Andrew Cory recently emailed me to say that you can get a person's name, address, and directions to their home by simply typing their phone number into Google.
I tried it with our phone number and it didn't work. However, I tried it with another phone number and it worked immediately. Just try it--go to Google and enter a phone number. Drop the dashes and just enter it without spaces, i.e. "7345551212".
I don't know how many people are affected but this but frankly it strikes me as pretty creepy. It also may not be illegal, but I suspect that it probably should be. There's a presumption of privacy when you give out your phone number, you don't expect people to find out where you live simply based on it--indeed, it's already illegal for phone companies to give out this kind of info.
Telephone books are online. You can do the same thing on Smartpages, which google indexes.
Get a PO Box and have all your bills and such directed there. Pay the extra to have your address unlisted.
Your domain registration should not list your home phone or address. That is public record and anyone can find you that way.
I agree that you shouldn't have to pay to be unlisted, but that's the way it is.
It's just a reverse phone book lookup.
If you're listed in the phone book, it shows up.
If you're not, it doesn't.
It will also provide the info if you put in your name and town. They will remove the info upon request, but should you have to ask?
I checked the lines here, and Google does pick up the one that's listed, but has no record of the one that's unlisted, which supports the reverse-phone-book premise.
Didn't work for me!
Reverse lookup directories have been around sicne the dawn of the telephone system in varying flavors ... number-to-owner/address, street-address-to-owner/number, etc. If you visit your public library's "phone book collection" (if any of them still have these), you would probably be able to find, covered in dust, older editions of these types of lookup directories.
Didn't work for me either. I tried my current #, former #, various relatives, friends and my work phone # and didn't get anything, which is a good thing.
Some time in the 1980s, most states passed laws making it illegal for the phone company to give out anyone's name or address just because you had their phone number. I know, I used to play around in quasi-legal phone stuff back then, and I remember when customer name & address stuff was easily obtainable to those few who knew what they were doing, and how suddenly it became nearly impossible to get such info unless you were in law enforcement.
Apparently the internet is changing it all back. I'm just rather surprised that privacy advocates haven't already been lobbying legislatively to have something done about this.
Not sure there's much that could be done about it, Dean. They'd just move the data offshore.
Infospace has had a reverse directory up for several years, BTW.
Mine gets zip as well.
But, shoot, most phone books list the street address, no?
It may be illegal in Michigan, but in New York you can call information and get an address just by giving a name. (i.e you can get the phone # AND the address just by asking).
Dereks point about reverse lookup directories is right on. The biggest one of these is the Haines "Criss Cross", and they market to government agencies, libraries, and anyone who does sales work, such as realtors, insurance companies, and, of course, telemarketers. You can also buy CDs of phone #s/addresses for any region or the whole country (and the Haines is on CD too).
Your phone company may not be able to give out this info, but it is readily available and not legally encumbered at all.
Yahoo will let you opt out of this. Do so and it will give only zip code
Dean,
Its a reverse phone number lookup.. It actually indexes old info. I tried your current & my current number with no success, but I tried your pre-Indianapolis phone number and my old apartment phone number and they showed up.
Its kinda freaky knowing that this is possible, but as long as someone knows your name, they can get the same info..
When I worked for the police in the early 1990s, the Criss Cross books were only available to the police, or so I was told.
AnyWho (AT&T) also has a reverse lookup feature, but it appears to update from the publication date (or print date maybe) of local phone books. My new address wasn't listed for nearly a year, and I moved right when the phone books came out.
I don't know if it's illegal (or if it should be). I do know that property data is public knowledge in Texas. If all you have is an address you can get a name (Dallas has all property data on-line - www.dallascad.org), and then with the name and address the number is cake.
It's all connected. Creepy, but useful.
CS
is it possible to remove my name such that this Google trick stops working?
I thought my mobile number from work (I'm contracting for a cellular company and carry an engineering phone) would list the company and corporate address, but it found nothing. The home number gave my wee wifey's name, and the zip code for downtown. Again it looks like reverse phonebook. The mobile is unlisted, we didn't pay for a second listing in my name (she didn't change her name when she stopped being a maiden) and the phonebook lists only the city for an address.
Google will opt you out: http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html but that will not remove you from other websites out there (anywho, etc).
When I worked for the police in the early 1990s, the Criss Cross books were only available to the police, or so I was told.
You were told wrong. Criss Cross couldn't survive if police were the only market. (For one thing, thier price is so ungodly high that a lot of small agencies can't afford to have one.)
I know realtors have them, I used to do that for a living. I know insurance salesmen have them, I used to do that too. (Making cold calls from a Criss Cross is truly a horrid task.)
In the pre-internet days, I could have gotten your home address at any time by going into the local library and looking at a cross directory. Or I could have looked up a specific street address and gotten your phone number.
It's essentially public record, unless you take steps to stop it.
When I became a reporter, I knew I didn't want people to be easily to find my home address, so I listed my phone number in the white pages without my address. If you type my home phone number into Google (I'm not going to TELL IT YOU!!!), you don't get my address, but you get my name. Type in Howard Owens, Ventura, Calif. and see what you get. Same thing.
Of course, you could go down to the county registra of voters and get my home address, if you wanted to put forth the effort.
Frankly, I've never understood people getting all mad at Google about this -- don't get mad at Google, get mad at yourself for not taking the fundamentally easy ways available to you to protect this information.
Just keep in mind, if you're a solid citizen, there's no completely safe way to hide. If you own a home, that information is available. If you register to vote, that information is availabe. If you're licensed to drive, in many states, that information is available. There are innumerable ways both for free and for fee to find you and information about you. With minimal effort, a determined foe can find you. Unless you live in a cabin in the mountains, don't own property (including a boat or car), don't have a SSAN, don't get mail, don't register to vote, don't have a drivers license ... people can find you.
Two additional points -- every newsroom I ever worked in had the Haines directory. Second, I just told you all how to find my home phone number in Google (drat!) ... no crank calls please! I get enough telemarketers bugging me at dinner!
Howard,
You don't have to live in a cabin in the mountains, you can hide right in the city. But you have to understand that you are HIDING.
While in the library, try asking for a city directory. They used to list the homeowner and all the family members. I looked up my parents in 1939 Jacksonvile, Florida and found they were renting in what is now a VERY LOW class neighborhood. This continued through the early '60s as I found my own name and family members after I was married to the Princess.
Regards