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Nightingale

PSA: your home address may be online

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Most of you know that I hate email forwards, so you'll know how serious it is that I'm posting this. A friend sent me this last night, I checked it out personally, and I felt it was really important to let you know about this threat to privacy. There is a website, www.Spokeo.com, that is putting all kinds of personal information online for anybody to access, and I was stunned at the volume of info that was there on myself and people I know. I'm unlisted in phone books and use an alternate address for mail, and am fanatically cautious about privacy for information like that (I have a stalker), and my current home address was listed online for anyone to see. There was even more information listed for my friends and family. This is truly frightening. I strongly encourage all of you to go to this website and search for yourself by putting in your name. Then, follow the directions below to remove your information. Be sure to use an alternate email address, since you don't want your main email getting spammed, because they're probably also using their site to collect email addresses for spamming.

I was able to get my name and address removed pretty easily, but I'm really hoping that my stalker didn't see it while it was up there. I really don't want to have to move again.[:/]

-N-
__________________________________________________________________________________


There's a website, http://www.spokeo.com/ that is collecting people's personal information from various sources like public records, phone books, and even photographs from myspace, facebook and other networking sites, as well as things like your credit score, the value of your home, photos of your home, and the names of your children and spouse. Snopes speculates that Spokeo's true goal is to collect email addresses. (Here's the snopes.com link: http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp.) You'll see why below, but it's still a very good idea to go to the site and follow the directions below to remove your personal information.

To remove yourself from the database, go to www.spokeo.com , and then once you find yourself, click on "see it all".

Then save the link to your page by highlighting the link in the address bar at the top of the very next page, (the one where it tries to sell you more information about you. It will start with http:// or https:// )

and then right click on it, and select "copy".

Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "privacy", located in the small print at the very bottom center of the page.

Right click in the box that says "URL:" and select "paste".

Next, put in an email address in the next box. USE A JUNK EMAIL ADDRESS, DO NOT USE YOUR MAIN EMAIL, since there is no reason to provide these people with any more of your personal information, and they are probably trying to collect your email address. (You can make a new email for free at www.gmail.com if you don't already have an email you use for stuff like this).

Then, fill in the "code" box with the code in the image.

And last, click the "Remove Listing" button.

But, you're not done yet! Now, go check the email you gave them. They will send you an email. You need to click on the link in the email to finalize the removal.

And FINALLY, your listing is gone.


But, there's a catch. You can only remove a few listings per email address. So if you need to remove more than two or three, once the email stops working, you have to use a different one (again, you can use gmail to make more if you need to). AND, they will only allow a certain number of removals per computer per day. So if you want to remove more than that, even if you use a bunch of different email addresses, you'll have to come back tomorrow to get rid of them all, or use a different computer.

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I checked the site, and the "information" that they have for me is laughably inaccurate and what few nuggets of fact are there are so outdated as to be worthless. Same for my family members - a mix of fact, outdated data and fabrications.
But I see how it could be bad for someone who has a real need for privacy like Nightingale; any data at all gives baddies and idiots somewhere to start.

Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.

Why do they call it "Tourist Season" if we can't shoot them?

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It all sounds a bit scammy to me.

And big brother already knows everything, so you are just a wikileaks away from being exposed.

With at least a billion or more email or internet users in the world, I'm not too worried that anyone actually gives a rats arse about me....

I'm just Mr Ordinary....I have a life to be getting on with.

Don't stress......
My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

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Here's some food for thought, they get most of their information from surveys people fill out, memberships cards for stores, applications on facebook, and things like that. And some of it is public record, like home ownership. People give a lot of their information, apparently without realizing it, out to people that sell it. Then sites like this just gather the information that is out there all over the place and put it all in one place.

All the information on me is an old address and says I have live there for 3 years when I haven't lived there for almost 4 years now.
"Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity"

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I just learned that my mother and father live with me.
My mother has never set foot in this house, which was built ten years *after* my father died.:S

I looked up an old friend in NY and learned that she also lives with her parents, when I know damned well she lives with her husband.:S
Seems this site has some kind of fixation with trying to place parents in the home of whoever you are looking up.

