Signal Boost - Online privacy

[steepholm]

If you don't like the idea of people being able to find out about every aspect of your online life from your name or email address alone, you should check out nixwilliams's post about Spokeo, a site that offers just that service (for a fee). Luckily it seems to be fairly easy to opt out.

Comments

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

There's already one site that I've changed my sign up address for, because of this kind of thing. I may yet change more (I also changed Facebook). Yahoo also wants you to have a profile, but I managed to hide mine.

As a word of caution, I spent an hour chatting to a stranger, didn't know their first name, but knew their hobbies and what they did. As a test of google fu, I tracked them down. In about five minutes.

(I'm not normally a stalker. Honest.)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

(I'm not normally a stalker. Honest.)

But it's nice to know you could be a good one if needed!

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

As I recall it was little more than Chris, Birdwatching, University of Poppleton (and the university was a guess from where they lived). I'm hoping people's profiles are more locked down now - and I was pleased to see my googlemail address took me slightly longer to find.

I wonder if Spookyo is a set up to make you buy ReputationDefender?

[aryky.livejournal.com]

I mean, yes, it's a very creepy site, but it does offer its amusements. Before removing my account I was interested to find out that I have no interest in politics (so where do the hours I thought I spent reading political blogs really go) and that I have three parents. One of my two fathers is apparently named [last name] R. [last name]. I am glad to know this; I must meet him one day!