The Internet and Your Not-So-Private Privacy

Internet privacy is a growing concern. Today, I received an email claiming that by visiting http://www.google.com/ and entering my phone number, personal information such as my name, address, and even a map to my home could be easily accessed. Intrigued, I tested it by entering our phone number in the Google browser bar, and to my surprise, it displayed not only mine but also my husband’s name, our addresses, and clickable map links next to our names. These maps are provided by Google Maps.
I did exactly that, and sure enough it pulled up not only my name but, also my husbands. Well I immediately had them taken off of Google. As I was filling out their form for removal, they had a list that gave me more sites. I checked them out too, some of them not only had our names, they also had our children’s names. I filled out their forms and received an email stating that I would have to fax them proof of who I was by showing them my drivers license without the picture, a state Id, my address, birth date, etc.

Please read: VPN Canada by Jacky Chou

For one why would I be trying to have my name removed if I wasn’t who I said I was. Then they assured me that just because I was removing our phone number and names, that would not mean our public information would not again be submitted in the future from our county. The only way to prevent that from happening again is by:

1. Contact our phone company and have our names both unlisted
and unpublished.
2. Go down to the court house and request that all our public
records be sealed. I wonder how much that would cost?

It is ashame that know one no longer has privacy in there lives. We have nothing to hide, it is just the principle. I guess you could say we are Old School, if we want someone to have our names and addresses, etc. then it should be our right to give it out to whom we want. That is not the case now-a-days. Looks like whom ever is willing to pay for the information, will get it. I can see why so many Americans are being scammed, and wondering how these people got their information. They not only get our email addresses. They also somehow get our Instant Messenger Id’s, plus they can obtain what ever information is available to them on the Internet.

The following sites I have found our names on:

Anywho http://www.Switchboard.com – http://switchboard.intelius.com
http://www.Whitepages.com
http://www.ReversePhoneDirectory
http://www.Phonenumber.com
http://www.Smartpages.com
http://infospace.intelius.com
http://dogpile.intelius.com

They say that it will take 48 hours to remove your name from their system. Plus you have to give them the exact listing you want removed.
I checked under the 2 different names my husband uses.

for example:

Andrew Gabardine
Andy Gabardine
Andrew A. Gabardine
Andy A. Gabardine

My husbands name was listed 3 different ways on
http://www.Whitepages.com