Should Spokeo.com be allowed to do this?

[Moonlight 7,279]

Well?

 

Let me explain...

 

Here's the site:

 

http://www.spokeo.com

 

 

If you search yourself up or any of your family members' names up, you can get their personal information.

 

If you pay a certain amount of money a month, you can find out where they live, their phone number, and a bunch of other things.

 

Should they even be allowed to do this?

 

I found my mother on there.

 

Go to "privacy" on the bottom of a page, click "opt out" and enter the instructions.

 

Personally, they shouldn't be allowed to do this..it's just way too much information.

 

Opinions?

 

[Harmonic Revelations 8,833]

I believe that what they're doing is wrong. Sadly, I'm almost sure that what they're doing is also entirely legal. In this day and age, trying to have privacy on the internet is like trying to be a scuba diver without touching water.

[Retro*Derpy 3,085]

Heh, I was going through the terms and conditions when it says things like "I agree to be billed am additional $23 each 6 months and being caught misusing the information will result in a lawsuit and possible jail time"

It's what I see, as a way for the government to catch amateur identity thefts. I wouldn't worry about it.

[ReGen 1,466]

I looked myself up and there was nothing. Clearly, this is broken and must not be allowed on the internet until this is fixed.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,374]

Whoa, that is a bit creepy. Not sure how I feel about that, though I hardly socialize with anyone so I don't think anyone would come looking for me.

 

 

Or would they? Yep, this is creepy. Like Retro said though, it is probably used for important reasons, as misusing is punishable, or at least, I hope. Yep, this is creepy.

 

For the record, I did a search and I am on there. :|

Edited August 26, 2013 by Kyoshi

[Moonlight 7,279]

I looked myself up and there was nothing. Clearly, this is broken and must not be allowed on the internet until this is fixed.

I forgot to mention that you have to look up the name your house/apartment is in.

 

So...your parents' names pretty much. You should be able to find something that way. xD

[GoneForeverBye 184]

Say, is this USA-exclusive? I tried looking myself up, but I'm nowhere to be found. Well, whatever the reason, I'm not a fan of this. It's just... ugh... it creeps me out thinking about it.

 

Also, what's this bull crap about "pay us, and you'll get their address and number lol"? That's just going too far, in my opinion.

[Nah 3,181]

Ugh, I hate sites that are like that, invasion of privacy, but this is the internet, where privacy doesn't matter anymore and everybody has to be in everybody's face.

[Mephala 2,633]

I'm Canadian, so for now I am safe if it is USA only. Hopefully it doesn't spread here. It's already simple enough to find where someone lives, and they're just feeding the fire for unsafe Internet usage. People complain about stalkers and creeps every day, but by using technology such as this they're just putting themselves up there for grabs. Are there limitations to age, at least? Like, you have to be a legal adult to be found?

 

Edit: Oh god I noticed this testimonial at the bottom.

WTFFFFF not what I want to hear.

 

Also, I love how if you go to "Sign Up" it says it's safe to join. Funny joke, guys, funny joke.

Edited August 26, 2013 by PDS.avi

[Nobody Special 210]

Apparently I don't exist... or do I? This is the best feeling ever, but no, I don't think what they are doing is right, but if you go and put all your information on the web somewhere *cough* facebook *cough* it is sure to be found and compiled into a list. Really, they are just taking what you had said or written before, and making it into a list. That's just my theory.

[Aura 120]

They say that the information they collect is publicly available.  They collect information from phonebooks as well as aggregate info from methods similar to Google and Bing.  All I can really do is shrug my shoulders at this.  What's the point of opting out of one site when there are a dozen more sites just like this?  In addition, there is still the anonymous information that advertising companies collect when we browse the Internet.  Really, such information can build a puzzle that tells others what sites we frequent and what products we might be interested in; this info can be more than enough for criminals to locate me --if they were to obtain it anyway.

