A friend just posted this on FB.

There's a site called spokeo.com 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 AND SEARCHING YOUR EMAIL, find the URL of your page, then go to the bottom right corner of the page and click on the Privacy button to remove yourself.

Please note that it only allows you to remove 2 listings per your confirmed email address and only 4 listings in a day from your IP address.


I did a search and removed my home info BUT THEN WAS HORRIFIED TO SEARCH BY MY GMAIL ACCOUNT I USE ONLY ON THIS BOARD AND HAVE MY PHOTO BUCKET PHOTOS COME UP SHOWING MY DS!!

So if I were you, I'd START by checking your board email address(es) and then do your real name etc. This is really scary and is truly making me rethink my social media participation among other things.

I can't believe this!!! I don't participate in ANY social media. NONE!! I have used photobucket for posting pictures here and when I searched the website you provided...THEY CAME UP!!!! One of the images is even of my b/w results!! And while the b/w results image doesn't show my name...the ID associated with it is UNIQUELY mine!!! So it might as well have me name, DOB and SS# on there for all to see.

UNREAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've only used PB to post on the pink board & the 1 photo I had left on there came right up. I'm not on social media sites, either. Stupidly, perhaps, it didn't occur to me that PB would be public.

Did you have to pay the fee to see that info and remove it?

n/t.

Thanks for posting. This is scary.

how do you remove??

Little tiny at the bottom of the page. Click on that and it will tell you what to do.

xoxo, Tracy

Thanks for the heads up!!! I got my e-mail address removed. That was the one that had the pics! Oy! I also come up by name but there isn't an e-mail address associated with that search. How can you get rid of the less detailed name listing? Although, heck, it has a picture of my house, so kinda detailed, just not tons of pics like the other one!

xoxo, Tracy

PS: I figured it out. It had 3 e-mail addresses for me. I just used one of the other 3 in association with the url that had my listing that came up with my name. So I removed the name listing, two personal e-mails and my work e-mail. Sure do appreciate you alerting us!

I had removed myself and my parents from this site last year BUT I only did a name search. DO A PHONE # SEARCH!!!! My fathers info was there but certain things were sort of blocked like they used his first initial and *** for the rest of the name.

You need to remove the info 2 times!!!! 1 with the name the other with phone #.

Mercy! I checked my phone number and there was all the info again. I now have deleted that one and my cell phone only shows the carrier....which is innacurate since I have switched. This all feels like such a violation! Showing people's addresses, phone numbers and pictures of their homes is BEYOND creepy!

xoxo, Tracy

I know what one is and where it is, but what webpage would we look for? A Photobucket webpage?

get to the info that it says you have to pay to see? Or the photobucket pics? I'm confused--but then again I'm not very literate when it comes to URL and IP addresses, etc. Thanks.

your email addresses in addition to your name. That's where the photobucket photos came up for me - my email address.

Much of the information can't be accessed unless you pay, but you can have it removed without paying.

nt

It was interesting, in a very scary way.

Snopes is a legitimate site, for those who haven't heard of it. It's a great rumor debunking site. Or in the case of Spokeo, confirmation site.

Here is the link:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp

It just keeps saying, error - the URL you have written does not exist - luckily as I don't live in America there is hardly any information there but I searched my brother in America and was shocked what came up, all his family members, photo of house, value of house, phone number etc etc.

I suspect it's more of a problem for those in the US -- this site, at least.

and pix and websites and your full name come up. At least I am assuming it is you!

What a mess.

June

and it won't let me delete that because it is a search result and not a page. If anyone figures that out let me know. It is better than it was though....at least no phone numbers or specific address with a picture of my house are on there. ugh, so annoying!!!

xoxo, Tracy

and please keep in mind all they are doing is compiling what is already available to the public during searches via google and other search engines/methods - so please be circumspect about what you post online... period. Assume that anything you put out into cyberspace, is easily found. I don't want to prevent women from posting here, but if you post sensitive information here (or anywhere else) please use anon email addresses for login/posting and do NOT use your real name to establish those email addys, as that will still lead back to you. Best,
Kenny

Whack-A-Mole.

The really unfortunate thing is that some of the information can't be controlled b/c it's truly public. It's just that in the past, no one went to the work to compile it unless you paid a detective or had a stalker. Now these companies are making it available at a touch of a button. Property records & photos of your home are examples. Thank you, google earth.

Just a year ago, nothing came up under my real name on Yahoo or Google, & now a few things do, even though I've kept a low profile (not on FB, etc.).

Legal databases such as Westlaw & Lexis even list your neighbors, their addresses, & their phone numbers, available to those who pay for those particular databases within the larger database.

When I entered my email, on the free preview page it listed a bunch of stuff I had bought on Amazon.com
How invasive is that! Score one for the books and mortar stores.

the issue is if we post trackable info here, like our real name, email address, etc., then someone can pick that up from this site and search it on another site like spokeo and voila...they now know who you are.

Or conversely, if you have a snoopy friend who decides to search you on spokeo via email address (for example), and you've posted that email address on here...then spokeo will return this board as a result. Your friend will see that you've posted on "Looking to be a Mom thru DE". If they want to see your actual postings then they'd have to pay for that. But at that point, does it matter? You've already been "revealed".

To get around this, when posting do not post your complete email address. Break it up so that it's not an email string in the conventional way. And do not use sign-in IDs on here that are uniquely you and that you also use in real life. For example, if your email address is "[email protected]" post it as crazygirl4830yahoocom. And don't use crazygirl4830 as your login name here if everyone in the world knows that you are known as crazygirl4830. Come up with a screen name that you ONLY use on this site and that you have never shared anywhere else, therefore no ties can be made to you.

everyone would spell out the dot com and put spaces between their email address, etc. I just did it b/c I saw everyone else writing it that way. Now I know why. I'm glad I did that.

link to my post on the pink board:

http://www.network54.com/Forum/247611/message/1295232270/OT-+privacy+%26amp%3B+those+using+SBC+email+-+your+Yahoo+profile