Eric Squair’s blog

This is my first blog entry on my new domain. As I say in the ‘About’ page, this blog is about my work. I have left the default ‘Hello world!’ entry that WordPress gives us.

I started a personal blog more than five years ago, but realized that I didn’t really want to have those particular entries associated with my name. Not that there was anything shocking (or particularly interesting) revealed, but it felt like I was invading my own privacy with the writing, if that makes any sense. So I deleted my old Nucleus blog (it was the best one written in PHP at the time…) but it’s still partly available here. [Warning: it's dull]

Anyone who has Googled their name knows that the management of our online identities is getting more and more complex, and harder to control.

• A friend was approached by the Los Angeles police, who tried to recruit him as an agent provocateur because of his political work. He talked about it on a discussion board (this was 1996) and it’s still one of the top Google results associated with his name.
• Another (American) friend gave an interview to a newspaper after the 2004 US election, questioning if staying in the US for another four years was all that appealing. She got death threats, and it’s still the top result associated with her name.
• A law prof I spoke with recently said she is completely baffled by her students’ complete lack of concern for their record of early-20′s debauchery documented (and preserved) on the interweb. She is not quite sure what they are thinking. I said it’s the ones who don’t show up (and thus either have something to hide or no friends) you have to worry about.

So I start this blog very aware that these words will be available, and associated with my name, for many years to come. With any luck, they will be buried many pages deep in the search results from whatever has replaced Google by that time.

[Update: May 2008: Then there's this example of your Google past following you around: "Andrew Feldmar, 66, a Vancouver psychotherapist used LSD 30 years ago and published his story. He has not used illegal drugs since but after a US/CA Customs web search found his story online in summer of 2006, he can no longer enter the US.

Feldmar said, “I should warn people that the electronic footprint you leave on the Net will be used against you. It cannot be erased.” Read more here (thetyee.ca)

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