'Spokeo' website knows lots about you

People-searching websites are nothing new on the Internet. Many folks use them to find friends or look up an old "ex". But one site is gaining buzz for possibly being too revealing.

The website is www.spokeo.com .

Try searching your name on the site. You will likely find a host of information such as:

•   Your full name
• Where you live
•   Whether or not you live alone
•   Who lives with you
•   Your income range
•   Education
• Shopping lists you have posted online
•   Interests
• Sometimes you’ll even find photos of your home or even your children.

That's a lot of information. The not-always-factual resource even worries younger, tech-savvy folks.

How Do They Know So Much About You?

"People you’re not friends with can find out about it and maybe use it against you," said college student Michael Cheng. Fellow student Megan Callahan searched her name, but she did not find any information.

That may not be too surprising considering she does not have a car and does not own a home, which is a public record. More importantly, she is extremely cautious online.

"Like on my Facebook, I don’t put anything that people can see about me and contact me," said Callahan.

Spokeo.com basically finds people on the worldwide Web via e-mail contact lists and social networking sites. Some information about you is also public record, such as your address, if you own a home, and the value of your home.

Inaccurate Information

However, Spokeo.com does not guarantee accuracy.

"This is an equal opportunity image destroyer," said Marketing Professor Mike Bernacchi. He said Spokeo.com lists him as being married to his daughter. In fact, he said most of the information posted on the site about him is incorrect.

"If you find something that is inaccurate, and you want to correct it, realize that then you’re opening another can of worms there. Because you’re giving information to somebody else again perhaps that you didn't’t want to have that information," explained Bernacchi.

If you would like your listing removed from Spokeo.com, you must give them an e-mail address. Again, that e-mail address is linked to every contact you’ve ever e-mailed with it. Making up a fake e-mail is still not fool proof.

"I don’t think you’re ever fully protected," said Dave Schachinger, an Information Technology Operations Manager. "Even if you pay for privacy protection, there’s going to be somebody out there that’s always a step ahead of the game that has another way of getting around what they’ve put in place."

How You Can Opt Out

So what can you do? Start by limiting what you post online.

"I’m going to limit the stuff that I put on Facebook and Twitter because I don’t want to be out there exposed," said college student John Hoskins. Anything you post in Social Media is fair game for Spokeo.

Limiting what you put online is really the best move you can make in an information age where privacy is quickly becoming an electronic luxury of the past.

If you want to "opt out" you can click a link on Spokeo. But remember, you must provide an e-mail address, and confirm the opt out at that address, so you just can't make up an e-mail out of the blue.