Why is it creepy to google someone

[tloonya]

It is not creepy. Don't tell anybody and google all you want.
Soon there is going to be no privacy whatsoever. So we better get ready A.S.A.P!

[Miss Tequila]

"To google someone just to see what kind of personal information you can find out is creepy. You're prying into their background without their permission or knowledge. Creepy. Sorry.. it is what it is. "

But that is step one in my "you know who" approved stalking handbook

[Great]

I google ... owner's of companies (and employee's if I know their names) before letting them into my house for maintenance/repair work. Men I consider going out on a date with.

I actually googled a teacher once that I thought was full of hoooey as far as her educational background that she was claiming, what she was telling me about my son was not adding up. Turns out she was falsely claiming a title that she did not posses the educational background. And yes I went to the school principal with my information to verify if what I found out was correct (not to get her fired) but to get her to quit claiming to parents that she was trained/licensed and qualified to make diagnosis. This teacher continues to work at the school but no longer misrepresents herself.

[Colleenz]

Googling is fine. Just do it in private with the door closed.

[thyme4change]

Maybe I do it wrong, but when I google myself all I get is my age and that is pretty much it.

You are definitely doing it wrong. Once you google them, you get their address. Then, you go on google maps and look at their house. Then, you go to zillow and see how much it is worth. And then (if you are in Maricopa County) you go to the county recorder's website and find their loan paperwork and see how much they had to borrow on their house. Then, you do an amortization table and see if they are upside-down or not. Then, you go to Linkedin and see their job title and company. Then, you go to Salary.com and try to estimate their salary. Then, you go to facebook and see their spouse. Then, you go to their spouse's Linkedin page and see their job title and company, and repeat the salary.com step.

[Deleted]

Sept 4, 2012 12:16:23 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Maybe I do it wrong, but when I google myself all I get is my age and that is pretty much it.

You are definitely doing it wrong. Once you google them, you get their address. Then, you go on google maps and look at their house. Then, you go to zillow and see how much it is worth. And then (if you are in Maricopa County) you go to the county recorder's website and find their loan paperwork and see how much they had to borrow on their house. Then, you do an amortization table and see if they are upside-down or not. Then, you go to Linkedin and see their job title and company. Then, you go to Salary.com and try to estimate their salary. Then, you go to facebook and see their spouse. Then, you go to their spouse's Linkedin page and see their job title and company, and repeat the salary.com step.

[thyme4change]

OK thyme, maybe I'm starting to see why it's creepy. I sure never did any of THAT

uuuuuhhhhh - yes - me neither. I'm just saying that you could do that. I guess, theoretically - right?

[thyme4change]

On a totally unrelated note - what is your real name again? I, umm, want to send you a chain letter.

[michelyn8]

and this topic had me wondering how to remove some of the info out there about myself. Searching that question led me to this.

As noted in the comments, this won't remove you from public records so if you have a criminal background and someone really wants troll through the court's online records to find that out about you, there's not stopping them beyond the amount of effort they want to exert (online search versus in person since some courts do have a cutoff date for online records).

www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/j1mit/how_to_remove_yourself_from_all_background_check/

2178
HOW TO: Remove yourself from ALL background check websites. Thanks to LawyerCT. (self.technology)
submitted 1 year ago* by pibbman
sorry, this has been archived and can no longer be voted on
Thanks to LawyerCT for bringing this topic up on /r/technology. She also provided a list of the top sites online that hold data on you.

I decided to go ahead and use this list to collect removal procedures from ALL of these websites and provide direct links or instructions to do so.

The following list was provided as being the "big boys", so if you remove your name from these ones then all the smaller "sites" should fall afterwards.

