Here's what Wikipedia says about Spokeo.
Spokeo is a social network aggregator web
site that aggregates data from many online and offline sources (such as
phone directories, social networks, photo albums,
marketing surveys, mailing lists, government censuses, real estate
listings, and business websites). This aggregated data may include
demographic data, estimated property and wealth values, and estimated
interests. . . . .
The information available originates from information people provide
that becomes public information “even if a person isn't on Facebook
or Twitter.” . . . .
Spokeo offers paid subscriptions that bundles extra features into one
package. Premium features include phone and email search, and an import
feature users can utilize for email address book and social network
contacts. Prices range from $15 for a three-month subscription to $34.50
for a year-long subscription.
And my take (PRG):
Wikipedia's piece on Spokeo is value neutral, as is the site itself. By this I mean, that Spokeo presents information with no malice and no agenda, hidden or otherwise. It is what it is. Still, it's a little shocking to see what comes up when you run a search on your own name. That the information displayed turns out to be largely wrong or misleading, is no
particular consolation. You only know that if you run searches on a dozen or so of your friends. And you don't know what the paying customer will learn about you (or think he has learned about you) unless you pay Spokeo to find out.
Value neutral or not, you can remove your profile from Spokeo, if it creeps you out. But all those pieces of information about you are still floating around out there for anyone to discover through other channels. Spokeo just won't be one of them.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment