Spokeo And Privacy Concerns
By Arnab, Gaea News NetworkThursday, April 1, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO (GaeaTimes.com)- The residents of USA have become worried of a website named Spokeo.com of late. It can give literally anyone access to the personal information of a person they want. The website is quite new but it has made a lot of web users worried. Some people have expressed the concern that the website can give the malicious hackers the chance to misuse the personal information they obtain about others from the site. They can use it for fraudulent purposes which can also jeopardize the career and lives of these people. Spokeo allegedly uses a different search algorithm than safe search engines like Google.
It attempts to gather scattered information about a person from all relevant online sources including the popular and lesser known social networking sites. It even scans through the business sites and real estate sites to gather the information. This may make things scary for the social networking buffs and they would not be even aware that their data is being accessed by people they may not know. However, there is a way of removing one’s information from spokeo. One needs to access the spokeo website for the purpose and the procedure is pretty straight forward.
Spokeo started its journey 4 years back and initially it was conceived as a way for friends to stay connected. It was founded by Harrison Tang. Some users think that it might be helpful for the crime agencies and employers who can find detailed information about the candidates without spending hours searching the internet. However, the bottom-line is clear- one should think twice before posting personal information on the web.
