Yesterday, one of my friends posted a warning on Facebook about www.spokeo.com. It's a "phone book" which when I typed my name in, provided the road I used to live on, the number of people in my household, my marital status, hobbies, my home's approximate worth, my approxinate income, and other personal things. For a few extra dollars, users could search for my exact address, phone number and even my credit score.
What?!?!
I clicked on the privacy link at the bottom of the page and removed my listing, but this service gathers its information from other sources on the web and uses the various information to compile comprehensive "reports" on unaware inidivduals like us. So I may have removed myself from this one resource, but the information is still out there.
So, let's take today to share information about information we may not want weird websites to share. (Got that?) Spokeo is definitely something I feel I should warn you about. What do you think you should warn others about?
xoxo,
Suzanne
About Me
- Suzanne Casamento
- Author of Fingerprints, Choosing Tally, and All the Moments in Between. Tweet me @suzannecasamento
That's scary. I'll report back.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly I just put in my name and I don't exist. OK with me!
ReplyDeleteI checked mine out last week and most of the info was wrong. So do I care? Not sure.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of software out there that does this, sadly.
ReplyDeletePollution. Not just the stuff that comes out of cars and coal burning plants, but the little stuff that surrounds us in everyday materials (plastics, flame retardants, nanotechnologies...). Take BPA, a hormone distrupting chemical. Regulators set "safe levels of exposure", yet BPA has different, but equally horrifying effects at both low levels and high levels. There is no such thing as a safe level of exposure.
ReplyDeleteWe are poisoning ourselves and our planet.
Thanks for the heads up. My name was in there, but half the stuff (including my town) was wrong. It listed my home as worth 1 million dollars!!! WHAT?!
ReplyDeleteMy name is so common that these search sites don't really worry me. And some of the info on me, and others I've seen, is not accurate. (It listed my friend's husband as Asian, but he's not. Funny though.) It does spook me that they showed my Pandora music selections.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Simply V, pollution is something we should be constantly warned about. It seems like it was a hot topic a couple years ago, but I feel like it's fading out a little bit. I hope I'm wrong.