Busted for being a creeper 👀

[frazil]

Last week I finally updated my online bio so I decided to google myself to see if it would come up.  (It did! Yay!)  Then I started googling other people I work with to see what comes up for them.  I didnt really do any serious digging, basically just typing names in and scrolling down.

This morning I walk into a meeting with one guy and almost the first thing out of his mouth is “were you googling me this weekend?”  

”uh, no. I mean maybe. Oh right, maybe I did. Uh...”. Doh!

Apparently he has something that alerts him to when people search for him?! And gives him info on who it is like, 40-something year old female from a particular city.  I didnt know that was a thing!   I feel like such a creeper!!  I’ll never google anyone again!

 

[MA_PE]

Deny! Deny! Deny!

Did you use Researchgate or just Google?  I have a paper or two that got posted to the Researchgate site and I often get emails that someone had searched for me.  One needs to pay a subscription fee to get any details on who is doing the searching.  I never paid so I don't get any more info.

I wonder if he had the same thing.

 

[Road Guy]

did he see you on google + or linkedin?  just curious how someone would know?

 

[frazil]

I just googled.  He has some service that tells him every time someone googles his name.  Not google+ or linkedin or any social media thing, just plain google.

 

[Ble_PE]

I just googled.  He has some service that tells him every time someone googles his name.  Not google+ or linkedin or any social media thing, just plain google.

Honestly, that's the weird thing from your interaction. I don't think it's creepy to search for old acquaintances or friends from time to time. 

 

[Road Guy]

but how did he know or suspect it was you?

 

[kevo_55]

Doh!

Still, I didn't even know this kind of "google search" service was even available!

 

[mudpuppy]

Should we start a google fest with everyone on EB?  What's his name????

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

lol, random look-ups from Alaska, Cali, Michigan, Guam, New Zealand...

 

[Road Guy]

So how do we find out this info?  Do you know what he uses to know this? just seems odd to me..

 

[frazil]

Should we start a google fest with everyone on EB?  What's his name????

OMG Yes!!!!  That would be fawesome!  Except, would someone who wants to be notified every time someone googles their name find this funny?

if we do it, it should be at a particular time so he gets a bunch of notifications from all over around the same time

 

[csb]

Set up a facebook event!

 

[Dleg]

That dude sounds like the creeper, not you.  First I think it takes a real weirdo to pay for a service that lets them know when they are googled, and second, it takes a even bigger weirdo to then ask someone if it was them googling him.  

 

[Supe]

Someone who has that service likely has a dual-ply tinfoil hat as it is.  He may enter witness protection if he's suddenly spammed with the searches.  It needs to happen.

 

[Sapper PE LS]

Yeah, seriously, that dude is the creep, not you.  The only other person I know who cares so much about whether somebody is googling her online is my ex...

 

[frazil]

I wonder if maybe he has something to hide?  By calling me out on it he’s pretty effectively stopping me from doing any more searching.  But he also has a fairly high security clearance so he cant be hiding anything too serious, right?  

It looks like I’ll be working with him a lot over the next year or so and in general I like him, though this whole episode has made things a bit awkward.

 

[Supe]

Jilted lovers, for sure.  

 

[MA_PE]

let me know when the big googlefest is.  I'm in.  How would an app know it was a "41 year old female from _______" that googled?  I thought the best they could do was an IP and maybe an address.  You're not the only one at that address (could've been Mr. Fraz, one of the kids, or any guest at your house.  He was bluffing and you fell into the trap.  I concur that he's the weirdo for calling you out on it.

 

[FLBuff PE]

I wonder if maybe he has something to hide?  By calling me out on it he’s pretty effectively stopping me from doing any more searching.  But he also has a fairly high security clearance so he cant be hiding anything too serious, right?  

It looks like I’ll be working with him a lot over the next year or so and in general I like him, though this whole episode has made things a bit awkward.

If you will be working with him a lot, I say just come clean and be honest that you were checking your own info, and got sucked into the rabbit hole of checking others. Sorry, won't happen again, etc. Best to get the weird feelings out of the way now, so you can move forward in a professional way.

 

[Supe]

Or tell him you found his photos on FetLife and were wondering if it was the same person.