Should Spokeo.com be allowed to do this?

[Ruddboy Olaf 10,628]

-*glug,glug,glug,glug,glug,glug,glug*

-WH-WH-WH-WHAT!?

-Well,ummm...................................No offense,but this is a website for stalkers,probably.

I no longer feel safe.

 

Then again,i never really did feel safe,ever.

 

I think AVGN put it best when he said

 

-SO,NO THEY SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO DO THIS!!!

[Moonlight 7,287]

 

 

Now a question for 100 points: can you find your mom on Facebook?

 

Actually, my parents don't use Facebook, since they think it's stupid.

 

And I never add private information on my account.

 

Of course, they do manage to log everything together from several public sites. So, there's that.  

[GrimCW 658]

Those sites aren't to uncommon these days, and they get their info from public released info or facebook like sites.
Should they be allowed to gather it? Not in my opinion.

But the info they have is usually TERRIBLY out of date, and thats assuming it has any at all.

 

Looked for my tenant up stairs and she doesn't exist, her Ex, same thing. A few other people it found, but not all.

Edited August 27, 2013 by GrimCW

[Jack Spades 162]

My opinion is that I'm afraid. See you guys later! I'm going back to Canada. Where the health care is free and oots are aboots, eeh?

[Galen 1,354]

I tried looking myself up on the site and nothing turned up. That may have to do with the fact I only lived there for two years until I was only 9. I have found my mother in various places, some more recent than others, which, as Shoboni said, indicates these records are taken from already existing public records and could also lead to some confusion about where a person is at present. For instance, of all three places my mother appeared to be in, she's currently definitely not in any of them. I also searched for the name of my best friend when I was there and got tons of results everywhere, so even if I had an inclination to track him down, using this would be pretty hard.

 

But even if this website was working as one would think it does, they're most definitely not allowed to do this because for one, it's a perfect legal tool for stalkers and anyone can access information you'd prolly not want them to know. In that regard, it is rather creepy. If it only contained basic info like only last names and numbers similarly to the yellow pages, that would be ok. First names, family members, spouses (both former and current), etc, that's going too far.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Freedan

[34908734bdjofh73 61]

It's just like going to the courthouse to get public records, do I think it's wrong, YES! The sad part is the only thing the government is doing is laws like SOPA and PIPA. 

[pleasedontcomeback 209]

TY STOP LOOKING AT MY POSTSTY STOP LOOKING AT MY POSTSTY STOP LOOKING AT MY POSTSTY STOP LOOKING AT MY POSTSTY STOP LOOKING AT MY POSTSTY STOP LOOKING AT MY POSTS

Edited July 19, 2018 by PonyLover123

[Nuclear Neurotic 56]

I found out about this and when I searched up my parents, they both popped up.

 

This really bothers me honestly cause I know how my parents are about privacy and their personal information.

 

Though when I told them about it they didn't seem very concerned?

Edited August 27, 2013 by Nuclear Neur☢tic

[Sylentmana 271]

I looked myself up and in the entirety of the internet there is only one picture of me in existance. I must be a rare and elusive person.

[GhostPony750 959]

Hmm... I searched for myself and found notthing, searched for some members of my family and found nothing. And hopefully I'll never find someone I know here.

 

This is not only illegal, this is also immoral, they annihilate people's privacy for money. And who is going to pay to find phone numbers and adresses? A maniac, a killer?

 

And if you have a facebook, why did you put your information here in the first place?

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

There is no such thing as privacy or anonymity on the internet. Only illusions thereof.

This is why you have to be careful and conscious of what you do.

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

Hmm... I searched for myself and found notthing, searched for some members of my family and found nothing. And hopefully I'll never find someone I know here.

 

This is not only illegal, this is also immoral, they annihilate people's privacy for money. And who is going to pay to find phone numbers and adresses? A maniac, a killer?

 

And if you have a facebook, why did you put your information here in the first place?

 

It's actually not illegal, your wouldn't believe the kinds of records you could just go to the courthouse and request, or get from a phone book. Heck, I can pull up someone entire criminal record just with their name.  

[Smarts 1,623]

This is so many levels of wrong. Sure, let's just give away all kinds of information about people because that won't end badly at all. What the heck were these idiots thinking? This should not be allowed under any circumstance.

Edited August 27, 2013 by SmartyPants

[NopeNopeNope 9]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Edited January 23, 2017 by NopeNopeNope

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

I'm almost tempted to go on a spree of spreading inaccurate information about myself through the webs to make searching for my username bring up the most convoluted results possible.

 

"Yes, I'm an Obese 93 year old woman living on an island off the coast of Argentina"

Edited August 27, 2013 by Jacob Danik

[Moonlight 7,287]

 

Nope .

The Internet should be private .

 

But ,

you can access all that information without that tool by yourself too .

 

Basically what they'r doing is putting all that information in one place for money .

 

 

 

I'd just like to point out that your signature actually goes pretty well with your post. So, I thought that was interesting. xD

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

I would like point out though, that even knowing my state it would be very hard to find me with this just off my name alone. See:

 

 

[SasQ 1,379]

There is no such thing as privacy or anonymity on the internet. Only illusions thereof.