•Intelius.com
•Acxiom.com
•MyLife.com
•ZabaSearch.com
•Spoke.com
•BeenVerified.com
•PeekYou.com
•USSearch.com
•PeopleFinders.com
•PeopleLookup.com
•PeopleSmart.com
•PrivateEye.com
•WhitePages.com
•USA-People-Search.com
•Spokeo.com
•PublicRecordsNow.com
•DOBSearch.com
•Radaris.com
How to remove yourself from each of these have been listed below. I would recommend that you scan some form of ID such as a state issued ID like a drivers license. Black out your picture and drivers number. Leaving your name, address and DOB visible. Any sites that requires such a thing will have an * after the address.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Intelius.com* - Opt-out

Acxiom.com - Opt-out

MyLife.com - To request that a Member Profile or Public Profile be deleted, please contact Customer Care at 1-888-704-1900 or contact us by email at [e-mail]. Upon receipt of these requests, and confirmation that you are requesting that your own profile be removed, please allow MyLife 10 business days to complete this removal. It may be necessary to contact you to validate that you are the profile owner requesting the removal. This is to ensure the correct identity and profile ownership before completing these requests, and is for the protection of our users and their privacy.

Zabasearch.com* - Opt-out

Spokeo.com - Opt-out

BeenVerified.com - LawyerCT's guide

Peekyou.com - Opt-Out

USSearch.com* - Opt-Out

PeopleFinders.com - Opt-Out: Annoying form you have to mail in

PeopleLookup.com* - In order for PeopleLookup to suppress or opt out your personal information from appearing on our Website, we need to verify your identity. To do this, we require faxed proof of identity. Proof of identity can be a state issued ID card or driver's license. If you are faxing a copy of your driver's license, we require that you cross out the photo and the driver's license number. We only need to see the name, address and date of birth. We will only use this information to process your opt out request. Please fax to 425-974-6194 and allow 4 to 6 weeks to process your request.

PeopleSmart.com - Opt-Out

PrivateEye.com - Opt-Out

Whitepages.com - Opt-Out

USA-People-Search.com - Opt-Out: Yet another form to mail in

Spoke.com - Scroll Down to Access and Correction Section for more info

PublicRecordsNow.com - Still determining how to remove...

DOBSearch.com* - In order for us to “opt out” your public information from being viewable on the public DOBsearch People Finder search results, we need to verify your identity and require faxed proof of identity. Proof of identity can be a state issued ID card or driver's license, or notarized letter. If you are faxing a copy of your driver's license, you may cross out the photo and the driver's license number. We only need to see the name, address and date of birth. Please fax to 516-717-3017 and allow 4 to 6 weeks to completely process your request. It is your responsibility to ensure legibility of your document

Radaris.com - Opt-Out; Thanks to those who figured it out.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[mandyms]

I'm guilty of googling people just because. Never thought anything of it until I had a patient tell me he googled me, then I thought it was creepy.

I guess as long as you're not telling anyone it's ok?

ETA: thanks, Michelyn, I think I'm going to have to do that..another thing to add to the list of things I'll "have to get around to."

[thyme4change]

I'm lucky because there is another person with the same name as me, in the same town, in the same industry - except she is super successful (CFO) and was in the news a lot. So, if you google my name, you get a bunch of articles about how I cashed in millions of dollars of stock options and spoke at huge industry functions and how I got promoted. Eat your heart out, college boyfriend. Even if it isn't true.

Oh - and google her house!

[Deleted]

Sept 4, 2012 12:14:59 GMT -5 deminmaine said:

Jeesh, I've googled people before, including myself. I had no idea it was creepy.

The new esocial ettiquette is hard for me to acquire I guess.

Oh, don't worry - everybody does it.

I think the reason it is creepy is because of what you would have to do to acquire the same information before google.

If I look up an ex-boyfriend to see if he is fat or bald (or fat and bald!), I'm able to find in two clicks what used to involve a half dozen casually probing conversations with mutual friends.

If you wanted to know what he looked like, you might have to drive by his house or work. If you wanted to see his wedding photos (to see if his wife is fat or bald), you'd probably have to break into his house and snoop through the bookcases.

Google lets you be a super creepy voyeur without getting off your butt.

