Teacherslookup.com & Data Protection legislation

gaiscioch

katydid wrote: »

They can find SOME people. Let's keep it accurate, please.

Most people here (at least). Let's keep it accurate, please.

katydid

gaiscioch wrote: »

Most people here (at least). Let's keep it accurate, please.

We're not talking about here. We're talking in general, and YOU were using "your" in a general sense.

It is the case for many people here, and not the case for others, so your generalisation is misleading

Just out of interest, I made up six random names, typical Irish names that could be anyone anywhere: Mary O’Brien, Ann O’Sullivan, Patrick Fitzgerald, John Murphy, Deirdre McCarthy, Michael Burke. I don't know anyone called these names, but I looked them up on the TC website and Googled them.

Mary O' Brien - 24 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google.
Ann O'Sullivan - 4 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on
Patrick Fitzgerald - 2 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google
John Murphy - 20 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google
Deirdre McCarthy - 1 entry on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google
Michael Burke - 3 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google

Isn't it strange that other people find their own name straight away???

beveragelady

Has anybody been contacted by the TC yet? I want to wait to hear from them before I go shouting the odds to the Data Protection Commission. I'd like to know if they've begun responding to complaints, at least then I'd know that they were making some effort to deal with it.

rainbowtrout

gaiscioch wrote: »

That's because, as I said in the op, you need to search for your name precisely as it is recorded by the Teaching Council- "Seán O'Leary" will not find you if your name is recorded as "Seán Michael O'Leary".





Middle initial missing from your initial TC website search, there you go! Much more importantly, what happens when you do a simple google search for your name (both with, and without, quotes)? After all, how many people are going to go to what is still a barely-known website to look for you? People who don't know your profession but know your name can now, for the first time, find out both your profession and your place of employment (and, so far, a couple of other pieces of information) from doing a simple google search. That is what is different now.

No, they can find out that a person called gaiscioch is registered as a teacher. It doesn't mean that they know it's you specifically.

vamos!

I don't use Facebook or Twitter. This site comes up when I google my name. The next result is my school webpage where I am listed in my subject departments. I am also listed in a previous school. If you go to images I am in the first few pictures with the Transition Years, at the school open afternoon etc. There is little to be found about my private life on the web but it is full of pictures, mentions in articles etc related to my professional life. It is not a secret. I am a teacher and am fully registered. I have nothing to hide.

gaiscioch

katydid wrote: »

We're not talking about here. We're talking in general, and YOU were using "your" in a general sense.

It is the case for many people here, and not the case for others, so your generalisation is misleading

Your claim that only "some" teachers are affected by this breach of data is misleading if the experience here is indicative. What's your source for "some"? (and if a single teacher had their data taken and published like this it's one breach too many).

gaiscioch

rainbowtrout wrote: »

No, they can find out that a person called gaiscioch is registered as a teacher. It doesn't mean that they know it's you specifically.

Even if your name is very common it won't take long to narrow it down. For teachers without a common name - tough, it seems.

Again, the right of a private firm, based outside Irish law, to take control of data about Irish teachers from the state organisation which was entrusted with it and to then publish it remains the issue here. No amount of "this doesn't affect me so it's not important" will detract from this decidedly pernicious intrusion on privacy.

katydid

gaiscioch wrote: »

Even if your name is very common it won't take long to narrow it down. For teachers without a common name - tough, it seems.

Again, the right of a private firm, based outside Irish law, to take control of data about Irish teachers from the state organisation which was entrusted with it and to then publish it remains the issue here. No amount of "this doesn't affect me so it's not important" will detract from this decidedly pernicious intrusion on privacy.

I just added to my last post; I did a little experiment on Google with six random names. All with entries in the TC register. No links to this other website on a Google search, at least not on page one. I didn't go further.

It would take someone pretty determined to search for a person's name on Google in most cases. As you say, if you have an unusual name, it's easier. But if you have an unusual name - as I have - it's easier to track you down anyway.

Nobody is denying that it is intrusive and unethical, but you are making it out as if it's the norm. The more I look into it, the more it seems to be quite rare.

katydid

gaiscioch wrote: »

Your claim that only "some" teachers are affected by this breach of data is misleading if the experience here is indicative. What's your source for "some"? (and if a single teacher had their data taken and published like this it's one breach too many).

Please look at the post you replied to here; I added to it, with a random search of typical Irish names.
Of course if a single teacher's name is abused it's wrong, but you are giving the impression it's the norm. It's not. I have yet to find one person, either in the random list I made up, or in a search of people known to me, where this link appears.

