Have You Ever Google Searched Yourself?

[TheMercenary]

I was not listed on either google or spokeo. Which is good. But I am also one of those people who consistently gives inaccurate info on nearly everything I fill out, including age, location, income, etc. and I mix it up on every new thing I fill out. So far it seems to have worked.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by bluecuracao

Last time I did, I was pretty pissed off to find out that my name and full address came up through some stupid real estate site that claims to get their info through public records.

Property tax records are public. If you own your mortgage (as opposed to renting, or having the mortgage in the spouse's name only,) your name/address are out there. As is information like your appraisal value, and probably square footage too...

[bluecuracao]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Property tax records are public. If you own your mortgage (as opposed to renting, or having the mortgage in the spouse's name only,) your name/address are out there. As is information like your appraisal value, and probably square footage too...

Yes, true. But in Philly, BRT property records can't be searched online by a property owner's name--only by address or account number. So I think that would allow a layer of protection if a crazy ex or some such nut job wants to find out where you live via internet.

Not sure how other cities allow you to search their records...

[monster]

Not hard to set a program to go through the records by address and create a reverse directory searchable by name.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by bluecuracao

But in Philly, BRT property records can't be searched online by a property owner's name--only by address or account number.

Interesting--it certainly does seem to be a better way to do things. In this county you can search by name, but it's iffy on whether the results will come back right. Our house is under "[Last Name], [Wife] and [Husband]," and the address won't come up unless you search for this exact name string. In our previous county, the search engine was much more usable.

[classicman]

The data is available online for anyone who wishes to purchase it. The company I work for access the data from 4 different states and we get it on a disc in an excel spreadsheet. I can search pretty much anything - street address, zipcode, county, purchase price, assessed value, names... whatever. This information was made available to the public in, I believe 1992... freedom of information something or other.

[monster]

Do you work for a debt collection agency?

[classicman]

nope

[xoxoxoBruce]

Probably the sunshine act, because it's government business.

[Undertoad]

I used to have the database of all registered voters in my county. It was pretty easy to get. Cost $35 at the time, I think. I had everyone's birthdate and whether they voted in the last eight elections. I still have it on disk somewhere although the data is from 1997.

[glatt]

They use that voter information. After I voted (along with maybe 300 other people) in our county's primary for school board officials, my name must have been placed on some super elite political list of suckers, because the amount of requests for political donations I got just skyrocketed.

[classicman]

Mine did too this year. I never thought that because I voted was the reason.
I figured they were doing that to everyone.

[Undertoad]

People who vote in minor primary elections are elite super-voters. I targeted them too, because it's money not wasted: you expect them to vote.

[Pete Zicato]

My celler user page is the number one hit on Google for "Pete Zicato".

[classicman]

You are the top 5 in my search