Search Your Name Online: Be Prepared for a Shocking Discovery

Come on, admit it. You've Googled your name. Actually, it's a good idea. You should know what is on the Internet about you.

Usually you'll find such things as what you've written, where you've worked, your Web site, speaking engagements and your blog.

Some say it's just an ego trip.

I disagree. You also want to see if something is inaccurate or downright nasty. If it is on a public site, you might be able to do something about it such as comment.

Nevertheless, there is a lot more about you online than just what you wrote or where you worked

Google is not going to tell you the details of your personal life. Beyond the various free people searches are details you normally wouldn't make public, but they are there for anyone to find.

It's downright scary. Forget about privacy. It's long gone.

I've found people I didn't know except for a first and last name. I had no address, age range, names of relatives, nothing. I performed this questionably ethical process using my home computer and available public free people search engines.

Many think the information is inaccurate. I'm here to tell you most of it is true, current and very, very personal. I know because for this exercise I used myself as the subject.

Below is a list of some popular search engines that you can use for free:

· Ancestry.com: -Need age, gender, year of birth, etc. Very little without these details.

· 411.com: - Mostly accurate information on city only and one "association" with my husband.

· CVgadget: - Will give you a list of a person's social networks

· PeekYou: - Very little information beyond name and city.

· Pipl: - The most comprehensive information for free. Photos, profession, employer, city, state, phone numbers and age.

· Searchbug:- No information available

· Spokeo: - Very limited, but accurate information with a map. Just name and city.

· White Pages: - Name, current and old addresses. Others with similar name and sometimes age. No email or phone number. Will refer user to paid companies.

· Wink People Search: - Very little accurate information beyond name and city.

· Yahoo People: - Mostly a Google search. One address.

· Zaba Search: - Some accurate information on street address, city, state, and age. No email or phone number.

Fee based people search sites:

Several of the free sites will refer to a paid site for more information.

Below are several paid-based sites and what you can find out.

· Intellius.com: Intellius is the largest paid people search engine online. It allows a free search that lists name, city and relatives. Many of the free sites offer more information for a fee. Once you click on the additional information they link to fee level. Intellius offers six different services ranging from $.95 cents to $50.00.

· USA People Search: Starts with free list of names and city. For more information, it offers a limited, time-based option such as a 24-hour, 7-day or 30-day subscription.

· US Search: The free portion gave accurate information on city, state, parents and education. The fee portion offers three different pricing options and services from $.95 cents to $40.00.

I paid the $40.00 to see what kind of information would come back.

- Name, aliases, all previous & current address, current address, phone numbers and my age.

- Relatives, property values, bankruptcy and criminal records.

- All relatives, ages and social network associations.

- Property information including lot size, finished size, house type, tax assessment year, year built, Zillow estimated value, and valuation change from two years ago.

- Available criminal Records. If the records you want are from out of town, you can pay $15 and the site will send a person to retrieve court records and send them either by E-mail or by fax.

There are sites to look up specific criminal records, arrests, sex offender sites, and "skip tracing" for missing people.

Pretty much whatever you are searching for on anyone, it can be found using an online search engine.

Happy hunting.

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The Reason for Google Search Redirection

Does the Google web browser of your computer have that tendency to show you a different and oftentimes unwanted item or website every time you look for something in its search field? And does that item or website often ask you to do something like fill in personal information in its fields or, more commonly, offers or sells you things that you do not want or need? You may not know it, but most likely your browser or computer has been hit with the now infamous Google redirect malware.

The virus, which is also known formally as the Alureon rootkit malware, has been lurking in the Internet for some time now and many PC users have fallen victim to its nefarious actions. And the name itself is somewhat of a misnomer; the virus can affect every popular browser that is available right now as long as the malware is embedded deep within your PC's system. Such stubbornness has enabled antivirus software manufacturers, whose products are constantly included in the leading antivirus software reviews, to constantly look for ways to trounce the virus. But if you want to get rid of the spam right away, you can do the terminating yourself.

The Google redirect malware makes its presence felt by modifying your Internet browser search preferences so that every webpage that it comes up with is either spam or dangerous in its content. Oftentimes the webpage will have you buy or download a program that will purportedly take out the Trojan, but in truth the download is just another viral program that will do more harm than good. The redirect effect of the malware will cause your Internet browser to pull up an unwanted page once every three times you make a search. It will also produce atypical uniform resource locators (URLs) in the inquiry result and forces the unwanted webpage to reappear even though you have already taken it down.

Even if you choose to use one of the top products that are included in antivirus software reviews to deal with this problem, you may not be able to completely eliminate it from your computer system. Worse, the redirect malware can damage the installer data of your computer, thereby causing your PC and its associated peripherals to crash. It could disable your keyboard and mouse and cause your PC to issue error alerts. If you attempt to catch the malware with antiviral products, even with those seen in the best antivirus software reviews, you might not be able to detect it completely due to the way it has been written, it seems to be impervious to most anti-malicious software or spyware available. However, there is a way to get rid of the virus out of your PC's system, but you will need to implement it in a careful manner and after implementing some changes in your computer. This is important because if you become careless during the process, you will cause the virus to reinfect your PC. Such is the nature of this malware that the seemingly benign redirecting that it causes will only lead up to something even more troublesome for you to tackle, like bringing down your computer speed to a crawl or letting your PC be used by unscrupulous cyber criminals to make off with your personal data like credit card numbers and passwords.

If you suspect that your computer has been infected with the Google redirect malware and you tried but failed to remove the offending virus with antiviral software, don't panic just yet. Doing the removal in a painstaking, step-by-step way would help you succeed where even the foremost programs listed in antivirus software reviews cannot accomplish.

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Germany's Love Hate Relationship With Social Networks and Search Engines - Often Schizophrenic

Do you recall recently when Germany had a feces fit over Google's street view and satellite view maps, too much resolution and too much invasion of privacy they said, unacceptable they claimed and they sued. Google acquiesced and that case is history. Okay so let's talk because something else has come up, this time instituted by some pretty well connected folks in Germany's financial sector.

You see, there was an interesting article in the Huffington Online News titled; "SCHUFA, Germany's Largest Credit Agency, To Mine Facebook, Twitter for Consumer Risk Information," by Catherine New published on June 15, 2012. The article clearly stated;

"Forget the euro crisis. There's another credit storm brewing in Germany that hits much closer to the heart. It's on Twitter and Facebook. Germany's wired population and business press freaked out when a broadcast news agency revealed confidential documents that showed that the country's largest credit agency, SCHUFA, plans to scrape data from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to determine an individual's risk to lenders and ability to pay bills, according to Der Spiegel."

Now then, I suppose this is very similar to how insurance companies for auto policies in the US used credit card data and late fees to determine if someone was a greater risk of getting into an accident in their automobile - yes, it turns out that there is a statistical correlation. Still, that didn't sit well with many Americans, and although there was massive outrage, one must understand American politics, insurance lobbying, and how our government works to see why the rectifying of this problem went unabated for so long.

We should all note that social networks are getting a little too friendly with our information, a little too loose with which advertisers they choose as partners, and in the case of Facebook, now it's a public company and needs to make money - and data mining and big data are big business and big money. Worse, much of this information is free for the taking whether or not it is sold to the offending groups who want it or not, and as I note in this case study, it isn't just here, this is happening globally with your personal and private information.

Of course, in their defense, how personal is your data if you willy-nilly post it all over hell's half acre for all the world to see? Whose fault is that my friend? Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Internet Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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