The Internet has given rise to a dizzying array of people-search sites and data brokers that gather and compile public information and social-networking profiles. The sites gather information from public sources such as property records and telephone listings, and other information is harvested by “scraping” — or copying — websites where people post information about themselves.
Read more in the Wall Street Journal, where they also provide a guide to how to remove your information from some of the bigger data scrapers.