Spokeo

"Look on spokeo.com" he said. "They know everything about you and you can find out anything about anybody" And so you can. just don't expect it to be correct. Of course you have to join to see just what they know about you and the "free" trial membership somehow costs $14 a month, but OK, I just had to see for myself.

At least they spelled my name right and my age is accurate, but my favorite hobby is sports? I'm a Protestant? I must protest. My house doesn't have only 4 rooms or only three baths, I've lived there longer than they say I have and neither of my parents live there or ever did. Spokeo claims that they do and seems unaware that one parent has been dead for years and that I have two children not one and that neither lives with me.

The market value of my house is off by at least $200K, my estimated income is way off the mark and sorry, Spokeo, I do own the place. But hey, I hope the tax assesor reads Spokeo too. Otherwise the guy who spent $14 to look me up wasted his money. They do have a nice satellite photo of my house though, complete with my boat parked at my neighbor's dock. They don't mention boating as a concern of mine.

The info about my kids was even worse. My daughter would be very surprised to know that she had a six year old girl for instance or that she didn't finish college. My son would be surprised to know that he lives in the house I sold ten years ago where he hasn't lived in 18 years and simultaneously at two other addresses in New York and has a graduate degree. He apparently is "upper middle class" and I'm only "middle class." I do like to read however. At least they got that one right.

We live in a world of constant surveillance and the idea that our government cares or would support our right to privacy is ludicrous, but perhaps worse that the fact that so much information is available about us to anyone with a computer and $14 bucks is that it's bad information. Of course when I began to search the web site for some means of angry protest ( they said I was a protestant, after all) I found a disclaimer averring that the information was for entertainment purposes only and was not intended to be a means to evaluate a person's credit or credibility. *

I'm not amused.


*† All data offered is derived from public sources. Spokeo does not verify or evaluate each piece of data, and makes no warranties or guarantees about any of the information offered. Spokeo does not possess or have access to secure or private financial information. Spokeo is not a credit reporting agency and does not offer consumer reports. None of the information offered by Spokeo is to be considered for purposes of determining any entity or person's eligibility for credit, insurance, employment, or for any other purposes covered under the FCRA.