Personal info site a stalker's paradise

Let's make a bet: Using your first and last name, I can find out where you live and who's in your immediate family.

It's possible through spokeo.com, a website that synthesizes public information available online from multiple sources. Chances are, your private information is available to the masses, and you may not have been aware until this moment.

The search starts with the name, phone number or email of the person you are trying to look up. From there, you narrow the results by state, city then town. People are identified by their first name, middle initial and last name, as well as by gender and approximate age, such as late 20s or early 30s.

By process of elimination, it can be pretty darn easy to figure out which set of information most likely corresponds to the desired subject. The names and ages of your family members are also listed, plus how long you've lived in your current residence.

If your name isn't common, it will probably take a stalker 30 seconds to find out where you live. If they're lucky, they might even get a picture of your house so there will be no question as to which white-picket-fenced domicile belongs to you. On more than one occasion, the photo of the house also revealed a bonus car in the driveway.

Like many websites, spokeo.com has its weaknesses. Information is limited to some degree. Only the street you live on is listed, plus your home phone number minus the last four digits. However, these things called phone books make it simple to fill in that missing information.

Inaccuracies also exist within the site. A search for some people yields no results, and it's slow to update information based on death or change of residence — although the site often reveals both current and former residences. Ultimately, though, most of the people I introduced to the site said the information was accurate — at least accurate enough for a stranger to find out where they lived, or to narrow the results significantly.

But here's what is even scarier: Everything I've mentioned is available to a non-subscriber, but people can pay to see more of your personal information. This includes information about your property, your wealth, your interests, photos and more. There are three-month, six-month and yearly subscriptions to the site — all for less than $5 a month. Personally, I don't want to pay a nickel to find out what other information shows up for my loved ones and me.

Spokeo's mission is to help people connect with one another, but I see its potential to be abused. Information revealed on Facebook contributes to what's available on Spokeo. All anyone needs is a few key pieces of information, which may be accessible even if your profile is private.

So what's to be done? If you're uneasy about this information being available to anyone capable of using a computer, go to spokeo.com and remove yourself from the listing by changing the privacy settings. At a time when so much private information about each of us can be found online, we would do well to reconsider what information we make available to just anyone.

Julia Merulla can be reached by email at merulla.record@live.com.