Edited August 26, 2013 by Aura

[Scootalove 10,684]

Sharing information on the web, without government consent? My prayers have been answered! Seriously though, that site has just hit the uncomfortable, creepy, weird, and giving out information without permission territory. Invasion of privacy on the internet isn't exactly legal at all but, if you want to put your information on the internet that's your choice. That is what I call, STRANGER DANGER!

[Moonlight 7,279]

 

 

Are there limitations to age

 

I'm a 15 year old girl, and I was on there.

 

So, I'm not really sure if there's actually an age limit on that site.

 

They had the area I live in, but not the exact numbers, which is scary since someone can find out my neighborhood without having to pay at all. 

[Celtore 2,769]

I... think I'm going to create a pen name right now. This is just creepy, thankfully I'm in Canada so I'm not covered by these guys. I can easily see this service being abused for illegitimate reasons.

[crazitaco 596]

I don't know what this is but I blame the NSA.

Why can't people just leave us be and NOT steal all our personal information... Is that too much to ask?

 

Edit: Just did a search for myself, it doesn't have me listed... GOOD *insert grumpy cat*

Edited August 26, 2013 by crazitaco

[Soundgarden 2,757]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52g3E3oEnzI

If it refers to my favorite album ever, I got no problem with this shit being up :333 (sorry, I had to)

 

 

Anyways, doesn't this work like the yellow pages, just online? Though there are certain "unnecessary info's" such as family tree and shit like that

 

Sites similar to these have existed in Sweden forever (Eniro, Hitta.se) where you can look up a persons address, phone number and date of birth. Nothing more though 

EDIT: Oh, and these sites I mentioned have an age limit (18). So yea.....

Edited August 26, 2013 by Erio Touwa

[long gone 8,929]

I don't know what this is but i blame the NSA.

Why can't people just leave us be and NOT steal all our personal information... Is that too much to ask?

 

Edit: Just did a search for myself, it doesn't have me listed... GOOD *insert grumpy cat*

If you're going to blame the NSA for something they have absolutely nothing to do with, then I shall blame Electronic Arts for this.

 

I looked up myself and there were people by my name in a lot of states but not Massachusetts. Clearly broken.

[crazitaco 596]

If you're going to blame the NSA for something they have absolutely nothing to do with, then I shall blame Electronic Arts for this.

 

I looked up myself and there were people by my name in a lot of states but not Massachusetts. Clearly broken.

Amen! Down with EA and The NSA!!! I take no pity on Electronic arts, they charge out the ass for sims 3 expansions and DLC anyways.

Also, i know the NSA isn't actually to blame (or is it?) i just felt like letting out my rage at them because they are guilty of the same crime.

Edited August 26, 2013 by crazitaco

[Evilshy 5,089]

This is total bullshit. I can't believe this.

 

Why would I pay them to give me information I already know how to get myself?

That being said, Spokeo does consolidate it all and make it easier (or at least, I assume it does. I've never used it). Doxing is not an exact science, especially if you want to do it completely legally.

 

 

 

If it refers to my favorite album ever, I got no problem with this shit being up :333 (sorry, I had to)

 

 

It's be pretty cool if it actually was a Converge reference

[SasQ 1,355]

If you search yourself up or any of your family members' names up, you can get their personal information.

Haven't you ever though that this might be where they have those informations from?

From people logging in there and asking for the info about their relatives?

 

If you pay a certain amount of money a month, you can find out where they live, their phone number, and a bunch of other things.

Gee, I can find out where my relatives are for free.

And I don't need to tell anyone what I'm looking for to achieve that.

 

Should they even be allowed to do this?

In my opinion: no, no, for hundred times NO! But privacy is a tug-of-war at the moment. Governments want more surveillance, and people usually don't care, because they think they're no one special for the governments to care about, and that they have nothing to hide, so they're safe. Well, then this site should be a good warning for y'all that it's not the case. You are pretty much right that they don't care much about you, but you can be sure that they care a lot about your personal information and the money they can make on it.

