I asked ChatGPT to find everything the internet knows about me — and it found more than I expected

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I’ve always had a keen interest in how much information about me is floating around the World Wide Web.Ever since I learned the basic about coding and built my own MySpace page, I’ve left a pretty prominent digital footprint that more than likely includes a ton of publicly available information. Of course, I know about most of my personal and professional milestones. But I’ve always been curious about the data everyone with an internet connection can look up that paints a full picture of who I am, what I do and what I’m into.I went from constantly thinking about that digital deep dive to putting it into action by asking ChatGPT to find every piece of information that could exist about me across the World Wide Web.Not only did it bring up an assortment of details I already know about myself, but it also brought up things I’d forgotten about my professional life, inferred a slew of observations about me and even found someone with the same name as me.A prompt meant for probing my own internet identity

(Image credit: Shutterstock)I generated this prompt with ChatGPT’s assistance to make sure it produced the most comprehensive results possible once I tasked it with analyzing my digital footprint:I want you to investigate what the public internet knows about me.My name is Elton Jones. I am a journalist who writes about AI and video games, and I am associated with Tom's Guide.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.Using publicly available information on the internet, find as much information about me as you reasonably can. Look across news articles, websites, social media profiles, professional pages, public databases, interviews, forums, archived pages, and other publicly accessible sources.Organize your findings into these categories:1. Who I am — basic biographical and professional information.2. My work — jobs, companies, projects, articles, websites, or other professional activity.3. My online presence — social accounts, profiles, websites, and other pages that appear to belong to me.4. My interests — topics, hobbies, communities, or activities associated with me.5. Public history — notable events, articles, interviews, appearances, or other publicly documented activity.6. What you can infer — reasonable conclusions about my interests, career, or online activity based only on the evidence you found. Clearly label these as inferences rather than facts.7. Potentially sensitive information — identify categories of personal information that appear to be publicly exposed, but do not reproduce private details such as home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passwords, financial information, or other highly sensitive personal data.8. Unexpected discoveries — anything particularly surprising or that I might not realize is publicly associated with me.For every significant finding, provide the source and explain how confident you are that it actually refers to me rather than someone with a similar name.Do not assume that two people are the same person simply because their names match. Cross-reference details such as occupation, location, employer, usernames, photographs, and other identifiers before connecting information.At the end, give me a “What the internet knows about me” summary containing:- 5 things that are strongly established- 5 things that are probable but less certain- 5 things I should consider removing, changing, or making less publicly accessibleFocus on information that is genuinely discoverable through public web searches rather than trying to guess private information.The known, forgotten and surprising details ChatGPT uncovered about me