There’s a wealth of information available online, but just how much can you find out about someone by surfing the web? As it turns out, there’s a lot you can find. Maybe too much. This past week I stalked my DCI professors (Professor Mary Abdoney and Professor Elizabeth Teaff), online. And yeah, I went hard. I was curious about the extent of information online that implied a lack of privacy developed on the web. While there were certainly things I struggled to find or could not find without paying for special programs, what I did find floating freely on the web was incredibly telling.
Let’s begin with Professor Abdoney. Before intensively researching her, I did not know a whole lot about her. I could tell that she was married and lived in Lexington, VA. Now, post-stalking, it feels like I could tell the main components of her life story. Professor Abdoney grew up in sunny Tampa, Florida. She attended high school at H.B. Plant High School before heading off for college at the University of Florida, staying relatively close to home. She then pursued further education at multiple institutions before eventually coming to Washington and Lee University, where she now works as a librarian and associate professor (including my DCI class!). While none of this information is entirely surprising, what I did not know about Professor Abdoney is that she has a little bit of a rom-com type story going on in her life. Her husband, Ned Norland, also works at W&L in the IT department. After finding their remarkably cute wedding website (they tied the knot on September 29, 2012 at the Castle House in Lexington Virginia; Professor Abdoney wore a tea-length white dress with very cute green heels), I’ve discovered a lot about Professor Abdoney and her husband. For example, I now know that Professor Abdoney’s favorite sparkling white wine is Cava (or was in 2012 at least) and that she used to be a successful ballerina, dancing in three productions with the Tampa Ballet. I also found that Professor Abdoney was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority and that every other weekend for four years, she drove to Chapel Hill, North Carolina from Lexington to be with Ned. And that Ned drove up from Chapel Hill to Lexington on the other weekends to be with Professor Abdoney. I thought this was very cute. Dedication at its finest. After scrolling through Professor Abdoney’s twitter and Facebook, I learned even more about her interests and political associations. I found that she has a son, often sews, and enjoys gardening. From her tweets regarding our current republican president, I inferred that she leans toward the more liberal side of the political spectrum. She also appears to support LGBTQ+ rights and feminism, supporting this notion of a liberal political affiliation. However, I cannot be totally sure of this claim. I would imagine that Professor Abdoney’s filter bubble likely includes multiple academic resources, gardening products, sewing products, and perhaps even some ads for Cava. In general, after reading about how our digital presence aligns with the advertisements and online suggestions we are shown in Cathy O’Neil’s “Propaganda Machine: Online Advertising” chapter of her book, I would imagine that what I have found online about Professor Abdoney largely reflects how businesses and advertising agencies also view her. Thus, her filter bubble would reflect her interests and past purchases, which very likely may include fun sewing materials or new gardening tools.
My search on Professor Teaff also revealed interesting characteristics of her personality, although I did not find nearly as much information on Professor Teaff as I did for Professor Abdoney. I found that Professor Teaff attended Fulton-Montgomery Community College before pursuing extensive levels of further education. After receiving her Masters of Library and Information Service from the University of South Carolina, Professor Teaff settled in Lexington, VA, currently residing at 37 Whiteside Road, Rockbridge Baths, VA 24473. In Lexington, Professor Teaff works at Washington and Lee University, where one of her activities as a Librarian and Associate Professor is teaching my DCI Class. However, there was much more to uncover about Professor Teaff than solely her educational and professional background. One of my most intriguing discoveries was how much Professor Teaff loves spiders. There were oodles and oodles of spider-themed posts on Professor Teaff’s Facebook, from fun spider-themed treats to actual, incredibly scary, real-life spider photos. Professor Teaff also appears to enjoy dying her hair in bright colors, as every picture I encountered on the web of Professor Teaff featured a fun new color. I also found that Professor Teaff is a huge Buckeye’s fan, and has supported OSU at multiple football games (OH-IO, am I right?). She also saw Hamilton in New York, which I imagine to be very cool. Based off of Professor Teaff’s Facebook, it seems to me that she is also liberal-minded in regards to political affiliation. She includes some posts supporting LGBTQ+ rights on her facebook, which would tend to align her with the Democratic Party. However, this one piece of information alone is not nearly enough to conclude decisively her political affiliation – it is simply my best guess. My assumption is that Professor Teaff’s filter bubble likely also includes a wealth of academic resources (specifically in regards to being a librarian), spider-themed merchandise, and perhaps Ohio State University gear as those are her expressed interests online.
After completing this exercise, it has become clear to me that there is truly an endless supply of supposed private information to be found online. If I had spent even more time researching or paid for additional programs, I have no doubt that I would have discovered even more pertinent information on my professors. While it was fun to dig around on the web and find interesting anecdotal facts about my professors, I cannot help but consider the implications of the copious amounts of private information available to the masses. Anyone and everyone can access such information, which is a rather scary thought. The idea that someone could have such a holistic picture of my identity before ever meeting me in person frightens me. While some information could be embarrassing, there are also dangerous ramifications inherent in this fact. Stalkers, human traffickers, and many others can easily discover your address, phone number, and other confidential personal information. Knowing this, I plan to enable Google Alerts and other security measures to protect my personal information to the best of my ability. It has become clear to me that as the amount of information online increases, it is important to take security measures to ensure safety of private information.
Thank you for reading!
Works Cited:
O’Neil, Cathy. “Propaganda Machine: Online Advertising.” Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, Crown, 2016, pp. 68–83.