Privacy alert: Intelius database could have your cellphone number
- January 31st, 2008
- 3 Comments
He could be looking up your info!
There’s a database out there with your name on it. (In it, but on it sounded better.) Intelius collects information like your cellphone number, how much your house worth and so forth and then stuffs it all into a database. This information is gathered from public records. The database can be used by anyone, provided they pony up at least $8, though the most in-depth report costs $50. Privacy advocates and the people who love them aren’t too keen on the database, saying it’s an invasion of privacy. Verizon Wireless doesn’t like it either and says it’s prepared to go to litigation to prevent its customers’ numbers from getting out.
I did a quick search on our well-muscled leader John Biggs and found out some interesting things. Did you know his middle name begins with a “D” and he once lived in Farifax, Virginia? I didn’t pay for the rest of the report because I’m poor and live in Queens, but you’re all more than welcome to try it out for yourself. Search for yourself, search for your friends, search for celebrities. Have fun!
trystero (Who am I?)
8 months ago
Man, this is evil! We really need a national tech-savvy dialog to highlight the very very important differences between Privacy and Security… In my mind, there’s a very important difference between giving your contact information to a business in order to recieve a product or service (see Pizza delivery) and the assumption that giving them your contact info is a tacit consent for the business to share and resell your information!
Though I was one of the first people I knew on facebook back in the day, I’ve since significantly reduced my usage of social networks for fears of privacy and portability of my personal networks. My relationships should be MINE to own, MINE to create, MINE to destroy, and MINE to take with me if the company supporting the social network infrastructure turns out to be evil and starts selling my contact information.
Privacy for digital information is exponentially more important than physical privacy because of the danger of accidentally or maliciously copying or releasing information that would normally be private if it existed in physical form.
If social networks are to succeed they must uphold the user’s assumption that they own the data about themselves!
Alex (Who am I?)
8 months ago
I notice the article stated that you can opt out by faxing them a request along with some sort of identification…like your license. Yeah, that’ll be a smart thing to do, give those bastards more info to profit from. Screw them.
Concerned (Who am I?)
1 month ago
Intelius Revealed as a scam
It turns out that the facts are in and there is no question that Intelius is a scam. What they do is outright theft from consumers. For all of the details, see the excellent blog at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/29/naveen-jains-intelius-prepares-to-go-public-how-much-of-their-revenue-is-a-scam/
Many people on blogs and comments have said they felt that these guys at Intelius deserve to be in jail. Read the TechCrunch story and the various comments and decide for yourself. There are also numerous web site where consumers have complained about these guys.