People search engines

ScribePharisee · Sep 30, 2008

MSNBC had a special Sunday night that got me to looking at what's out there regarding personal identity on the internet. Anyway, I came across Intelius, a site that offers in-depth information for a cost. Found my ex-wife easily. What's weird is I put my dad's name in the search and it came out that he's got four addresses and listed his age as current. The problem with that, though, is he died 22 years ago.

Weird.

But it got me to wondering what weird experiences you folks have had with these people searches, what tells what for free, etc.

Rusty Shackleford · Oct 1, 2008

I've always wondered how those kinds of sites can find info on people with fairly common names, like mine. If I was to put 'Tony Jackson' (not my name, but probably similarly common) into one of these search engines, how will it distinguish me from the 10,000 or so others with the same name?

ScribePharisee · Oct 1, 2008

It renders state residence, addresses, etc. It shows every place I've lived, which makes this strange regarding my dad. It had him living in a city he never lived in. At least up to the time he died or snuck out of the morgue and into a new life. But he sure looked dead in that casket.

Dad, if you're out there, we've got a lot of catching up to do. Grandkids you've never met.