Has anyone seen Spokeo.com? It has All your personal information at hand

[Toots]

Check it out, in many instances it even has a picture of your house, your credit score and much more information than many would like freely available on the internet. You can get your name removed from this...This is true, I have personally visited the site..

[FirstLight]

1. I heard about this yesterday from a friend

I was shocked, but I suppose it is inevitable that we leave an electronic footprint...

I went so far as to contact the customer service email (probably to no avail, but it made me feel a little better) and ask them WHERE they get their info, since my FB acct is private. Did FB *SELL* my info? Did they get this info from the utilitiy co's..?
As a survivor of domestic violence, I take my privacy VERY seriously..I told them that if something happened to me or my kids as a result of this, I would hold them legally responsible. Like I said, it may not help but the vent made me feel a little better and I removed myself from the list. (I hope, no guarantee on THAT)

Not cool...but I guess we have more of a trail out there than we can imagine...

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

76. Some of their info is inferred, and not always correctly

For example, they have me down as Hispanic, and this can ONLY have been inferred by my given name (Not actually Iphigenia) which may be Hispanic, but I am not. They may be inferring education from occupation, but since I'm retired, this gave then no clue, so they only credited me with high school, though I have a lot more. Some of the information they had on me may have come from property tax records and/or driver's license records. I am very cautious about putting personal information online and do not join FB. But I wonder if Amazon is also a source as they do know my reading tastes.

I did not pay extra to see if they had accurate financial records, but they are probably incorrect in their estimates for my house value and for those of others that I checked. Nor have they figured out that I have a partner of 30 years duration.

[vixengrl]

2. Weird, a friend told my husband about this the other day.

We checked out ourselves and a bunch of random acquaintances. The information they have is correct in some respects, wildly off in others. I think it's a creepy thing, though--I was glad they didn't have any accurate information about me. I can see all manner of ways that this info can be misused.

[Brickbat]

3. It had quite a bit of my information wrong.

It says I enjoy shopping, am not political, and, despite the fact my house is worth more than $1 million, my neighborhood is "below average." :rofl:

[dalaigh lllama]

14. According to them, my house is also worth $1 million

but has no central air or heating (near Chicago). :rofl:

[Island Blue]

15. My profile said the exact same thing

whereas it said that my boss, who doesn't know Sarah Palin from Dennis Kucinich, was very interested in reading about politics and world affairs. :rofl:

[dashrif]

31. they

have me with hs edumacation and white and occupation as Tradesman/Machinist/Laborer I guess they pull the info out of their ass


save your money

[blueamy66]

40. my house if worth $1M too,

but I live in a poor neighborhood...and I am 70+ years old...

:shrug:

And, I'm a NASCAR fan. BWAHAHAHAHAA!

[csziggy]

59. Same here, but I have three profiles, all different

The only thing all agree on is that I am not interest in politics (WRONG), one lists my neighborhood as above average, two list is below average. One says I've lived here for one year, one says for 15+, the other is "unknown". On all three, most of the info is unknown, except maybe for the neighborhood info.

I'm sure it is confused since there are three different addresses, two street and one PO Box, so my info is split up among the different addresses. I think I will let they stay confused.

[quiller4]

73. Quite a bit of my info is wrong ,too. It says I'm not political although

I spent almost 20 years as a PC and have managed 10 political campaigns. Spokeo also calls my spouse non-political although he was the political coordinator for his local and his joint council for 10+ years. Both of as supposedly enjoy shopping. WRONG. I loath shopping of every kind.

Our home has both central heat and central air. That little factoid is a matter of public record through the county assessor so I don't know why that is wrong. It also says that we've been in our house for 3 years. We bought it outright 8 years ago.

One thing I found odd is that neither of my sisters are listed and one is a public figure who has held elective office and she is the widow of a judge.

[monmouth]

4. I checked myself out and most of the info was incorrect...LOL..

They have me as quite wealthy with no children....Two sons and in a middle-class neighborhood..

[dmr]

75. Much of mine was incorrect, which is good - keeps everyone confused!

:crazy:

[htuttle]

5. It's a metasearch engine, and not much more than you can already get from google

They are willing to sell more than they show for free, but you can already pay for information like that on someone online.