 

I found my mother on there.

Great. So now they know who's your mom. Nice going ;-J

Now a question for 100 points: can you find your mom on Facebook? If yes, then think again: why do you (and your mom) put those informations on Facebook where everyone can see it (including the bad guys like Spokeo or Google or IRS or even NSA), and you don't care much about that being wrong, but you panic when you see this data reappearing at some other website which syndicates these informations? Maybe if you want privacy, you shouldn't have been yapping all about in on Facebook in the first place? Why do you need Facebook anyway? I don't use it and I'm still happy.

 

And I think there's more to worry about than this website.

Especially when you use Facebook, and even when you don't use it.

 

Did you know that whenever you visit Facebook, it stores a cookie file in your browser's cache, and then whenever you see the "f" icon on any other website, this Facebook widget requests this cookie back to track your every move in the Internet, even if you're not logged in to Facebook or you don't have an account there? :-o

 

Did you know that Google does it at even deeper level with their Google Analytics JavaScript called "Urchin"? They not only provide statistics to the webmasters of all those websites, but they also track your entire path throughout the Net, because the Urchin script is embedded nearly in every website there is? (except my own; I don't track my users and don't trust Google) They can also track your mouse movement and clicks on those websites. They can even track you across devices you use. Sure, they allow to opt-out from tracking, but not many people know how to do it, and even if they do, what guarantee they have that Google will play nice and fulfill their promises? :-P

 

Did you know that when you search anything in Google search engine (and many others already), all your search queries are collected and can be used against you? For example, by Homeland Security or other government agencies?

You can read more about that at http://donttrack.us/

 

Oh, and try sometime to tell your browser to ask you for agreement whenever a website is trying to store a cookie on your disk instead of allowing it for that silently without you knowing about (which is the default). You will be surprised and terrified on how many websites will demand to store those cookies or they won't let you in. (Of course not every one. Many of them you can access without accepting their tracking cookies unless you want to actually log in and stay logged in).

 

But the Big Brother knows much more about you and your relatives.

Google Street View allows anyone to see your house and your backyard, which is not good when you live in a place with many thieves or gangsters. They can see where are your windows & doors, how secure they are, whether you have an alarm or cameras, and if there is something around your house they can steal without breaking in. Sometimes there are cars visible, with registration marks. Sometimes you can see people on the street or even their faces. Once I played a game with my friend: the goal was to go into Google Maps and hunt some mugshots caught on film by the Google Street View spy car passing around them at the moment ;-J But the fun was over when I found detailed photos of my own house, from many different views, and one of my relatives in the garden. This should be forbidden, but which government would be willing to enforce such a law and lose this great opportunity of knowing everything about their citizens? ;-P

 

Do you have a cellphone or some other PDA?

Did you know that its GSM antenna constantly sends your localization to the base stations and you can be tracked by your cellphone to one-meter accuracy? (depending on the density of BTS's around you, since they use triangulation and signal strength for that). Your cellphone is actually a tracking device.

 

Did you know that there are rootkits (hidden software) installed by producers which are really trojan horses waiting for their commands? They can send such a command to your cellphone to get your contact lists and stored files. (Haven't you figured out that if they can send files to your phone remotely, they can also retrieve them from it remotely? :-P) They can also turn on your microphone to listen to the voices speaking inside the room around the cellphone. Have you ever thought that when you walk around with your cellphone, you can be wired without even knowing? (That's why Snowden asked any reporters interviewing him to give him their cellphones and he put them into a solid metal box to screen them from sending-out their voice to the government agencies which were after him.)

 

Speaking of Snowden... He was a guy working as an administrator for the NSA. During his work, he found out that NSA is spying on people of their own country and other foreign countries using the Internet and cellphones, and the depth of this surveillance horrified him to the point that he decided to tell the world. Now he's accused of espionage and his US passport has been canceled. He's hiding in foreign countries because governments are after him, trying to track him down and shut him up for good. What he disclosed so far is astounding. There is a secret project called PRISM which is about the Internet gigants like Google, Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, Apple, and many many more, cooperating with US shadow government and collecting all possible data about their users to give them to the government agencies. They even tap on the fiber glass wires in central nodes of the Net and record all the traffic to analyze it later with their powerful computers.

