and my husband wears the pantsuit in the family. To add to my confusion my right wing parents are actually African-American and my brother has somehow moved home to live with my parents and aged 20 years in the process. My mother, on the other hand, has remained a caucasian but is now 30 years younger.
The good news? Apparently my home is worth over $1 million dollars. I hope my lesbian pantsuit wearing partner is willing to sell, I mean this is way more money that we could make working in this small town and we could use the cash.
Now how did I learn all this new info on my family? The short answer is Spokeo, the long answer is facebook and their new privacy settings. So if you use facebook, or suspect your right wing parents may actually be African-American, or are concerned with your privacy please read more below....
WWW.SPOKEO.COM
Spokeo is a social network aggregator web site that aggregates data from many online and offline sources, including but not limited to: phone directories, social networks, photo albums, marketing surveys, mailing lists, government censuses, real estate listings, and business websites. All data collected by Spokeo is publicly accessible from its original sources. Spokeo does not originate data and information available is only as good as its source. The information available originates from information people provide that becomes public information “even if a person isn't on Facebook or Twitter.”
Facebook just did an
Instant Personalization feature that allows partner sites to access user content.
The information that is shared includes: you and your friends names, pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting.
Spokeo also collects information from myspace and other social networking sites. Information is also available from counties and credit agencies. For a fee you can get someones complete home address, photos and even a credit score and estimated wealth level.
Aside from this being somewhat intrusive, much of the information is also incorrect. The website disclaimer in light gray and somewhat difficult to read is as follows:
Profile data is derived from marketing surveys, consumer records, and public data sources and is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. The data provided to you by Spokeo may not be used as a factor in establishing a consumer's eligibility for credit, insurance, employment purposes or for any other purpose authorized under the FCRA.
My suprise began when I looked up my spouse:
He is apparently female and the decision maker in our household. I then thought to my self how will my uptight right wing parents react? I discovered my 80 year old father is African-American. Hmm, he really hates Obama and is a racist Sean Hannity fan. I wonder if he knows? If Hannity finds out does he have to leave the FOX book club? But my mom is now 30 years younger so I guess dad finally got that trophy wife he had been dreaming of.
Public information on the internet really isn't anything new, and inaccurate information isn't new either. But you don't have to allow the information to stream to Spokeo from facebook if you don't want to.
First of all - change your privacy settings.
On facebook go to account, privacy settings and then Applications and Websites. Edit Instant Personalization Pilot Program and uncheck the Allow select partners to instantly personalize their features with my public information when I first arrive on their websites.
Also edit What your friends can share about you under applications and websites.
Under Privacy Settings Personal Information and Posts change everything to friends only. Change your photo Albums to friends only as well if you don't want your photos shared with the world. I had made this change and no photos showed up on spokeo under my name but my husband (sorry: lesbian decision maker) had all photos he/she was tagged in as available for view if you purchased the premium spokeo service.
Keep in mind that this information is available for anyone to see. That funny picture of you drunk at the river wearing nothing but a poison oak rash could be viewed by your employer if they look you up on spokeo and you were tagged in the photo on facebook.
Privacy is increasingly difficult to maintain in this electronic environment. Playing on facebook or myspace may be fun, but there are consequences you may not be aware of.
Thinking of selecting privacy on SPOKEO and having your information removed? A number of people have reported it is a scam and that the information is never removed and that their email address (they require an email address to remove your information) was used and sold. So go ahead and try to remove your information, but if it doesn't end well you were informed. I would suggest you make a new gmail or yahoo address to use before trying just in case.