If you ’re interested about online surety , tweak the privacy settingsof your accounts and being impudent about what you send are good place to start . But as one writer recently pointed out , that is n’t always enough .
consort toThe Washington Post , YA author Anna Brittain took toTwitteron January 10 to diffuse someunsettling newsher sister had shared with her that morning . If you plug your name and city intoFamilyTreeNow.com , you ’ll likely bring up the names of any married person , children , and sept members you have , as well as past address and the date you lived there . Clicking on the links of your relation takes you to profiles sodding with their personal info .
FamilyTreeNow is hardly the only site that makes this data available . Spokeo , PeekYou , andLexis Nexis(a imagination used chiefly by lawyers and government employee ) all provide databases of personal information rend from public record like nosecount information and parentage , death , marriage , and divorce records ( to name a few ) . Butunlike those resources , anyone can access personal particular on FamilyTreeNow without paying a fee or create an news report first .
If you ’re uncomfortable with the thought of your hometown name and address and the name of your make love ones being just a few clicks out for a stranger to incur , Brittain also partake in some step you’re able to take to persist safe . After pulling up your profile on FamilyTreeNow , click “ Privacy ” at the bottom of the Sir Frederick Handley Page . From there , go to the subhead title “ Opt Out of Living People Records ” under the section “ Information We take in . ” After following each step , your information should be hidden from the situation for good .
The internet makes it easy to get at someone ’s public records and just as gentle to send them anonymous threats . In orderliness to protect yourself from hack , doxxing , or personal identity theft , it ’s worth taking the time to dispatch yourself from as many data broker internet site as possible . Computerworldhas a useful list of sites that may have your selective information and directions to opt out of each one .
[ h / tThe Washington Post ]
