PRIVACY ALERT: Facebook fuels Spokeo.com

Facebook’s privacy failures are legendary.  This is just one more example of why Facebook is evil: Spokeo.com (I hate giving them a link!)

If you haven’t seen my post pointing to the Audit Your Facebook Privacy Settings article, stop reading this and read that article now!  

Stop Pointing at My Wife

Step 1: go to Spokeo.com and type in your name.  Commence the righteous anger.  If you are like me and not listed, good job – you probably already are paying attention to your Facebook privacy settings.

Step 2: Type in your wife’s name.  NOW, commence the righteous anger! My wife was listed with our home address, phone number and more.

Step 3: Copy the URL from the offending page that displays your loved one’s info and click on the privacy link at the bottom of the screen.  After filling out a simple form, and responding to the email they send you – they will remove the page in question.  It worked for me, now my wife is de-listed from that service.

Tragedy Avoided… or Is It?

While I admit, it was simple to remove my wife from this service, it begs the question: How did she get on there in the first place?  Answer: Facebook.  While I am listed on 91 sites (vanity search instructions: type your name in quotes and do a google search), my wife is on 191 sites!  This is anecdotal, of course, but she has never paid any attention to her Facebook privacy settings, while I have been paranoid from day one. I logged into her Facebook account and spent about 20 minutes removing her from all sorts of crazy Facebook applications (thanks again to this article).  My concern is that you can’t un-ring the privacy-lost bell.  My wife’s contact info is already out there and FOR SALE on all sorts of “people-finder” websites.  While I can’t control all of the companies that share our information, I can resolve to pay attention from now on.  I suggest you do the same.