life private and only share with my students items that I want.  I did open up some accounts that was more of a professional/teacher account so former students can access me this way but it was not connected with my personal account.  But I am finding that this line is starting to get blurred with my new business adventure.  We need a social media presence in order to get more staff, players and clients.  Most people will do a Google search to research anything new and learn more before working most businesses.  I think that the best part is that because I have such a small digital tattoo that I am able to create it how ever I want to with a better, an older brain who can think through pictures, posts and information better.