Just playing around with this ZabaSearch thing, kinda creepy and voyeuristic at the same time. It's a sort of search engine that allows you to get the name and address of pretty much anybody (even past addresses). Although, I've tried this same sort of thing with Ancestry and I'm able to get about the same results, this is just freely available online. Searches like this only gather information from past and current public directories.
I did do a search on my name, and surprisingly I found nothing. At least I found nothing with my current name, everything for me is listed under my maiden name. This is also true for Ancestry. My husband isn't listed either, he's never had the phone in his name. Our land line was in my maiden name when we got married because I was really just too lazy to change it.
Can there be a practical use for such a thing? I see myself using this to remember old phone numbers and addresses. For some odd reason, people asking me for an old address or phone number is common (mostly to verify old accounts or purchases.) I went to Kroger the other day and forgot my Kroger card, apparently they allow you to use your phone number instead of your card at your checkout, of course I got that darn card at least 2 apartments ago, how the heck am I supposed to remember that phone number? Now I can search for myself 2 apartments ago. The same sort of thing happened when I sent my computer in for repair and it was under warranty (that was 1 apartment ago). She had to scroll through my purchases on the register dating back at least 3 years to finally find my warranty info (I don't even want to know why this kind of search needed a phone number and why the scrolling was necessary but it did).
Of course it seems creepy, but that information is already out there and it's easy to grab. If it wasn't than this search engine wouldn't even be possible.
I have been thinking a little bit about privacy these days. I haven't come up with some concrete opinions yet but I have read a few good blog posts on it recently. I hope to post a little more soon about it.
Technorati Tags: privacy, zabasearch, people search, addresses, phone numbers
Info Gal & Wiki Warrior
