Topic: all your public info in one place

[BillB]

There's a site called Spokeo.com that's a new online USA phone book w/personal information: everything from pics you've posted on FB or web, your approx credit score, home value, income, age, etc. You can remove yourself by searching for yourself on their site to find the URL of your page, then go to the bottom of the page and click on Privacy button to remove yourself. Copy & re-post so your FB friends are aware.

Very Spookeo

Dewey

[BillB]

Fascinating. I figured email would be the most specific identifier and started there. Looking for any sort of detail caused the site to ask for money.

Then I drilled in on my name to find what I recognized as myself (http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=bill%20barnes#Charlotte, NC:1752319417/info – you may have to paste this link into your browser). For free it did give me some spooky information – but it is all public if you’re willing to look through a handful of databases. I don’t know where they got my age although it could be related to how long I’ve been on the title to the house.

I saw my name associated with another address I’m familiar with (http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=bill%20barnes#Charlotte, NC:3749743311/info). There’s much less detail but it does have a nice picture of where I “live.”

Searching on my home phone accurately identified my home location and names but identified the carrier as Bellsouth. There’s been no such company for a couple years and, although I’ve had the number for 25 years; it hasn’t been registered with Bellsouth or ATT since 2003. My cell phone – I’ve had the number since the 20th century – pinpointed my address in the middle of a field 50 miles away. The other demographic info was wrong, too. Thankfully my wife’s prepaid cell phone and my Google number came up blank.

All of this information is publicly available. I have (tried to have) a conspicuous on-line presence (http://zaitech.com) for 15 years and have never tried to restrict access to it. No telling what more information the paid service gives.

Sorry, Dewey. You're not listed by name.

By the way … about that privacy “button.” It’s tiny type way at the bottom of the page between links to “About” and “Contact” and barely more apparent than the copyright.
 
Bill

Just being more conspicuous --> http://zaitech.com

[BillB]

Take a look at the write-up at Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp

And; they say, among other things:

NOTE: By running some trials with Spokeo, we've found that:

    * The information returned to paying customers through Spokeo searches is not very detailed and is often inaccurate.

    * Our repeated trials with requesting the blocking of a particular record through Spokeo's privacy page have found the procedure to be highly questionable: no attempt is made to verify that the person requesting the blocking of a record is the person identified by that record, our efforts have never resulted in a successfully blocked record, and Spokeo's customer service group has not responded to any inquiries. All of this has led some to speculate that one of Spokeo's core businesses is actually the collecting of e-mail addresses.

It might take a few clicks and some stumbling but there's a lot of information about me without using Spokeo or any other collector of other people's work:
http://www.google.com/search?q=bill+barnes+charlotte+country+club+ln&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.whitepages.com/search/FindPerson?site_id=10583&firstname_begins_with=1&firstname=bill&name=barnes&where=charlotte+nc
http://polaris.mecklenburgcountync.gov/website/redesign/ParcelDetailsPhotoReport.asp
http://www.zillow.com/homes/2522-country-club-ln-charlotte-nc_rb/

The fact is that if your life has been stable for a few years, there's a lot of public information about you. It just takes a little bit of effort to find it. You really have to know something before you can get much deeper. All of these searches would have been fruitless if I only knew a name and city. Add an address or phone number and you can cross-reference the rest.

If your life has not been stable, you'll get the same information. You just feel satisfied that much of it is inaccurate such as all those parking tickets and the deadbeat (now ex-) spouse.