Spokeo: How Much Of Your Information Is On The Internet?

This semester, I had two guest speakers in my Media Analysis class with Dr. Moore. One speaker discussed Foursquare (a check-in feature app) and the other discussed the impact of social media with today’s culture. Both speakers were very informative with their presentations and they each touched on privacy, specifically a website called Spokeo. I decided to check it out myself after the third time of discussing it in class.

Spokeo is a web site that was created by a group of Stanford graduates in 2006. The web site collects publicly accessible information posted on the Internet and creates a database. The search bar allows you to search by name, email, and phone number. I decided to give myself a search. I couldn’t find anything on myself but I found accurate information on my parents. I simply searched my father’s name and within seconds I found his phone number, martial status, age, and household income. After clicking “Property,” I saw a Google Street View Image of my front yard, the estimated value of my house, my property size, how many floors were in my house, and when my parents purchased it. The last available section, “Family,” provided information on how many people lived in my house as well as what their gender and age was. I did not need to pay or register to find this information.

Dr. Britten, a journalism professor at WVU, discussed this website with me last week. He said that we must get past the initial “wow” feeling. We have to focus on where they collected all of this information. We need to think about all the times we casually provided the Internet with personal information. Dr. Britten explained to me that Spokeo uses a “fairly lazy search method.” Imagine if someone decided to dig deeper or use a stronger search method. What other information can they find about us?

Spokeo offers a premium paid subscription that allows users to find more information about the people they search. After paying $4.95 for the month, users can find someone’s lifestyle, wealth, photos, videos, social profiles, dating site profiles, and favorite online stores.

I believe Spokeo is a wake up call to anyone who ignores the fact that personal information is accessible through simple online searches. Spokeo does provide an opt-out feature, which allows users to take their names off of the listing.
Go ahead and search yourself: Spokeo.com