Graham

katydid wrote: »

Michael Burke - 3 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google

Isn't it strange that other people find their own name straight away???

I'll take the last name on your list. BRB

Graham

katydid wrote: »

Michael Burke - 3 entries on TC website. No link to the teacherslookup site on google

Are you absolutely sure because it took me about 4 seconds to find this:

katydid

Graham wrote: »

Are you absolutely sure because it took me about 4 seconds to find this:

Absolutely sure. I get a hit for some auctioneer in Ballinrobe. Second entry is for some guy selling whistles. Third entry is for LinkedIn

It does say at the end of the page: "Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe"

(Sorry, don't know how to do screenshots)

Graham

katydid wrote: »

Absolutely sure. I get a hit for some auctioneer in Ballinrobe. Second entry is for some guy selling whistles. Third entry is for LinkedIn

It does say at the end of the page: "Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe"

(Sorry, don't know how to do screenshots)

katydid - There is no link to the teacherslookup site on google for Michael Burke.

Graham - Here's a screenshot of the link to Michael Burke on teacherslookup from Google

QED

rainbowtrout

Graham wrote: »

katydid - There is no link to the teacherslookup site on google for Michael Burke.

Graham - Here's a screenshot of the link to Michael Burke on teacherslookup from Google

QED

Sorry Graham, I'd have to agreed with katydid. I did the search and it gave me the exact same result as she described. Screenshot attached.

EDIT: To get the result of your search I had to add the words Ireland and Teacher, which would mean the result is moot if I already know the person is a teacher. I couldn't get the same result just by adding Ireland or by adding teacher to the name

Graham

To see if a specific name is in the Google index for teachers lookup:



The position of the name in the Google rankings will change over time, this search shows if Google has the pages/names indexed.

aunt aggie

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Sorry Graham, I'd have to agreed with katydid. I did the search and it gave me the exact same result as she described. Screenshot attached.

EDIT: To get the result of your search I had to add the words Ireland and Teacher, which would mean the result is moot if I already know the person is a teacher. I couldn't get the same result just by adding Ireland or by adding teacher to the name

I got the same result for this name. Including teacher and ie, gave teacherlookup as the first link. Searching just the name and ie provided the same results as katydid and rainbowtrout.

When searching my own name (not a common name at all), a link to teacherlookup came up on first page of results. But it was a link to a teacher with a completely different name. Few days ago, I clicked into it to see if there was any info on me. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and there was a link to the previous page, with all my details. But google didn't provide a link to that page of the website through its search engine. Very strange.

As long as it doesn't show info about my subjects or personal info then I'm not too bothered. But as a sub teacher, I don't have a school listed.

gaiscioch

I've decided (predictably ) to try the rest of Katy's names on Google to see if they come up on that US-based website:

Mary O'Brien

Anne O'Sullivan

Patrick Fitzgerald

John Murphy

and

Deirdre McCarthy

All of them appear on Google linked to that website, although "Patrick Fitzgerald" appears as "Eamonn Patrick Fitzgerald" and "Adrian Patrick Fitzgerald".

Is there a way we can find out how many names that website has?

rainbowtrout

Graham wrote: »

To see if a specific name is in the Google index for teachers lookup:



The position of the name in the Google rankings will change over time, this search shows if Google has the pages/names indexed.

But wasn't the initial argument that a teacher put their name into google and came up with the teacher lookup link? You're putting the name into google with teacher lookup as part of the search term. Of course you are going to get that website back if that's what you are searching for.

I've just googled 15 different teachers from my school. A few of them have unusual names, double barrell etc. Not one returned teacher look up link. Almost all returned rate my teachers, our school website and various other bits and pieces depending on whether or not they had been in the local newspaper or have a linked in account etc.

Graham

gaiscioch wrote: »

Is there a way we can find out how many names that website has?

19000+ pages when I last checked.

I've deliberately avoided using any links that contain the site name as it may boost google rankings for the pages in question.

aunt aggie

gaiscioch wrote: »

I've decided (predictably ) to try the rest of Katy's names on Google to see if they come up on that US-based website:

Mary O'Brien

Anne O'Sullivan

Patrick Fitzgerald

John Murphy

and

Deirdre McCarthy

All of them appear on Google linked to that website, although "Patrick Fitzgerald" appears as "Eamonn Patrick Fitzgerald" and "Adrian Patrick Fitzgerald".

