I am becoming mildly horrified at how much personal information can be found on the web about people who want to be private.
You know how you write on a Christmas card to someone for 20 years, “I hope to see you this year!” and never do? I’ve been going through these and getting in touch. Admittedly I didn’t expect to get traumatising news on one of these! I have met again some wonderful Christian friends and remembered once again just why I was drawn to them in the first place, so long ago.
I’ve also started trying to get back into touch with people with whom I fell out of contact many years ago. In some cases friends of friends help; in others, a little detective work is involved. Each snippet leads to another one, and eventually you can pick up a LOT of information. I am rather troubled by how much.
I lost touch with one such person 20+ years ago. After a couple of evenings hard graft (and a few dollars on a pay site), I have determined the address where they live, the other people living there, the ages of most of them, the price of their house when they bought it, their telephone number, and I have “walked” down the street where they live by Google Streetview. I’ve also seen a photo of one of the teenagers living there — looks like a child of theirs, from the distinctive grin! — and a long list of their interests, which is, of course, highly revealing about the household. I also know who their neighbours are, and got some very good leads from a youthful unprotected facebook post. Indeed Facebook, by far, has been a good source of leads.
My friend has been cautious, I see, in what he has allowed to leak onto the web. But he hasn’t considered that his children and his neighbours’ children might reveal his name and address, his church, and so forth. And they have, presumably out of pure simplicity. Once you have someone’s address, you can discover a great deal about them, as we have seen.
I too must be in the same (or worse) position. All the information that I have gathered about him could probably be gathered about me. Each snippet opens the door to further searches.
This blog, I find, must be a very fruitful source of such leads. It really takes very little, you see. Yet I have been careful. I know that I have.
All I started with was his name — not even his full name – and the city he lived in. Everything else I learned on the web. He hides any real information on his own Facebook page — but that doesn’t help when a neighbour blathers.
Fortunately I am not an ill-disposed person. But what if I was?