"There's a site called Spokeo.com and it's an online phone book that has a picture of your house, credit score, profession, age, phone number, how many people live in the house, etcetera. Remove yourself by the PRIVACY button on the bottom right. After you click REMOVE, it won't look like it did anything, but it sends you an email to confirm removal.
I'm not sure if it picks up information from social networking websites but it's very detailed. What an invasive use of technology! The data wasn't totally correct for me, but I still don't like that anyone can access this much information on me this easily."
Obviously, the creators of this site never dated The Elitist Loving Closet Racist Who Makes My Skin Crawl or they would realize that sometimes you just don't want to share your waffles with the world. Or your phone number that you had to change twice, but that's an entirely different story. Anyway, aside from being a creepy invasion of privacy, the whole idea of detailing people's personal information INCORRECTLY on the interweb seems enormously irresponsible to me.
What do I mean? Well, I searched my own name, and two of our properties showed up in their system. Only two, by the way. Let's see how accurate my information is on those two listings, shall we?
Basic Profile
Age: early thirties
I am thirty. THIRTY, PERIOD. Do not add months to my age. I am not Chelsea Handler.
Gender: female
Zodiac: Taurus
Relationship: single
Married. I do not need the guy I kissed in fifth grade contacting me about giving our relationship a second try. Married, married, married.
Children: yes
Are you trying to start a fight with me, Spokeo?
Occupation: real estate
My name is not on a park bench, is it? Having a real estate license does not mean I want to sell your house.
Education: some college
I didn't sleep through five years of lectures for nothing. So says the paper on my wall.
Home Owner: yes
Residence: single family house
Credit Level: medium
I checked my credit score a few days ago, and the average was a 774. Is that medium? Let's all hope not.
Lifestyle & Interests: has children, is not interested in politics, enjoys shopping
Spokeo, if you and I meet at a party, I suggest you meander the other direction. And if we have to hang out, I'm going to need a cocktail. Or three.
I'm all about transparency, really, but this is ridiculous. If you're going to run around publishing false information then why not make me look good? Like, 'is kind to homeless animals and small people, flosses every single day, has a penchant for intelligently designed furniture, and was cheated out of a well deserved Nobel Peace Prize.'
THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE TO CORRECT YOU.
Posts
23 comments:
Uhh..creepy!
It's so off the wall, like, where do they get this "information"?
Spokeo is an 'information aggrigator'. They do an search for your name on a lot of major search engines and networking sites and try to compile the information. So even if you click 'remove' it simple takes you off their list, the information they collected is still available online where ever they found it.
(There is a little more info on Snopes http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp)
I searched for myself using spokeo a while back and discovered that it thinks I am my dead father. It lists me as a 60 year old male 'head of household' and 'married' to my mother. I'm not sure if it's because my name uses the traditionally masculine spelling, or if it is just dumb.
That site is really weird. It said there was another 50 year old woman living with my parents, uhm, no?
Also if you type in your e-mail address, it will find your blog and any social networking sites that your e-mail is linked too, CREEPY.
I'm removing myself ASAP.
wow - I am not on it :) yay! thank Allison for sharing this with you and thank you Kelly for sharing it with us!
Spokeo is hilarious...it could only find me by my maiden name.
It also gave my father a middle name. In all his 40 years of living, he has never had a middle name, but apparently he does, and it starts with a J! He's also Caucasian and in a relationship according to spokeo (he's black and married for 15 years!)I don't think I mind, becuase the info is so false.
This is awful! I only found some 'stuff' under my maiden name. Apparently I live in a $1million + home.
Caity, I didn't know that about the blog -- thanks for the heads up!
I guess I would be more worried if most of the information weren't inaccurate. But I hid myself just in case they ever wise up. :) Thanks for passing it on.
My search on Spokeo is just as awful. I'm single (married for 5 years) with low credit (Ha!), live with my mom (not since I was in high school), have some college (so much for the bachelors and two masters on the wall). Other funnies include that I'm a clerical worker (management consultant = clerical worker?) and live in a house valued at $1M.
Angela, that's too funny. Holy cow.
Suz, I think the problem a lot of people have is that the CONTACT information seems to always be correct, but the LIFESTYLE information is all over the place. If it were reverse, it might not be such a big deal...
I don't want people I haven't seen in years to contact me about selling their house, you know? Or what about a couple suffering from infertility who is listed as having three kids? Those details are things that you should CHOOSE to share with the world, I think.
Strange. I tried going there but the site is not loading...I'll try again another time and remove myself! Janell
I just did mine, it said I was in my 30's (I'm really 22) and that I had kids, which I most certainly do not. Also it said I was Gemini.
It's creepy that they had my parents house as my home and all of their information.
I did finally get into the site and apparently I'm single, live alone with no children and don't own my home. I removed my listing, but what would be creepier is if the information was accurate...Janell
Just to reiterate, my point about the contact information is that most of it is very easily available. For instance, someone can look up your where you live through The White Pages or find out how much you paid for your house on your county's online property appraiser's website and on and on. It's been this way for quite some time (although, perhaps not online).
HOWEVER, my political leanings or reproductive habits or personal hobbies aren't really anyone else's business unless I CHOOSE TO SHARE them. If websites are going to formally catagorize and make this information publicly available, in my opinion, they AT LEAST better get it right.
This is totally scary! But I find it hilarious that some of my info is totally off. It says my house is worth over $1 million...LOL!
It kind of makes you wonder who in the world thought this would be a good idea.
I checked this site out - totally wrong about the majority of my stuff, but still creepy. I agree who thinks up this stuff?
Thanks for thinking of us! Please keep us in your thoughts and I am back to commenting and blogging more hopefully. :) I always read your blog because it always makes me laugh. Very hard a lot. I love it.
Awww... thank you. I have to admit, I've been STALKING your blog for updates. I can't help it. I'm so excited for you guys! Your kid is SO LUCKY!
It found me when I searched my e-mail address, but when I entered my name, it listed someone who lived in California, which is obviously not me.
Thank you so much for posting this! I've removed myself and have told all my friends and family! What a creepy, sleazy site!
I just tried my name. Most of the info is not correct. My favorite is that it reports that my house is estimated at $1M+. I wish!
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