Saturday, March 27, 2010

Protect Your Private Data

I found out something disturbing tonight - a lot of personal information about a person can be obtained through a website called Spokeo. They say "It's not your grandma's phonebook." How true that is! My grandmothers would never have stooped so low as to gather personal data on people and then display it for millions to see - most information for free but even more if you pay them a fee. For instance, you can pay this site to allow you to see photographs belonging to the person you've searched!

I have no idea exactly where they've garnered all of this stuff, but surely it hasn't been all that difficult to fork over money to folks who sell their customer lists.

Be aware of where your private information goes once you've "filled in the blanks". Check privacy statements on websites before entering sweepstakes. Be careful when answering online surveys.

You can bet my grandmas would never have trusted the majority of the people hiding behind computer screens just waiting to make an extra buck at your expense.

1 comment:

Secondary Roads said...

Interesting. Some of their info is faulty. This is a good eye opener.