I think by now my very few readers know my views on posting certain information on the internet. I try to be very careful with information posted, and often google myself to see what is out there. Some of it I can control, other information not so much. I have realized that from now on when I donate to charities online be it The 3 Day, or Tam's Bark in the park....I will do so annonymously.
I mention this because today I read an article in the WSJ and it mentioned that if you use google to track your friends, you are behind the times. It then went on to list various other search engines and I decided to test it.
Following Tam's idea of googling the most obscure person, I decided to search for an old boyfriend who I have lost touch. I have never been able to find him because he has quite a common name. Like John Smith, but a different nationality.
Well, I not only found him, I also found out who he married. I found their house and via lovely satellite maps was able to find out that he has children and a 5 bedroom house in the western suburbs of Chicago.
The thing that gets me, is that if I were a different type of person, I could wreak havok on his life. I knew his wife, and she would NOT be happy for me to suddenly appear in his life.
Just an FYI, I also did searches on some of the authors of some of the blogs I read. Scary info is available if you only know how to search.
So are you going to tell us how to do these searches? You've got MY attention. I hope all is well.
Posted by: Allison | May 23, 2008 at 07:09 PM
My obscure person was my ex-husband! I now know where he works, where he lives and his cellphone number. I will not be getting in touch with him either!
Posted by: Tamara | May 27, 2008 at 12:22 PM