[tloonya]

Sept 4, 2012 12:11:54 GMT -5 Colleenz said:

Googling is fine. Just do it in private with the door closed.

...at least one hand should be free...for googling....

[Deleted]

Sept 4, 2012 12:08:37 GMT -5 Great said:

I google ... owner's of companies (and employee's if I know their names) before letting them into my house for maintenance/repair work. Men I consider going out on a date with.

I actually googled a teacher once that I thought was full of hoooey as far as her educational background that she was claiming, what she was telling me about my son was not adding up. Turns out she was falsely claiming a title that she did not posses the educational background. And yes I went to the school principal with my information to verify if what I found out was correct (not to get her fired) but to get her to quit claiming to parents that she was trained/licensed and qualified to make diagnosis. This teacher continues to work at the school but no longer misrepresents herself.

Shh - don't tell anyone around here that you googled a teacher...

According to some around here, it is creepy if you try to google someone who spends more waking time with your kids from Monday to Friday than you do...

[Waffle]

I have two instances of being creeped out when someone told me that they had googled me.

Once I had a potential eBay customer call me about an item I had for sale. Asked me a bunch of questions wanted to meet me to pick it up - told me from the info he gathered from google - it looked like I lived closer to X than Y. I was really glad that he did not win the auction.

Second a boss claimed he was googling the company we worked for and came upon an entry that mentioned a political donation I had made. Then he went on to warn me about how I shouldn't contribute, because people could google me and find that out. I don't believe for a second that he found that entry by googling our company - he had to have entered both my name and the town I live in to come up with that entry. Even if you just google my name - the first few pages are a bunch of things about other people with the same name as mine.

[973beachbum]

I don't think I have ever Googled a nop public person, other than ourselves in my life. Anyone who says they know anything about us because they Googled us is either lying or they know about the worng people. I have googled our names and I have not gotten one hit that was actually us and not someother people with the same name.

[Great]

Sept 4, 2012 13:26:04 GMT -5 @foodiedad said:

Sept 4, 2012 12:08:37 GMT -5 Great said:

I google ... owner's of companies (and employee's if I know their names) before letting them into my house for maintenance/repair work. Men I consider going out on a date with.

I actually googled a teacher once that I thought was full of hoooey as far as her educational background that she was claiming, what she was telling me about my son was not adding up. Turns out she was falsely claiming a title that she did not posses the educational background. And yes I went to the school principal with my information to verify if what I found out was correct (not to get her fired) but to get her to quit claiming to parents that she was trained/licensed and qualified to make diagnosis. This teacher continues to work at the school but no longer misrepresents herself.

Shh - don't tell anyone around here that you googled a teacher...

According to some around here, it is creepy if you try to google someone who spends more waking time with your kids from Monday to Friday than you do...

you are your child's best advocate, believe in yourself!
I was reading your thread off/on for a few pages.
My DS actually attended a Catholic school for kindergarten and first grade, his dad and I pulled him out at the end of first grade. My story though is a different experience than yours, the Priest had a target on DS's dad and my back. eta.. we were trying to get DS a foundation in the Catholic church teachings, just wasn't meant to be, I guess.

Good luck to you getting the answers you need to resolve the issue.

[Peace Of Mind]

You can find that out by Googling people?! I'm surprised so many still talk to me.

<<runs to Google self>>

[Peace Of Mind]

LMAO!! You Googled me, didn't you. ;D

[Peace Of Mind]

Don't go through the trouble of finding where I live. I'll just tell you and then we could Google together.

[Deleted]

It doesn't help that they make it so easy to be creepy now.

Meet a guy at the bar in 1992, you get his first name and phone number on a slip of paper.

Meet a guy at the bar in 2002, he programs his first name and phone number into your phone.

Meet a guy at the bar in 2012, he programs his first name and phone number into your phone. Your phone syncs with Facebook. Facebook suggests him as a person you might know. Suddenly you know his last name, where he works, where he went to school, who you know in common, where he got drunk on St. Patrick's Day, what sort of tattoos he has...