For me, it confused me with 7 other people with my name, had my middle initial listed twice under two different people, showed the wrong house (wrong block, even), and only showed the basic demographics of my neighborhood.

I've been 'on the internet' for over 15 years, and that's all it can find on me? Not that impressed.

[d_r]

6. I have to say I don't really like that

I looked up myself, my wife, my brother and a couple of friends. All had some things wrong. It listed my brother and his daughter as the only residents of his house; it has a friend of mine who is married and has two children living with his mother (probably his mother co-sign on the loan or something); is listed my wife as living in the apartment we lived in for the transition when we first moved to TN two years ago, etc. I'm thinking this comes from billing and real estate records. I don't like it.

[Warpy]

8. I'm glad it wasn't out 20 years ago

I had a stalker and the situation was serious.

I wish these bastards would think about situations like that.

[LiberalFighter]

7. Not very accurate

Has my home valued at over $1 million, only at my residence for 15 years, not interested in politics (yet reads world news and politics?), enjoys food and wine.

Has the wrong year my home was built.

They must not have a reliable source of information.

[Prism]

9. I don't appear on it. My parents' info is hilariously wrong

I guess being crazy private online works after all.

Just for kicks, I looked up my parents. It wasn't even passingly close. I'm not sure they had a single piece of information correct.

The "interests" section was snort-worthy.

[Kalyke]

57. Same with me.

I'm on it, but my information is so hilariously incorrect, no one would know it was me other than the name and address.

[matt819]

69. Same here, mostly

You could get the same info from visiting one or more sites; this makes it a bit quicker, but that's about it. Photos, profile info, personal data mostly wrong. Unless you live off the grid, this sort of information has been available for years.

They have me and my spouse. In my wife's profile our residence is valued at a laughable $1 million in a below average neighborhood; try to figure that one out. In my profile it's valued at less than half that, still in a below average neighborhood. Hell of a diverse neighborhood. And with multiple degrees and years of professional work, we are both described as clerical workers. Hardly an impressive result, though probably worth what you pay for it.

Hey, it gets even better. It seems I enjoy shopping (I hate shopping) and have no interest in politics (I'm posting here, aren't I?).

There is little doubt that the guy who started this is hoping to sell out to Google. What's particularly offensive is that it's simply an aggregator of information with absolutely no controls over timeliness, accuracy, etc. And yet I'll bet a dollar to the proverbial donut that this guy reaps tens of millions on the sale.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

10. I'm not there. Cool. :)

[a la izquierda]

19. I'm not either. Thank god.

I've had a stalker in the past.

[bananas]

61. Me either - but Barack Obama is all over the place!

http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Barack%20Obama
199 results!
There are several of him in every state!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. Ha! They got my age bracket right but that's about it.

[blockhead]

12. it says I have a 1 million+ home

but live in a below average neighborhood:shrug:

[Catshrink]

20. It said the same for my nephew.

I'm not there but my siblings are and the info is about half right for them. I don't like this!

[Blue_In_AK]

52. Mine, too.

[Beartracks]

67. That looks to be some kind of default...? n/t

[matt819]

70. Hey, I just posted the same thing

Me too, and I just now came across your post. Hey, it's a free service - you get what you pay for.

[Stevenmarc]

13. ROFL, it says I'm not interested in politics

and that's not the only thing it got wrong.

[TroglodyteScholar]

16. I'm not in there at all:) n/t

[RedCloud]

17. I am not there. But I don't facebook or all that other crap either.

[pipi_k]

22. I'm on Facebook and Classmates.com and all over the place

but according to them I don't exist. Guess I'm just not interesting enough. :7

[mitchtv]

49. nor I

common name even with initial

[Arkana]

18. I'm not in there.

Fantastic.

[pipi_k]

21. No info on me. HAH!

:7




Hmmmm...although I did find my two kids and my mom on there...

[Robb]

23. I appear to be off the grid. Or their grid.

I don't see them making much money with this one. :D

[IDemo]

24. Remove your listing here ->

First, enter your name and location to find your listing. Copy the URL.

