Posts Tagged ‘ spokeo.com ’

Stop Spokeo.com in its Tracks and Protect Your Privacy – NOW

May 5th, 2010. By AbiK

If you hadn’t been aware of a newer site in town called Spokeo.com, it’s time you gave them a visit.

As you can see from the image here, you can “Uncover personal photos, videos, and secrets…GUARANTEED”. Tantalizing and titillating, yes. Acting with a shred of integrity or a nod to Internet privacy and online protection? No.

As they say, “It’s not your grandma’s phonebook.”

No, it sure isn’t. For a mere $2.95 a month (one year subscription) you and just about the entire webosphere can access quite a bit of info about you. What types of info? Take a little look-see…

Your address

Photos of you

Your online profiles

Credit rating information

The demographics of where you live

How many people (and children) are in your household

Your zodiac sign

Your interests and hobbies

Your home’s worth

Your marital status

Your ethnicity

Your education level

And more!

Now, yes, one can argue that all of this information is generally available online in various places—some free, some not. But, Spokeo.com comes along and aggregates all that info for anyone to see and puts it in a neat little package—a package of YOU—for a mere $2.95. It reminds me of actuarial work where values are placed on a life, or a limb—and they always seem a tad bit low given what a life or limb truly represent to those who own the life or limb. I’m thinking $2.95 is a pretty low value being placed on our personal details and online privacy.

GET YOURSELF OFF SPOKEO.COM NOW.

Here’s how:

Visit www.Spokeo.com. Enter your name and location in the search box. You’ll see a bunch of info come up. Some of it will be accurate, some not.

Scroll down to the very bottom of the page…to the teeny gray-colored type at the bottom and look for the word “Privacy”. Click on it.

A pop up window will appear. This is the screen where you can remove yourself, your information, your life from Spokeo.com.

Toggle back to the original page you were on. Go to the URL bar at the top and copy that URL.

Return to the privacy page. Paste the URL you just copied into the first box where they ask for your URL.

Enter your email—you need to do this so they can bounce back an email to you to verify that you’re removing your information.

Finally, in the last box, type in the squiggly characters you see. And click “Submit”.

You’ll receive a confirmation email in your inbox. Click the link in the email to verify, and double check (search your name again on Spokeo.com) to ensure you’ve been removed.

Do it now.

Tags: Internet Privacy, Online Privacy, spokeo.com
Posted in Internet/E-commerce | 9 Comments »