The internet is a public space--that is, it is a process of social interaction wherein individual users may connect with other users around the world. But being an individual user in a vast social phenomenon has certain implications; we are unaware--though we have grown up using the internet--of the extent to which others could use internetworking to discover information about us. Everyday, large amounts of people post information about themselves on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace--but by placing private information in a public space, individuals instantly lose control over information that involves them. In a sense, our project is an attempt to exhibit this lack of control...by gathering private information using only the internet, our project demonstrates the availability of private information on the internet. Should we accept the publicness of the internet as absolute and inviolate; or should we reasonably expect there to be privacy controls so that we can pick and choose which information is private versus public? The goal of The Stalker Project is to understand the ways in which the internet blurs the distinction between public and private.
PowerPoint Outline:
Our powerpoint presentation is supposed to be the end-product of our net-stalking:
1) Title Slide (The Internet, Memories, and Public versus Private).
2) Introductions (Who we are and what this project is).
3) Hypothesis/Theme (I.e. the availability of private information on the public space that is the internet...we believe that private information is hardly private when viewed in the context of the internet. Even privacy settings on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are not well-designed to secure private information. Indeed, we are often unaware of just how far our personal information travels and how little control we have over such information).
4) Methods (pipl.com, peoplefinders.com, spokeo.com...two of these sites, peoplefinders/spokeo, charge a small fee for background information on individuals as well as property records and addresses. Pipl is a free website that uses multiple searches to gather information; most of our information was found using this website CHECK IT OUT!).
5) Disclaimer (this project is purely educational...no one should use the information we have discovered in any way that could offend/harm the individual subjects. Everyone should have enough moral sense to leave this project on the password-protected site that Colin provided for us. Any use of this project is prohibited, not by law, but by moral conscience; be respectful and remember that this project is for knowledge/understanding, not being a jerk).
6) Subjects (who are our subjects, why did we stalk them, and how much did we find?).
7) Subject 1: Personal information such as likes/dislikes, hobbies and interests, favorite movies, favorite books, favorite music/artists, pictures, videos, etc.
8) Subject 2: Same as Subject 1...but much, much funnier.
9) Subject 2 Explored: A short overview of subject 2 and the many things we were able to find on him.
10) Summary: what did we learn, how did we learn it, and how can we protect our private information in the context of the internet.
11) The End?
How much private information can be found online? We are attempting to discover exactly how 'public' private information is and how the internet blurs the distinction between the two concepts.