Jeremy Wolf reports:
It can list your address, a picture of your home, how much it cost, how long you have lived there, your approximate age and income, your relationship status and more. And it is online for anyone to see.
Spokeo.com takes information from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and from phone books, marketing surveys and real estate listings to create a profile on you without asking.
“Some of the info that’s here on Spokeo is essentially public info and there’s no getting around it. Real estate sales for example,” Steave Beaty, a computer science professor at Metro State College, said.
[..]
In the lower right corner of the page there is a link labeled “Privacy.” Click on “Privacy” and paste the URL in the URL field. Then you need to enter your valid e-mail address and the code listed. Then click “Remove Listing.”
You should then get an e-mail and when you get the e-mail confirmation, you should follow the instructions to complete the removal of your name from the site.
Read more on 9News.
Checked myself out. The only things that were right were the address (although I could have been any one of the hundreds listed with my name – it’s very common) and my housemate’s name. Every other possible thing was wrong, including my sex! I wouldn’t trust the (more detailed) information I could buy since everything else they “know” about me is wrong.
Thanks, dePriest! I also checked it out. They had ages (but not necessarily names) correct and the address correct, but almost everything else was wrong, including even getting the number of people in the family wrong. They are clear that they don’t guarantee their accuracy because they are just compiling other sources. Of course, one has to wonder about those other sources who have our details so very wrong, which is a good reason to check your credit report occasionally.
What I found is that when I tried to remove listings from Spokeo, it processed the first two requests fine, but did not do the third. I tried again today for the third, and still no joy. They say they limit requests from an IP to ensure that it is not a bot. Uh huh. We’ll see how long it takes to get the third request processed.
I wonder what their financial arrangement, if any, is with Reputation Defender, whom they conveniently link to…..