 

This is bullshit. They'd want you (and everybody else) to think that way, because then it is more easy to take more privacy from people. But it's not necessarily true. It is possible to be anonymous in the Internet, if only one knows how to protect his/her privacy enough. Unfortunately most people don't. Watch Richard Stallman's talks I linked earlier (and other related). He is still fighting for freedom and privacy, and he has some good advices. He also says that now is the best time for fight for our privacy and freedom, when people are discovering that they are tracked and it pisses them off. The awareness about privacy is arising, and who else than Bronies should know that when more people unite in one goal, they can do miracles.

 

 This is why you have to be careful and conscious of what you do.

 

Agree.

 

As @ mentioned, there's actually a fancy way to make a smoke screen around you in the Internet. You can poison such databases as Spokeo by creating multiple accounts, inventing decoy personalities and spreading out false informations about yourself in the Internet. Sometimes this even allows to track down the path your personal information is making through the Net and which services are selling your data. Then, when you discover some service which does it, you just mark it as compromised and don't use it anymore, and you can safely drop the account related to it and create a new one. The more diverse personalities you invent, the less they could find out about your true self.

 

A similar technique is used by some people with e-mail addresses to track down spammers. They create multiple aliases for their true account and they use these aliases to register at different websites, one for each website. When they receive spam to some particular address, they can track down the website which is leaking and never use it again, and just drop the compromised e-mail alias.

 

Of course you need to be careful to use multiple Internet connections and pathways through the Net, using some web proxies and forged headers sent from your user agent, because otherwise they can connect the dots by comparing your sessions and find out nevertheless that all these accounts are the same person.

You can also use some anonymity tools, like Tor, and tunnel your connections through encrypted channels.

 

So, for the record, in real life I'm a 30-years-old Afro-American, born in Republic of South Africa, but I moved from my home country during the apartheid period when our National Party pissed me off. I have three kids, and I'm interested in stuffing animals. I also like MLP:FiM and I'm making stuffed pony plushies

Edited August 27, 2013 by SasQ

[FadedSkies 1,874]

It looks like it only works for people who live in USA thats why i couldnt find anyone from my family cause i live in Canada. But to the Americans i think this is invasive to their privacy and i think this site should be brought down.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

This is bullshit. They'd want you (and everybody else) to think that way, because then it is more easy to take more privacy from people. But it's not necessarily true. It is possible to be anonymous in the Internet, if only one knows how to protect his/her privacy enough. Unfortunately most people don't. Watch Richard Stallman's talks I linked earlier (and other related). He is still fighting for freedom and privacy, and he has some good advices. He also says that now is the best time for fight for our privacy and freedom, when people are discovering that they are tracked and it pisses them off. The awareness about privacy is arising, and who else than Bronies should know that when more people unite in one goal, they can do miracles.

 

 

Agree.

 

As @ mentioned, there's actually a fancy way to make a smoke screen around you in the Internet. You can poison such databases as Spokeo by creating multiple accounts, inventing decoy personalities and spreading out false informations about yourself in the Internet. Sometimes this even allows to track down the path your personal information is making through the Net and which services are selling your data. Then, when you discover some service which does it, you just mark it as compromised and don't use it anymore, and you can safely drop the account related to it and create a new one. The more diverse personalities you invent, the less they could find out about your true self. Of course you need to be careful to use multiple Internet connections and pathways through the Net, using some web proxies and forged headers sent from your user agent, because otherwise they can connect the dots together and find out nevertheless that all these accounts are the same person.

 

A similar technique is used by some people with e-mail addresses to track down spammers. They create multiple aliases for their true account and they use these aliases to register at different websites, one for each website. When they receive spam to some particular address, they can track down the website which is leaking and never use it again, and just drop the compromised e-mail alias.

 

So, for the record, in real life I'm a 30-years-old Afro-American, born in Republic of South Africa, but I moved from my home country during the apartheid period when our National Party pissed me off. I have three kids, and I'm interested in stuffing animals. I also like MLP:FiM and I'm making stuffed pony plushies

In real like I'm actually a 93 year old Obese woman from Asia who got angry at the increased prices caused by floods of pepto-bismol, so I relocated to a small island off the coast of Argentina. I have ninety-five kids (With thirty six different people) and I currently work as the CEO of a company that makes staplers and candy which I run out of an abandoned Air-strip located underwater.

 

The staplers are all edible and colored blue and orange to make them look fancy and they are the newest trend in the Suburbs of Israel. They taste like vanilla.

 

Just for the record.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Jacob Danik

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

Well apparently I'm a female and my moms a man.    

 

Strange site, I don't like it.    It feels odd that that information is on their for all to see.  

[Cactus 155]

@, 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.

If I were that worried, I would not use the internet in the first place. There is no secrecy on the internet, and I am aware of that. I honestly doubt some "evil" person is going to come and use something I've said against me.

[CaptainCanti 5]

The fact that they have the ability to do that is terrifying. Whats even more terrifying is that its legal.

(extra sentence so I can meet the 100 character requirement)

[Discovery Dream 592]

I looked myself and couldn't find myself...and I practically live on the internet. I did however find my mother and removed her immediately. It really is disturbing...

[Super Derpy 535]

Ugh, I know about this site. I looked up myself not expecting to find myself but I was shocked to realize i was there! Dang it sure does have a lot of info about me. Even has my phone #. (I don't even know how it got that one.)

 

I would say it is not okay.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Super Derpy