It's amazing how much personal information is available on the internet.
I learned that lesson almost 18 years ago in a beginner journalism course when my professor at the University of North Texas gave us a list of website resources and assignments to find people's addresses, phone numbers and other identifying information that would make it possible for us to reach out to them for future articles.
Google and Facebook alone are often enough to provide the name of your closest family members, where you've worked, what you support.
Want to know how much information is out there about yourself?
Go into an incognito browser window and search for yourself on your favorite search engine.
I've had sources who mumbled their names or even attempted to emphasize a pseudonym while barely mentioning their real name who told me enough details about their lives that I was able to use those search engines to verify their garbled name with the correct spelling.
Privacy, unfortunately, doesn't mean the same thing today as it did before the internet was available in everyone's back pocket. There are steps you can take to limit the information most people can find online.
However, all it takes is one friend mentioning your child's name on a public social media post for that child's information to be out there. If you own a home in Texas and haven't been able to ask your county to remove your address from the publicly accessible database, anyone who knows how to spell your name can find out what property you own.
Public officials can request voter information to conduct polls via text message.
Because of how challenging it can be to protect our data, it might be best to be aware of the potential ways personal information can be accessed and to be equipped with digital protection wherever possible.
The issue of personal data being accessible online is unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.
Know what's out there, and know how people can use that information.
Abigail Allen is the Editor & Publisher of the Post-Signal. She can be reached at aallen@postsignal. com.
OPINION
