ETA: someone called me and told me this would create a lot of spam mail for me...which is why I didn't email this to everyone in my email address book. But apparently I don't know how to research what is real or not on the internet, because I couldn't find anything...so you've been warned.
March 20, 2010
Yesterday an Internet friend alerted me to Spokeo. It is a personal database on YOU. It posts your age, gender, home value, home address, length of residence, locator map, occupation, family info plus a slew of other stuff.
I was horrified at this intrusion and lack of privacy, never mind the fact more than half of the posted information was dead wrong. If you want your personal data removed, here's what you do.
Go to Spokeo: http://www.spokeo.com.
Enter your name in the SEARCH box. If you go by several names, check them too. Also, check for the names of your spouse and kids. Every single entry must be individually removed.
Hit Search.
When your name comes up, click on the location that matches. (Prepare to fume!)
This brings up your profile for all to see. ** COPY the URL where your information appears. **
REMOVAL FROM DATABASE
At the bottom of the page is the word PRIVACY. http://www.spokeo.com/privacy.
Once there, paste in the saved URL, your email and the code provided.
Hit Remove Listing.
By return email, they will send you a URL that you must click or paste into your browser to complete the removal process.
SEND THEM A BLAST
If you are irritated by this exposure you may want to pay them a visit via their contact page: http://www.spokeo.com/public/feedback. It's also found under CONTACT in small print at the bottom of the page.
Their website states to allow 1 business day for removal, which since this was Saturday, would likely be done on Tuesday. Instead, our personal information was removed within 5 minutes.
5 comments:
first - your link took me to cox cable. what are you trying to pull??
second - I found the spokeo site myself as well as my name. What hurt most was that they said my astrological sign was a Cancer and I'm a Leo!!
But it's true, lots of info, how long you've lived in your house. A PICTURE!! of your house. all that.
on one hand, it doesn't bother me that much. on the other, I'll delete just to be safe.
Okay, cox paid me to subliminally advertise for them. Did it work? Just kidding. Fixed it:)
Yeah, they said my occupation was in maintenance, which I guess is kind of true...
I couldn't find myself or my mom and dad. I found Derald's parents and his family though. I am usually bugged by stuff like this, but I wasn't. Thanks for the info thou
Weird. They didn't have my actual address, but they had locations on me.
They even had listed the music I like to listen to on Pandora.com. Creepy.
I passed the info on to my family.
Yikes - holy creepy cow!!! They only had my maiden name on there and just about everything on there about me was wrong, but it was still creepy just the same. It was strange to see how much info they'd collected, even though I've tried to be careful about how and where my personal info goes thanks to my identity getting stolen and used several years ago. Anyway, thanks for posting that info.
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