Is there a way we can find out how many names that website has?

I think other posters are searching straight from the google homepage. You are searching from the teacherlookup website itself. That's why we're getting different results.

Yes, the details of these people are available on the site but someone who doesn't know they are a teacher won't be able to find the link as easily.

Graham

rainbowtrout wrote: »

But wasn't the initial argument that a teacher put their name into google and came up with the teacher lookup link?

If you read back through my posts on the subject you'll see that was not the point I was making/refuting.

There are 19,000+ pages on the .ie section of teachers look up in Googles indexes.

Googles rankings algorithms change the positions/visibility of those pages on a continuous basis. Once the page containing your details is in the Google index, it is likely to appear in basic searches over time.

I've no vested interests here, no axe to grind other than I think individuals should know how to check what information (about them) is being made publicly searchable.

EDIT: I stand corrected, there are now 54,800 pages indexed. The number of pages has almost tripled over the last two days.

beveragelady

rainbowtrout wrote: »

But wasn't the initial argument that a teacher put their name into google and came up with the teacher lookup link? You're putting the name into google with teacher lookup as part of the search term. Of course you are going to get that website back if that's what you are searching for.

I've just googled 15 different teachers from my school. A few of them have unusual names, double barrell etc. Not one returned teacher look up link. Almost all returned rate my teachers, our school website and various other bits and pieces depending on whether or not they had been in the local newspaper or have a linked in account etc.

As I've said before on this thread, when I put my name with no quotation marks and no middle initial straight into google the very first result is the teacherslookup.com site. Previously a google search of my name brought nothing at all that was related to me.

If this isn't the case for every name that's fair enough, but I'm getting tired of the insinuation that either some of us are making things up or the problem isn't universal so we should get over it.

Again, some people have no reason to keep a low profile, some have very good reasons.

Still nothing from the TC, by the way.

r93kaey5p2izun

The site must be continuously gathering information still. I wasn't on it a few days ago, now I am.

rainbowtrout

beveragelady wrote: »

As I've said before on this thread, when I put my name with no quotation marks and no middle initial straight into google the very first result is the teacherslookup.com site. Previously a google search of my name brought nothing at all that was related to me.

If this isn't the case for every name that's fair enough, but I'm getting tired of the insinuation that either some of us are making things up or the problem isn't universal so we should get over it.

Again, some people have no reason to keep a low profile, some have very good reasons.

Still nothing from the TC, by the way.

No insinuation beveragelady, but I've done loads of searches at this stage and have failed to bring up any teacher profiles from that site in the search results.

katydid

gaiscioch wrote: »

I've decided (predictably ) to try the rest of Katy's names on Google to see if they come up on that US-based website:

[

What US-based website? We're talking about doing a Google search.

When I click your links to those names, what it says in the google search box is "site: ie.teacherslookup.com Mary O'Brien"

What I did was simply type "Mary O'Brien" into Google, and I get links to LinkedIn, to a career coach, a Wikipedia entry and a FB page
https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22Mary+O%27Brien%22

katydid

Graham wrote: »

katydid - There is no link to the teacherslookup site on google for Michael Burke.

Graham - Here's a screenshot of the link to Michael Burke on teacherslookup from Google

QED

I'll correct it; There is no link to the teacherslookup site on MY VERSION OF Google for Michael Burke. I used google.ie
https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22Michael+Burke%22

katydid

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Sorry Graham, I'd have to agreed with katydid. I did the search and it gave me the exact same result as she described. Screenshot attached.

That's the one...

gaiscioch

katydid wrote: »

What US-based website? We're talking about doing a Google search.

The Google search links to the US-based website, the one named in the op that we're talking about, which has got the data from the Teaching Council.

teacherslookup.com = based in Washington state, USA (and thus beyond the control of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, thus making its location very important).

katydid

gaiscioch wrote: »

The Google search links to the US-based website, the one named in the op that we're talking about, which has got the data from the Teaching Council.

teacherslookup.com = based in Washington state, USA (and thus beyond the control of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, thus making its location very important).

So you are doing a direct search in google.ie?

A search like this? https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22Michael+Burke%22

Graham

katydid wrote: »

I'll correct it; There is no link to the teacherslookup site on MY VERSION OF Google for Michael Burke. I used google.ie

You must be a special case katydid and as you've already said you aren't worried about your information appearing on teachers lookup then there's probably nothing I can help you with.

If you're curious, try some of the links gaiscioch posted here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=96659352&postcount=138