Today, I got a glimpse of what the webopticon is really about, besides being my blog. So today, I got an E-mail from my old supervisor at SSI Services. As you may or may not know, I worked on the Knowledge Center project, a system to coordinate emergency responders, when I was there.

Anyway, so today I get an E-mail telling me that the “City of Pittsburgh” (nothing more specific) “noticed” me when I was taking pictures of the water main break last week. They then contacted SSI to “ask what our relationship was”.

The reason that this is so interesting to me is that I never gave my name out–nor did I really talk to anybody at the scene. They either recognized me from my time at SSI when I went to client meetings (the “client” including some of the same emergency responders who were at the water main break), or, more likely, they used Google to look for information on the water main break.

They then likely found my photos on Flickr and noticed themselves, or remembered me being there. Finding my Flickr photos, they got my name, Googled that, found my resume, and then saw that I worked at SSI (phew!). They then must have called SSI to ask what was going on.

What’s also interesting is that my photo of the PEMA/DHS guy at the scene has 10 more views than any other photo of the incident. Was it him who found the photos on Flickr? I’ll never know, but it’s interesting how Google has turned the Internet into a true panopticon (”webopticon”). Viewers can remain anonymous and get a glimpse into my life, to such a level that they can piece together my movements on a given day, and even my past work/jobs. I guess divulging that information is *my* choice, and I’m not trying to explicitly hide, either. There have also been other examples of Google panopticon-ness.