(on a related note, man, I'm tired of dating)

[susanb]

Just googling someone isn't creepy IMO. Lots of twenty somethings I know google people before going out on a date with them. I have googled child hood friends and ex boyfriends. I found out that one of my childhood friends had a special need child and re-connected by joining a fund raising event for her DD. She thought it was sweet, not creepy, that I thought of her and sought her out.

However, it can get creepy. I agree with MM that trying to investigate the date someone had sex (via google or any other method) is creepy.

I have also been on message boards where one member would investigate the screen name or figure out the identity of someone and then post the information they dug up for the rest of the community to see. Also creepy.

So, IMO it isn't really using google that is the issue. It is what information the searcher is looking for and then what they do with that information that makes it creepy or not.

[Happy prose]

CRETINOUS...to unbookmark on your iPad, hit the bookmark icon on top (looks like a little book), hit edit on top right, then you can delete whatever bookmarks you want. Poof!

[Deleted]

susan, that story has a nice ending... but uh, it's super creepy.

[susanb]

Sept 4, 2012 18:35:48 GMT -5 @craftysarah said:

susan, that story has a nice ending... but uh, it's super creepy.

Googling a child hood friend is super creepy? She had her phone number listed in local newspapers for her charity. I googled her, read the article, and then called her up. How is that super creepy?

[Sum Dum Gai]

I used to google myself once in a while just to make sure I knew what was out there. Then I was depressed for a while because my google presence is so boring. So now I make weird posts on news articles and stuff using my real name to spice it up a bit, and I have my blog. I complain about how expensive it is to cover the utilities on my 7,000 sq ft ocean front house. Tell stories about the year I spent living in New Guinea. How I was this close to getting an astronaut spot before they scrapped the Shuttle missions. That kind of thing. Google me is way more awesome now!

If I had ex girlfriends they would be super jealous if they looked me up.

[Opti]

Sept 4, 2012 18:47:16 GMT -5 @missmargarita said:

Sept 4, 2012 18:45:54 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

I used to google myself once in a while just to make sure I knew what was out there. Then I was depressed for a while because my google presence is so boring. So now I make weird posts on news articles and stuff using my real name to spice it up a bit, and I have my blog. I complain about how expensive it is to cover the utilities on my 7,000 sq ft ocean front house. Tell stories about the year I spent living in New Guinea. How I was this close to getting an astronaut spot before they scrapped the Shuttle missions. That kind of thing. Google me is way more awesome now.

If I had ex girlfriends they would be super jealous if they googled me now.

That would actually be funny.. if it wasn't true...

I'm actually mostly invisible via google as I have a common name. Even my handle here, Optimist is used in so many variations this version of me doesn't even pop up easily on Google. I am not on Facebook Real or fake so another standard social media data mine is a fail.

I can hide in plain sight.

[Peace Of Mind]

Google my first name and you would have so many pages to go through you would forget why you were there in the first place.

[Opti]

Sept 4, 2012 18:55:21 GMT -5 @bloomscuzzer said:

Sept 4, 2012 18:52:26 GMT -5 Opti said:

I'm actually mostly invisible via google as I have a common name. Even my handle here, Optimist is used in so many variations this version of me doesn't even pop up easily on Google. I am not on Facebook Real or fake so another standard social media data mine is a fail.


I can hide in plain sight.

Is someone looking for you? I can yell, "hey look at me and no one really notices.". I know this cause I try it out sometimes.

I am looking for work, so I do expect interviewers to possibly search the net for me before the interview. Its one of the reasons I've decided not trying out FB was a good idea. FB is used to screen people out. I've yet to hear or read a story about someone who actually got a great job because they were on Facebook.

[Phoenix84]

I couldn't find much when googling myself. Lots of people with my name but not me.

The only record I could find of me was my age and my next of kin.