 

And next time you'll be watching the Internetz, remember that the Internetz is also watching you.

The Internet was not so much designed to connect people for their good. It was originally designed by US military agency called DARPA. First they infected the head US universities to suck their data into DARPA. Then, more and more intranets has been connecting to the Internet, and more and more data fell under DARPA's hungry eyes. Now their web is encompassing nearly the whole globe. And in every web, there can always be only one spider at the centre, controlling the whole web. Search more about the Deep Search project, and the Deep Net / Dark Net. (And I'm not speaking about the "dark side of the Internet" with some R#34 ponies, goatsecs, drugs & guns sellers, or stuff like that; nor about the Tor network; I'm speaking about the hidden layer of the Internet, controlled by the very creators of it, which know the underlying protocols enough to mask a second hidden traffic over plain-sight traffic channels; yes, this is possible, I couldn't believe when I saw it, but it is there).

Edited August 26, 2013 by SasQ

[FoxyCryptid 4,327]

Yeah, I can't say it's not creepy finding myself there, but it all seems to just be information from public record compiled together. You could get everything there from my public Facebook account just as easy. 

[Cactus 155]

Anyone who is surprised by this has underestimated progress of technology. Things similar to this have existed for years. It does not bother me; I have no reason for someone to maliciously use information related to me.

[joeyh3 153]

Lets put it this way, should online phone books like http://www.whitepages.com/ be allowed to operate?

 

It's a directory site. Just about all of the information on that site is public information, usually from places like phone books, government records (birth certificates, voter registration, etc, whatever your state/municipality makes publicly), etc. 

 

All this site does is make the information a little bit more convenient to access. Even without it, if you go to a city hall or public library, you would likely still find the same information. 

Edited August 27, 2013 by joeyh3

[SasQ 1,355]

@, many people approach this subject of privacy by saying that they don't do anything suspicious, and they don't have anything to hide, so they don't care who's watching. I've seen that scenario many times. So let me show you what Richard Stallman has to tell you in this particular case:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUJtMlEwd6Q#t=07m50s

 

(though it's worthwhile to watch the whole video, because then you can hear it in a wider context, and see how deep the rabbit hole is).

 

As he says, you don't have to have something you'd want to hide from everybody, but anyone has some things he/she would like to hide from somebody. It's the same reason you're wearing clothes or (if you are a girl) a makeup, and why you don't speak publicly about your boyfriend/girlfriend problems except some confidential close friend which will keep your secret. There are definitely some things you'd like to hide from your parents or family, or non-family members, or from your boss, or banker who is going to give you a credit (and he can deny it to you when he finds out that you have some financial troubles) etc.

 

I know some people from this forums who don't want their parents discover they are Bronies, and if someone would be able to connect their posts on this forum with some other identity information online to figure out who they are, and would tell his/her restrictive parents that they love to watch cartoons targeted for little girls, with pastel-colored horses, then they would discover the hard way what online privacy really means.

 

Even if you don't have anything to hide now, it doesn't mean that you can yap anything in the Internet. Because the day would came when this information can be used against you by someone evil. If they dig deep enough, they will find something behind your ears and they will use it against you.

Edited August 27, 2013 by SasQ

[Starshine 16,330]

My parents... nope

My sister... I have no idea there exist sixteen girls and two boys with similar name

Myself... No result

That boy from next door who plays Farmville all day? He's the 1st result.

 

Lesson learned: stay the bloody hell away from anything that asks your real personal information or whatever. Looks like having a real common name, like Dave or John, help a lot too.

 

E: I bet my lunchbox every search queries are logged and added to their database lol

Edited August 27, 2013 by Starshine