Enter the URL and your email here -> http://www.spokeo.com/privacy

Click on the link they send you.

Done.

[Autumn Colors]

26. Thanks for the remove listing link

I removed what that had for me and for my elderly mom on there. Nearly everything was wrong (laughably so in the "hobbies" part).

They even had supposed PHOTOS of me on there. Not only were they not of ME, they were of all different people.

My house has apparently tripled in value, too.

PS: My listing said I was not interested in politics.

:rofl:

[IDemo]

29. I am uninterested in politics, and own a million dollar home

A million bucks just won't buy what it used to, I guess..

[Patsy Stone]

30. Thank you.

:thumbsup:

[blueamy66]

41. I tried to remove my listing today,

but was told that there were already too many removal requests today.

[WhiteTara]

25. I checked it out and fortunately I'm not listed

in any of the last three addresses. Yeah! could it be cause I don't have a cell phone?

[Greyhound]

27. Being in the IT field for 20 years has given me the knowledge to not appear on hardly

any lists like this. They did access the county records on one of my old houses (which they were completely wrong about), but nothing personal at all.

I've tried to warn people about this, but few listened.

Welcome to the Monkey House

[ellenfl]

28. and are you all sure that this site is not a phishing site? maybe

y'all have just confirmed yourselves to the site owners. :eyes:

ellen fl

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Which is precisely the reason I am not going there

:)

[Patsy Stone]

33. I also found myself on another evil site called Spoke.com

Not "Spokeo".

Spoke listed my work address and phone number and offered the searcher the ability to "meet" some of my co-workers. That one wasn't quite so easy to get away from and it took a bit longer for the "Spoke Team" to send me an email. I ended up reporting them to the TRUSTe Privacy Program and that finally worked. As I searched the interwebs, I found I wasn't the only one who had issues with them. There was even a blog post called "Spoke is EVIL." There is no way to speak to a human at that company either.

Funny that the two have such closely associated names. I wonder if they're really part of the same thing?

[PufPuf23]

34. I am glad not to be listed. There is more info for a fee.

I checked various relatives and friends, many were listed but all were inaccurate except address and age.

[Still Sensible]

35. Judging by what it shows for me, this site

is pure bullshit. Must just be collecting random bits of data... and drawing incredibly incorrect conclusions. I can't imagine anyone using spokio and expecting accuracy. I also checked another 10 people I know and the information shown for each and every one is as wrong as mine. Obviously someone had this brilliant idea for a database, thought up a mediocre--at best--methodology for accumulating the data, and had no vision for what the results would look like.

[Libertas1776]

36. that's my take as well

its pretty basic info but with a whole bunch of utter BS thrown in. Half the stuff they had about my family was utter nonsense. I don't think it even had anything on me. It really is some BS methodology they use.

[Beartracks]

74. Searching friends, I found a bit...

... of correct data on each, namely city and address, age bracket, maybe phone number if included. After that, it seems a mishmash of default values, incorrect stuff, and occasionally something accurate (like household members).

I'm not in the local phonebook, so presumably they got my correct address from county documents showing me purchasing my house...? And yet, my lifestyle list says I don't own my home. lol

One relative's lifestyle reflects a bunch of stuff, some of which is accurate (pet owner, likes reading, researches investments) and others not so much (not interested in politics, likes NASCAR).

Speaking of lifestyle bits... how can they know if you are "self-motivated"??

----------------

[jmowreader]

37. I don't think I'd trust it much

I did a search for "Barack Obama."

The one who lives in Washington, DC:

Age: unknown
Ethnicity: unknown
Relationship: "in a relationship"
Occupation: unknown
Hobbies: unknown
Residence: unknown
Estimated home value: unknown.
Children: no
Education: unknown

If these cocksuckers don't know he's 48 years old, is black, is married, has two children, has a law degree and is the president of the United States, there's not much hope for them.

[Lisa0825]

38. LMAO!

:rofl:

[cutlassmama]

64. +10000

[uppityperson]

39. This explains why our dog gets so much junk mail.

Not really sure why he has a profile, but he is there.

