I’m Huge in Germany…

Last week I was passing some time by doing my patriotic duty during these trying financial times.  i.e. I was googling myself. I don’t do this that often but I do have a pretty good idea as to what I can expect. Most the things on the front page I control. I know how much there is out there about me. I have spent a lot of time making sure that if there is something questionable floating around, I remove/block/protect/destroy it, or, more often, make it a joke.

Since I was being VERY patriotic this particular day, I made it all the way to the 8th page where i found this picture:

Okay, I think someone must have used a picture of me (one that I used as a profile picture for a long time) because they liked it.  I’m flattered.  Someone in Germany really can’t get enough of my smile! That is what I thought until I saw this underneath it:

Recherche über die Person Brad Eshbach

For those of you that need translation, here is what it says:

“Research on the person Brad Eshbach”

I’ll let that sink in for a minute. RESEARCH. ON. ME. Is this the Bourne Supremacy?!  Do I actually know Jujitsu?  Will I use my government training for good or revenge?  I click the link and find this image and by image I mean MAP OF MY WHOLE DAMN LIFE!

At this point I am FLIPPING OUT!  Scrambling to translate the German isn’t helping.  All I see is a long page, dissecting nearly everyprofile/page I have on the Internet.  Piecing together my online identity (personal broadcastingas the site calls it) and then hypothesizing on who are my friends, my hobbies, my love life, my aspiration.  Lets be honest, this is kind of scary, very interesting, and a little badass!  Someone spent so much time researching me they were able to discern things such as:

“…a google search to get to the pages of his friends, they are all very active”

“It is particularly clear that he has studied advertising, because his blog is visually very attractive.”

“One also learns something about his hobby - cycling - and that he himself has a wheel assembly.”

Okay, the last one, I have NO idea what that means.  Apparently, i have a wheel assembly which is cool because i have always needed one.

So why would someone do this? Why research a stranger with such detail and why me?

Turn out, the guy/girl/german was doing some sort of project on personal broadcastingas they called it.  They wanted what they could find out about a person based only on what is out there.  Public knowledge, a Colombo for the Web 2.0 days.  I’ll let them explain. warning, these translations are HORRIBLE.  If you speak German and what to help me out, please email me!

“For the research project “as we may communicate” I chose a person on the Internet that has a great presence, and then examine what the “prices” and benefits are. After an initial search on myspace.com and on the German studivz.net platform and a search on google.com and on last.fm, I will find it. I am looking for a conscious person whose name on the Internet is also their real name and is used on multiple platforms. Brad Eshbach falls on me because he is a crazy photo for his profile at last.fm “

A profile picture made me the subject of reasearch.  To be exact, a profile picture on last.fm. A picture that is 3 years old and of me making a fairly lewd gesture to my friend Ryan.

There is also a second page that talks about my trip to Europe and what tools people like me use to “broadcast” their lives:

“What equipment requires a modern globe-trotter today? And what is the course of the trip? What communication platforms does Brad use?”

You can see the full pages here, here, & here.

Like I said in the beginning, I know what is out there about me, I know what is available and what is private. But, when it is all displayed in one place, when it is removed from the pages of a google search and laid out as cold hard facts, it is kind of… scary.

Im glad I found the page and would love to talk to the person who wrote it.  It was actually published over a year ago but the page it is on is still active.  If anyone knows how I can get in contact with them let me know!

Watch what you put out there guys.  Who knows what I will find on page 15?!