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Hippyt
Member
09-10-2001
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 12:54 pm
I wasn't sure where to post this,but I thought this was fairly important. I typed my phone number in,and yes,there is a map to my house,along with my name right out there for anyone to see. Scary! 10-Digit Web Search Locates Listed Phone Numbers Results Reveal Name Of Number Owner, Directions To Home POSTED: 10:56 am CST March 22, 2004 UPDATED: 11:15 am CST March 22, 2004 ARLINGTON, Va. -- One search engine's telephone number database could provide Web surfers a person's name, address and directions to their front door by performing a one-click search on a listed 10-digit phone number. Nikki, an Internet savvy 15-year-old girl, said this is common knowledge among teens everywhere. But, do adults know it? Nikki's father Scott said he received an e-mail telling him to type his daughter's personal telephone number into the Google search engine on the Internet. " I punched in her telephone number and lo-and-behold there's her name, her address, and a map to the house. If she's at the retailers, she's paying for something, and they ask her for her telephone number, some guy standing next to her now knows who she is and where she lives," Scott said. NBC News reporter Liz Crenshaw set up an experiment in front of a Starbucks Coffee at Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, Va. She asked passers-by if she could perform an Internet search on their home phone number. To validate that Crenshaw did not know the people asked to participate, she asked is she knew them or where they lived before inputting their phone number into the search engine. "(Are you) Kitty? Is that you (referring to search results)?" Crenshaw asked a willing participant. "It is," the participant responded. "Is that directions to where you live?" Crenshaw asked. "Yes, that's exactly where I live," the participant answered. "When you give somebody a phone number, do you suspect they know how to get to your house?" Crenshaw questioned the participant. "No," the participant responded. "And you give your phone number to a lot of people. Do you want to get (your name removed from the results)?" Crenshaw asked. "Yeah. How would I?" the participant asked. Fortunately, it is easy to remove your phone number from search results. Log on to Google and type your phone number into the search box and press enter. The next page will show who the number is registered to with a telephone icon next to it. Click on the telephone icon to go to the page that will remove your number from the Google PhoneBook. According to the Google Web site, the process to remove a listing from the database takes 48 hours. Electronic Privacy Information Center spokesman Chris Hoofnagle said people need to think more about electronic privacy. "The general way to protect privacy in the consumer marketplace is to limit disclosure of your personal information, to find anyway to not give out personal information. Because once you give out that information, it's very hard to rein it back in," Hoofnagle said.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:03 pm
Thanks- I'm not on there because I only use a cell phone (I don't even have a phone line) but my mom and aunt were. I removed them.
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Neko
Member
08-03-2001
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:24 pm
I guess it is common knowledge to teens since I knew this already... But, even if you put my phone number in, either nothing comes up, or the address given is over 5 years old. (I've moved twice in 5 years)
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:28 pm
FYI - Google isn't the only website you can do this at. There are tons of them. If you have a listed phone number you can usually be found.
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Hippyt
Member
09-10-2001
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:29 pm
I knew it too,but never knew how to get my number off there.
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Kaili
Member
08-31-2000
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 2:33 pm
Yeah- I've known a long time- and I guess it's not that big of a deal because if someone wants to find you, they generally can pretty easily- but it's nice to know how to get rid of it since there's no sense in making it any easier.
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Texannie
Member
07-16-2001
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 3:05 pm
I knew it, but not the map. Also glad to find out how to remove it. Thanks hip!
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Lyn
Member
08-07-2002
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 9:21 pm
Doesn't seem to work in Canada (google search). I put in a few phone numbers and I came up with "Your search - ********** - did not match any documents"
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Lucy
Member
10-08-2002
| Monday, March 22, 2004 - 9:38 pm
Hippy, thanks for posting this info. I have an unlisted number, but I found a few other friends that should know about this.
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Riviere
Member
09-09-2000
| Tuesday, April 06, 2004 - 4:52 am
This is not scary at all... Map sites of USA have been out there for years! What scares me is, folks finally realize it and gripe oh no their privacy is suddenly invaded!!! LOL!!!
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