Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint
First a caveat. I love the Internet. But I’m committing Internet suicide. Puritans may argue what I’m doing doesn’t quite qualify; it’s actually putting my online presence on life support. I guess they’re right. Be that as it may, I put my actions down to one overwhelming reason. I need to be in control. The way things are, I’m not. Allow me to put that into perspective.
Ranjit Nair is chief executive at Germin8.com, a big-data analytics firm. By way of example, he told me of how companies like his get routine requests from public relations (PR) firms to mine information on where a journalist’s inclination lies. With information of that kind on hand, they know what pitch to make and to whom.
Then there are firms who ask the Internet landscape be trawled to identify people who speak well of them. Once identified, these people can be incentivized to behave as brand ambassadors.
The human resource (HR) function at large corporations now deploys trawlers to pick up as much as they can about a potential recruit. This data is used to scrutinize candidates. That is why, oftentimes, before a candidate has appeared for an interview, the interviewer’s mind is made up.
Practically everything is out there. My political affiliations, my religious beliefs, people I agree with, brands I like and dislike. “The lines between our online and offline presence have blurred,” Nair says.
These are not unusual activities. But it makes me uncomfortable. By way of analogy, he describes mob behaviour in the offline world. After an attack, they disappear into the aftermath. Contrary to public perception, in the online world, there is no anonymity. Each footprint can be tracked.
There are a few ways to look at what this means:
• Resign and accept neither privacy nor controls are in your hands.
• Be afraid and stay away.
• Get proactive and take control of your online identity.
To my mind, the first is a cop-out, the second a compromise and the third pragmatic. That is why I’ve opted for the third. The question is how do you implement it?
Step 1: Limit social media
The sound thing, Nair argues, is to accept that social media is impossible to ignore. “So, I don’t post anything I may be embarrassed to talk about in the offline world.”
But a former colleague Rohin Dharmakumar and I have a rigid stance. We chose to delete our Facebook accounts. Dharmakumar takes his privacy seriously. I find status updates, numbers of likes, comments and cute baby pictures a waste of time.
Then there’s the whole razzmatazz about LinkedIn and how it can help advance my career. While there may be some merit, I find the numbers of people who want to connect with me intimidating. Personal experience also suggests the kind of offers that have come my way on LinkedIn indicates either of two things. Recruiting firms are incompetent, or I have an incompetent resume. I’m still to come to terms with why I maintain a cursory presence on it.
As for Twitter, I don’t want to give it up because I think it is a handy tool to discover useful links from interesting people I follow. But there are tweets I’ve posted in the past I’m embarrassed to admit originated from me. To ensure it doesn’t work against me, I deploy TweetDelete (www.tweetdelete.net). This application deletes my posts from the past at intervals of my choice.
Then there is the big daddy of them all—Google Plus. It sits insidiously and I’m still to figure how the heck did I get there? But I don’t want anything to do with this networking site either. Fortunately, opting out is easy without damaging other experiences on Google.
Early adopters may have created accounts on sites that don’t exist anymore. I recommend deleting your identities from there as well. It can be tedious.http://justdelete.me is a good place to begin identifying all of where you have a presence. It offers pointers on how to get out of it. That’s also when it hits you that there are places you can’t get out of—like Pinterest. By signing up with them, you have signed away your rights to delete. You can deactivate, but your data remain on their servers.
Step 2: Create a personal website
First question: Why have a personal website?
• I don’t want to be part of masses on social media.
• I want to be in control of the impression I convey online.
• I believe in a few things, personal and professional. I want all of those values conveyed in a distinct, ad-free environment, in a voice that is uniquely mine.
• My identity ought not to be tied to my workplace. I need to future-proof myself and this is a tool I can deploy to my advantage—even if it were just to showcase my resume.
Is building a personal website intimidating? No. It isn’t.
Some research and conversations with friends in the know later, the toss-up was between WordPress (www.wordpresss.com) and SquareSpace(www.squarespace.com). I chose the latter.
Why? Think of it as the difference between Android and Apple. Android offers freedom. Apple offers convenience. But what use is the freedom if I don’t know what to do with it? I’d much rather take the convenience and get my job done.
I’m no designer or developer, neither can I afford one. I’m just a regular bloke who wants a classy site optimized for the desktop, tablet and smartphone. SquareSpace allows me do just that with drag and drop options, and a personalized domain name thrown in. Their customer support is super as well and each time I pinged them for help, they’ve responded in minutes.
WordPress is good if you have time on hand and patience to tinker. A few years ago, I may have. But right now, I don’t.
Step 3: Get a personalized email address
For much the same reasons articulated above.
Pay and get an ad-free, customized experience. I don’t want any email service provider serving me ads on the back of some algorithm analysing what kind of emails hit my inbox. Zoho Mail (www.zoho.com) is among the better ones.
After trying it out though, I settled on hosting my email on Google. This, after I had grandly announced to Dharmakumar I’m settling on Zoho. Like I said earlier, he’s big on privacy and thinks their policies less intrusive. I agree. But three things tilted my decision in favour of Google. The interface is the one I’m familiar with, I can pay in Indian currency, and the setup was easier. That said, customer support for both are outstanding. But I must confess the friendly Irish accent of the gentleman who called me from Google’s call centre in Ireland to clarify some doubts I had, which flummoxed me for a bit.