Unwanted fame

The internet is undoubtedly a good thing, everyone agrees? Good. It allows everybody to publish everything worldwide and very quickly. Nice for people reporting from oppressed countries or defending themselves against any other kind of injustice. But it also has its downsides. I mean, nothing goes unnoticed. Anybody can 'google' you and not only find old silly guestbook entries of yours but also anything else. If you never speak or act in public there will probably not be much there, but if you ever took part in a conference or wrote a letter to the editor or attended a party where someone thinks they've got to take photos and put them on the web so that everybody in Kasachstan or Finland can see what a smashing party it was - then it's there. Pictures or information that you never intended for publication - at least not for worldwide publication forever... cause that's what happens. Particularily embarassing photos, for example, usually stay online forever. Everybody has forgotten about them, you, too, until that day when you make a new acquaintance and he or she googles you and gets to see all these things and forms an opinion about you based on that. Perhaps you'll get a chance to explain, perhaps not.