5 Aug 2013

Data Baby treasure hunt: Can you find Rebecca Taylor?

Over the last few months, Channel 4 News has been building up a virtual identity. Now it’s time to put her to the test. Can you find Rebecca Taylor and win the prize?

Find the Channel 4 News Data Baby

Back in March, Channel 4 News set up an experimental online identity – the Data Baby – whose every click, search and “like” can forensically analysed by our journalists.

Our “baby” is called Rebecca Taylor – one of most common names for women her age. She’s 27, lives in London and likes photography, travel, music.

Like most 20-somethings, Rebecca is on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and Pinterest. And, remarkably, we’ve managed to get her a job.

Ahead of our Google Hangout at 1pm on Friday 9 August, which will debate whether we’re at a turning point in our attitudes to online privacy and sharing data, Channel 4 News is launching the Data Baby treasure hunt: we want you to find out as much as you can about Rebecca Taylor, and report back.

How to enter
Find out as much as you can about Rebecca Taylor online
Send us everything you've got - either to the email address datababy@itn.co.uk or you can private message us on Facebook or Google+ or DM us a link on Twitter to your work - @datababyc4
We'll let you know who the winner is on Friday 9 August - good luck!

Information about Rebecca that is out there in the public domain include: her previous school and university, her job role and the company she works for – and a certain UK festival she went to a few weeks ago.

We’ve tried to keep our data baby as separate as possible from Channel 4 News, and her ultra-common name won’t make it easy to find her in searches. So we have laid some clues to help, and we’ll be giving out more throughout the week. For starters, her email address is: RebeccaTaylor0603@gmail.com.

The person who finds out the most about Rebecca, or who is the most inventive in searching, will get a free consultation with Igniyte, the digital reputation management company, which helps to manage and control your digital footprint, and online reputation.

Good luck! And get searching.