Who has not ever searched for their name on Google to see what results the search engine returns, well, that practice is called egosurfing, search for yourself on the Internet, images, search engine results, magazines, forums, databases, etc.
We tell you What is egosurfing and what is it for? since it is something that we all do and of great interest to cybercriminals. Do you want to train in this area? You can do it with Master in Cybersecurity, Ethical Hacking and Offensive Security in EIP.
What is it for?
He egosurfing it helps us find information about our profiles social networks, websites, blogs, social networks, etc. Reviewing this information will allow us alert if something has been published without our consent, or that could harm us or there is visible data that we do not want to be shown.
As we see the utility This practice is much more useful than it initially seems, although it may seem somewhat egocentric and vain, it is the best way to control the image that is being shown of us on the internet, our digital presence, in addition to being able to exercise our rights BOW (Access, Rectification, Cancellation and Opposition) or right to forgot (right to erase personal data).
How to do egosurfing?
We start from Google search engine, the easiest thing is to search for our name in the search box and see the results it produces. In addition, we can move through the different Google tabs to see if there are images or videos related to us.
Another option is with Google Alerts, is a tool that sends us email notifications about topics that interest us.
We have to access the address https://www.google.es/alerts and configure search that we want to control, our name and surname for example, and enter the email where we want the notices to arrive.
We can also make egosurfing on social media, the way is practically identical to searching for ourselves on Google, we will search for our username, first and last name, or our personal brand and we review the results to see what is published about us.
Although it is relatively easy to control our image on social networks, the chaos It comes when our friends or acquaintances, tag in your publications or they mention thus losing control if we are not alert by habitually egosurfing.
Reflection
Although, as we have said, searching for ourselves on the Internet may seem somewhat egocentric, we have to know what image appears of us on the Internet.
There are more and more companies that search through social networks and search engines to see the results about their candidates, in addition to controlling in this way that they have not impersonated us or that data appears that we do not want to appear or that could be greedy for the cybercriminals. Safety, prevention and above all, common sense.