[gmoney]

42. Not too accurate, but removed myself anyway

[Elwood P Dowd]

43. They gave me a sex change operation, and I am now a female with an expensive home.

:crazy:

[tabatha]

44. Thanks so much for this information.

I just removed two references, with incorrect information about me.

[MadHound]

45. Wow, other than my address and marital status, information available from the county

They are wrong about everything else. What a joke, my house worth 1 million:rofl:

[Matariki]

46. Do they charge pepole to have their info removed?

If so, what a business plan. They wouldn't even need to have accurate information - just names. Many people would pay to remove a bunch of bad or fake or good guess information about them.

[IDemo]

48. No. See post #24

[Hugin]

47. They seem to be selling some sort of "Reputation Defender" software as a cash cow.

I'll have to inform my vapor doppelganger to check it out... I'm listed as twins, both with the same name... :rofl:

[Blue_In_AK]

50. I found myself, but

there's an incredible amount of wrong information there. I lived here in Anchorage for 35 years and in my present home (which is a duplex, not a 5-10 unit building) for the past 20 years, but they say I've only been here six years.

Plus if this place was worth $1 M plus, I'd have sold it a long time ago.

[elocs]

51. I'm on there twice. Some basic correct info, but too much else wrong.

I would never pay money for it based upon the amount of incorrect information I could see.

[Cleita]

53. Well they got half of me wrong including my picture and

that I'm not interested in politics. :rofl:

But they do have my address and phone number right, which might explain some telemarketing calls I have been getting although I'm on a no-call list.

[Hugin]

54. I guess they figured that since we're both members of Ducks Unlimited we're not into ...

politics. :rofl:

[Quantess]

55. They don't got nothin'.

They are right about a few things, such as my astrological sign. But for some reason they have determined that I am not interested in politics but I am interested in retail shopping. Haha.

[SteveG]

56. Most of the data they have on me is over 20 years old, and

they have my age wrong, I do have children (and did when I lived at the residence they list for me), and they have my zodiac sign wrong.

[tinymontgomery]

58. Mine says I like sports

hate sports, say's I like to garden, hate to garden etc. What a waste.

[panzerfaust]

60. We just refinanced. I wish the bank had thought our house was worth the 1 Mill+ Spokeo claims

it came in a lot less than that.

I would guess that about half of the free information is correct. Do have a cat, but don't have a dog; do drive a truck, however don't "enjoy fitness". Interestingly in one place it states I "read about world news and politics" (true) but in another says "is not interested in politics!"

Was tempted to pay the three bucks to see if they actually do have my phone numbers, credit score, income, etc - but then they would just have my credit card number as well.

Will try to get this deleted - but there will just be more databanks like it, so, on second thought, likely not worth the trouble.

Best was the claim that I had children - this was news to my wife, as well as to me. Guess it might be worth three bucks to find out about them?

On Edit: went back an looked again. Actually the prominent "$2.95" is per month with a one-year membership. Do not think that, as a couple of people worried, that it is a phishing site. Firefox, Phish Tank, McAfee, and several other screening programs I run did not throw up any notices. Likely it is just a web-crawler that harvests the information it can find.

[mercuryblues]

62. Richard Cheney

"Not interested in Politics."

http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Richard%20Cheney#Virginia:1485727067

Someone needs to tell Rachel Maddow, she is not interested in politics either.

[kittykitty]

63. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Everyone I looked up has wrong info. All live in million dollar houses(not), have the wrong occupation, bachelors have wives. Where do they get this stuff?

[Upton]

65. I'm not on there...

my dad is...but Spokeo says he has no children. So, I guess I don't exist.

[stranger81]

66. My entry says I'm "not interested in politics."

That's not the only thing they got wrong. But quite a bit of the information was correct, and more than I'm comfortable seeing together on a web page.

[RandomThoughts]

68. Information on me is incorrect also. n/t

[Beartracks]

71. Mine has a picture, and it's not me! LOL n/t

[high density]

72. Seems like a joke

It says my dad is female, has a dog, and his home is worth over a million dollars in a low class area.

The only info it has right on me is my sign. It shows pictures of somebody who isn't me.

Good for a laugh.

[cherokeeprogressive]

77. I guess I'm still anonymous. n/t