Searching for your own name on Google Maps might possibly give you a very surprising, or rather disturbing, shock. Little do we realize just how much Google knows about us all.
As reported here on the Inquisitr last week, first there was the whole N-word fiasco , where searching for “n****r house” or “n***a house” pointed a user directly to the iconic home of President Barack Obama. This problem was apparently both apologized for and fixed by the giant search engine company.
Now it seems there’s this new problem, and it’s a little more personal this time.
According to the Mirror , it seems after that incident, people have been experimenting, up to and including typing their own names into the search box on Google Maps .
Alex Hern, a reporter for the Guardian , tried searching for his name on Google Maps and was immediately led to a pub where he plays a card game on an almost weekly basis.
Apparently if you type “Alex Hern” into google maps you get the pub where I play netrunner. The brand is strong
— Alex Hern (@alexhern) May 20, 2015
Hern’s colleague, Samuel Gibbs, tried it and was taken to Imperial College, his old university. In neither case had these people linked widely to those particular spots online, but Google picked up the information anyway.
Have you ever tried googling your name on Google maps? The results might freak you out https://t.co/7wY5uSbgQM
— Read The F*ing Facts (@RTFFacts) May 23, 2015
In the case of the writer, she was immediately led to two different hotels (one of which she is notorious for complaining about online, so no-brainer there), a zoo, and a business address in a suburb of the Spanish town in which she currently resides. Luckily, nothing too revealing. You can see the search in the image above.
While in the cases mentioned above, searching for your name on Google Maps doesn’t give the person’s exact location, some people are very concerned that in their cases, it does.
Searched for my @Twitter name on @Google maps and it showed my exact location #privacy https://t.co/tzBVDgrF3g
— kostas rossoglou (@kostasrossoglou) May 22, 2015
Others got the opportunity to ground their youngsters for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I searched my 14 year old son’s name on google Maps. He is so grounded. pic.twitter.com/ombgcRoFuI
— Morven (@MorvMW) May 20, 2015
Basically how it works is, through various different sources, including social media, Google picks up your approximate or even actual location. By then searching for your name on Google Maps, you discover that the search engine giant has picked up far more information than that.
What does a search for your own name on Google Maps bring up? Try it out and you might be very surprised, horribly shocked, or totally indignant at your lack of privacy these days.
[Image: Screen grab from Google maps]
