whack-a-mole

[opabinia]

Spokeo.com may already list your your address, approximate credit score, home value, income, age, photos...

Before you delete your listing, be aware that Spokeo is a handy way for someone to collect valid email addresses. Don't use any important personal email or work-related accounts when you request to be removed. If you don't already have one, set up a separate email account (using "creative" personal information, if necessary) to handle sites like this. They're likely to keep popping up.

Search for yourself on the Spokeo site, copy the URL of your listing page, return to the Spokeo homepage, click the (tiny) Privacy link at the bottom, and follow the directions to remove your listing.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp
http://www.spokeo.com/

Note: Inaccuracies in your listing may be there because the public record sources Spokeo harvests from can be outdated, or because blank fields are automatically populated with made-up values. The point of the site is to screw people, more or less. Either they scare/annoy you into giving them a valuable email address to sell, or they sucker you into buying a membership to access questionable data.

Comments

[darla.livejournal.com]

This freaked me out when I first heard of it, but then I just gave up when I read the part on Snopes that says "our efforts have never resulted in a successfully blocked record".

[mandy-moon.livejournal.com]

Weird. The site thinks Jon doesn't exist and I live at my correct address, which is a single family home that I own worth $1M+. I am single, live alone, and not interested in politics and enjoy shopping. And I seem to be a chubby blond woman who posts a lot of pictures of babies.

[panzerkunst.livejournal.com]

I removed mine a month ago, and it's still off. I'm more disturbed that I share the same name with many unrelated people.

[alonewiththemoon]

I looked myself up, saw that at least half the information about me was incorrect, and was well satisfied with that.

[halo.livejournal.com]

well, that was entertaining.

Evidently, I live at home with my two (male) parents in Massachusetts, have only completed a few years of college (hah!), am a single mom, and enjoy home decorating. I also have a 21 year old phantom sibling no one ever told me about. My gay dads have been busy!

Hey, they got the bit about home decorating right.