I was poking around Intelius once and learned that I had two other people living in my house with my last name and feminine first names.
I've never heard of either of them.:D

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

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Don't sweat it. It's a brave new world where if you are connected there is no privacy.

If you think that level of information is spooky you should see what we have access to in some of the mega databases.

Sites like the one you referenced are making money off of your visits. You are basically verifying the data file and/or elements within it and making the data more valuable. They then sell this data at a higher price than they purchased it at....kind of slick and has me thinking. lol

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The info on me was wrong,but I opted to get it deleted anyways.

It is a win-win, if they truly remove it, fine

If they think it is only a validation, even better.

Heck even my house location was far enough off that I can see anyone casing the address out, yet they are within range if there is an incident requiring a response.

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I was poking around Intelius once and learned that I had two other people living in my house with my last name and feminine first names. I've never heard of either of them.



Those are your other selves. But the medication the aliens give you makes you forget.

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There are lots of competing sites like this.



Yup; it is all public record and gathered legally.

Kris, if you are concerned, do not provide them any information about yourself or previous address/phone history as they will only add it to their database at a later time. That is how they improve their accuracy :D, though--like others have already stated--such websites are often inaccurate and/or outdated.
"Nature is cruel, but we don't have to be." ~ Temple Grandin

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thanks for the link. this is really going to help me keep up with some people... kidding.

Sorry to read you had a stalker. I had one, and then another... call it a gift, not.

I was told by a Canadian to become what they don't like, and give them no attention, if possible. They want the reactions, good or bad. Meaning the stalker, well and the Canadians (totally kidding!)

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Nope, not a packer, just some punk livin the dream... Still wondering how many countries I am wanted in tho...

pretty sure Im going to get kicked out of australia sooner than later. Still not sure if its a good idea to go back to canada.
Have you seen my pants?
it"s a rough life, Livin' the dream
>:)

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If I try and click "see it all" it wants me to pay for a membership ;)

I had gone through and removed all the information last year, it is all back and fully current now.
She is not a "Dumb Blonde" - She is a "Light-Haired Detour Off The Information Superhighway."
eeneR
TF#72, FB#4130, Incauto

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Nope, not a packer, just some punk livin the dream... Still wondering how many countries I am wanted in tho...

pretty sure Im going to get kicked out of australia sooner than later. Still not sure if its a good idea to go back to canada.



Be a couchsurfer (http://www.couchsurfing.org/) or live in my basement with the others... hahaha :D

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I checked the site, and the "information" that they have for me is laughably inaccurate and what few nuggets of fact are there are so outdated as to be worthless.



I'm apparently married and in my 50s with a father in his 60s that I've lived with in IL for 25 years. I also have a brother but my mother is "N/A". I like travel and cooking.

:|

One thing that was interesting is that I looked up the name of the person whom creditors have been calling my number trying to track down for the past few years and sure enough my number is somehow associated with her in this database. And here I thought I had low respect for collection agencies before...

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Nope, not a packer, just some punk livin the dream... Still wondering how many countries I am wanted in tho...

pretty sure Im going to get kicked out of australia sooner than later. Still not sure if its a good idea to go back to canada.



Be a couchsurfer (http://www.couchsurfing.org/) or live in my basement with the others... hahaha :D


Thats what I'm doing... couch surfing at Deedys!:D

She hasn't found the hidden camera yet either.

Or she has, and doesn't mind.;)
"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

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haha not one person in my family came up close to right, half of us didnt come up at all, lol! ive moved so much in the last few years, I can barely keep track of myself, so id bet it would be damn near impossible for anyone else to do so.
Thanatos340(on landing rounds)--
Landing procedure: Hand all the way up, Feet and Knees Together and PLF soon as you get bitch slapped by a planet.

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