Ot: Personal Information Available to Others

[Karen]

Below is some information that I received from a friend on Facebook that I just thought I would pass along:

"There's a site called People Search | White Pages | Find People | FREE! 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. Remove yourself by searching your name, copy the URL of your page, then go to the bottom right corner of the page and click on the Privacy button to remove yourself. Copy & re-post so your FB friends are aware."

When I entered my name, my address (as well as a map to my house), phone number, people in my household, type of house, value of home, etc. came up. If anybody wanted to pay the fee to join this site, they could then have access to my email address, credit information, etc. I know there are a lot of these sites out there, but if we can remove ourselves one-by-one, I feel we are making progress.

When you copy the URL and then go to the Privacy tab at the bottom you will need to paste the URL, enter your email address and the "code word" at the bottom. If you aren't scrolled all the way to the bottom of the screen you won't think the deletion took place because another "code word" appears; however at the very bottom of the screen there will be a message in red advising you to check your email to confirm the deletion. Once confirmed, you information will be deleted.

Happy Deleting!

 

[Karen]

Sorry, the website didn't come up, the link came up instead. It is spokeo.com.

 

[minirottie]

Thanks for the reminder...I'm going through my various name changes over the years and removing those I hadn't done already

 

[cookingwithdawn]

I tried to go to the website, but it says it does not exist?

 

[esavvymom]

You know, places like this just tick me off. This is one of the many negatives about the WWW- all of our information is out there for anyone to snoop through. WHY?! There is no REAL value - not to US anyway. Just to those who want to "target us" for one reason or another. GRRR. I think only those who I'd call "crooks" would find any useful information in this type of stuff. Funny thing is though- if you go to the Privacy to opt-out they want your email address (why...to update it in their database?) and have an add for an Identity theft service. HA! Oddly enough, they do have mine and my DH's name...but they don't see our kids (good!).

 

[ShelbyMichalek]

Believe it or not - this website has been around for several years! It's not actually new.

Of course that doesn't excuse them for having that kind of personal info - just FYI

 

[Maragib]

And also this is not the only website like this out there. When you put info out there, there will always be someone looking for it. The bad thing is that it is all there in one place. Just so you are aware, just because you delete it from Spokeo does not mean it is not out there on other websites. I saw this the other night too. Creepy how close they could see my house. Mara

 

[Teresa Lynn]

on the other hand, it is good when you are tracking down info on your husband's mistress. there I said it I'm horrible i did use it to find useful info on her!!

 

[minirottie]

on the other hand, it is good when you are tracking down info on your husband's mistress. there I said it I'm horrible i did use it to find useful info on her!!

Oh my

 

[NooraK]

As Shelby mentioned, Spokeo has been around for a while, and there are quite a few other sites out there.

Here's a couple of things to know:
-Anything they have is just collected from other sources in one place. Even if you remove yourself, the information they found is still out there.
-Your name, address and home phone number are probably already in the phone book. These pieces of information can be used to find other stuff.
-Your property records are public information. Home values and such are estimates based on collective information about your neighbors (Spokeo says my house is worth $144K, DH's is worth $203K. We live in the same house).
-Any information that it might have from FB or another social website will only be there if you've made it public. By saying they might have this information, they're marketing themselves to potential customers who want to pay their fee.
-The approximation of your credit score is just that: an approximation. They will not have your credit file on record. Even if they were a company with a legitimate reason to pull your credit report, they would not have the authority to post it like that.

Yes, it can be helpful to remove yourself from these types of sites, it makes the task of finding this information harder to those who might be looking for it. Just remember that they are just a messenger, not the source.

 

[lisasfuncooking]

It really makes you feel violated. Nothing is private anymore. I was once looking for my cousins phone # online because my grandmother was very ill and wanted to get in touch with him. While it did not give me a phone #, it did give me his address and directions. That really bothered me because he was a victim of a gay hate crime. Two men broke into his house and physically beat him until he was near death. He spent a very long time in the hospital. It was posted in the newspapers too. Till this day the men were never found. He later moved because he was so scared and didn't want to be found.
Apparently, that was useless if they could just google his name and find his new address.