Thursday, June 3, 2010

Spokeo - your profile for all the world to see

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.



No comments: