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Friday, April 9, 2010

Social Profiling

Several friends on facebook alerted me to the site spokeo.com.  It's essentially a phonebook that includes a lot of personal data compiled from around the internet.  I'm not sure if I should be concerned about privacy or not - seems like that ship has sailed.
I reviewed my profile.  True that I'm married, in my early 40s and have an unknown occupation.  False that I'm a Capricorn.  Capricorn?   Crappy website can't get my astrological sign right and I'm supposed to worry about someone using this data to...what?  Steal my identity?  My identity as a Capricorn?  (Is it really necessary to capitalize zodiac signs?)  I love that I live in a home that is both worth $1M+ and located in a "below average" neighborhood.  One of those two pieces of data is wrong, but I'm not saying which one.

Age:  early 40's
Gender:  Female
Ethnicity:  Caucasian
Zodiac:  Capricorn
Relationship:  Married
Children:  Yes
Occupation:  unknown
Education:  College Degree
Hobbies:  Sports, Reading
Home Owner:  Yes
Residence:  Single Family House
Length of Residence:  9 years
Est. Home Value:  $1M+
Neighborhood:  Below Average

7 comments:

Shutt2u said...

I'm not in there...but I was surprised to see there are 9 people with my name across the country.

And your neighborhood rocks.

Sharon Thomas said...

I am horrified by this site. First of all, it has me in the $1M+ home price (is ANYONE in that category in North East?), below-average neighborhood (yeah, OK, truth hurts) categories as well. Most offensively, it says I've completed "some college." Suck on my master's degree, spokeo.com, and I friggin' TEACH graduate courses, too! (My ego is not going to recover from this one.) And don't even get me started on it saying my home has no heat or central air (um, I wouldn't live here with no central air, morons) and that my interests include the OUTDOORS. Horrifying. Simply horrifying.

Olivejenny said...

How'd you like the googleearth photo of your house? Mine included 100% false info, except for the house I DID live in some years ago, in a different "life". Unlisted phone #'s, peeps. OH! And there's a photo of Not Me, standing next to a horse I've never seen. I would never get that close to a horse. I'm afraid of horses. And chickens. And squirrels. Basically all wildlife and farm animals.

Since this is being typed into a google text box, I hope this matter will be cleared up in the ID database soon.

susan said...

This is very creepy. There were quite a few "Not Me"s on that site. I do like Google Earth though.

The Mike said...

Hmmmm... A lot of misinformation on that site, which begs the question of why anyone would actually want to buy a membership.

The Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

SPORTS??