Scary - Google will let anyone find you - Scary Privacy Invasion

March 2003 | Unk

[30-06 Springfield]

Go to www.google.com then type in your phone number (separated by hyphens, including area code) and click on Google Search. If your phone number is listed it will show your name and address and give you two map options. Yahoo and MapQuest. See how accurate the map is to your home. VERY SCARY!!!

Any person wishing to discover the physical location of a phone number, be it a home or business address, could use this feature to locate a physical street address, and receive directions on how to get there from anywhere in the country. In the age of the internet communication we all know the dangers of this - for adults and CHILDREN!

Google has made available an option that will allow anyone to REMOVE their telephone number from the database that is linked to the mapping feature.

You will first need to check if your number is listed in this manner by attempting a search-entering your full telephone number separated by dashes (e.g. 555-555-5555). If the number appears in the mapping database, an icon resembling a telephone will appear next to the first or second entry on the results page. Clicking on this icon will take you to a page containing a description of the service, and a link to request your number be removed from the database.

So far unlisted numbers and cell phone numbers, do not show up.

[30-06 Springfield]

I tried it and it took me right to my house. There is a link to get removed from the database. I wondeer how many other search engines out there have this same capability.

[AdamSelene235]

There have been search engines like this for at least 6 years or more.

One of the thousands of reasons not to have a land line.

Pick up the book "How to be Invisible" if this stuff bothers you. Most Americans live in a fishbowl.

[ElkGroveDan]

It's the same thing as a reverse directory, been around for years, Google just makes it easier to use.

That's why you need to keep your number unlisted.

[Eala]

Doesn't work for unlisted numbers.

[b4its2late]

This has been in Big Book and other engines for some time. You can find by name, or by number. If you're unlisted, you're not there. If not, join the club.

But if you put b4its2late in there, you still won't find me.... :-)

[dfwgator]

Cut to a wide-angle shot of hedgerows, fields and trees. Voice Over (John Cleese): In this picture there are forty people. None of them can be seen. In this film we hope to show you how not to be seen.
(Caption on screen: 'HM GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC SERVICE FILM NO. 42 PARA 6. "HOW NOT TO BE SEEN"')

Voice Over: In this film we hope to show how not to be seen. This is Mr. E.R. Bradshaw of Napier Court, Black Lion Road London SE5. He can not be seen. Now I am going to ask him to stand up. Mr. Bradshaw will you stand up please

In the distance Mr Bradshaw stands up. There is a loud gunshot as Mr Bradshaw is shot in the stomach. He crumples to the ground

Voice Over: This demonstrates the value of not being seen.

Cut to another location - an empty area of scrubland

Voice Over: In this picture we canot see Mrs. B.J. Smegma of 13, The Cresent, Belmont. Mrs Smegma will you stand up please.

To the right of the area Mrs Smegma stands up. A gunshot rings out, and Mrs. Smegma leaps into the air, and falls to the ground dead. Cut to another area, however this time there is a bush in the middle

Voice Over: This is Mr Nesbitt of Harlow New Town. Mr Nesbit would you stand up please. (after a pause - nothing happens)Mr Nesbitt has learnt the value of not being seen. However he has chosen a very obvious piece of cover.

The bush explodes and you hear a muffled scream. Cut to another scene with three bushes

Voice Over: Mr. E.V. Lambert of Homeleigh, The Burrows, Oswestly, has presented us with a poser. We do not know which bush he is behind, but we can soon find out. (the left-hand bush explodes, then the right-hand bush explodes, and then the middle bush explodes. There is a muffled scream as Mr. Lambert is blown up) Yes it was the middle one.

Cut to a shot of a farmland area with a water butt, a wall, a pile of leaves, a bushy tree, a parked car, and lots of bushes in the distance

Voice Over: Mr Ken Andrews, of Leighton Road, Slough has concealed himself extremely well. He could be almost anywhere. He could be behind the wall, inside the water barrel, beneath a pile of leaves, up in the tree, squatting down behind the car, concealed in a hollow, or crouched behind any one of a hundred bushes. However we happen to know he's in the water barrel.

The water barrel just blows up in a huge explosion. Cut to a panning shot from the beach huts to beach accross the sea

Voice Over: Mr. and Mrs. Watson of Ivy Cottage, Worplesdon Road, Hull, chose a very cunning way of not being seen. When we called at their house, we found that they had gone away on two weeks holiday. They had not left any forwading address, and they had bolted and barred the house to prevent us from getting in. However a neighbour told us where there were.

The camera pans around and stops on a obvious looking hut, which blows up. Cut to a house with a gumby standing out front

Voice Over: And here is the neighbour (he blows up, leaving just his boots. Cut to a shack in the desert) Here is where he lived (shack blows up - cut to a building) And this is where Lord Langdin lived who refused to speak to us (it blows up). so did the gentleman who lived here....(shot of a house - it blows up) and here.....(another building blows up) and of course here.....(a series of various atom and hydrogen bombs at the moment of impact)

[Black Agnes]

Yup, this is why I pay extra for unlisted, unpublished.

[m1911]

Reverse lookup has been around forever.

[crz]

Oh Brother. You just found this out? Go to Yahoo people search, and you can do the same thing for Petes sake. This has been up for years already.

[Constitution Day]

Doesn't work for unlisted numbers.

I know. :)

[machman]

Yeah, been doing stuff like this since about 96/97, when I first got on the net. Yahoo, alta vista, 411, about a dozen other sites used to have stuff like this. Search by, last name, e-mail address, street name, phone number, its all just a few clicks away, and has been for years.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Well, I found out who has my old phone # from LA, and where he lives. Another reason to have unlisted numbers. My current # does not show up.

[Diva Betsy Ross]

If it makes you feel any beter, I just found out about it. I ahd no idea...

[OldFriend]

Ouch

[GovernmentShrinker]

Well, if you're silly enough to have your address listed in the phone book, anyone who has either your name or your phone number will be able to get your address and directions to your house by using any online phone directory and then plugging the address into any online map/directions site. And they can get your name by standing behind you in the checkout line at a store when you whip out your credit card to buy something they'd like to steal from your house.

Naturally, I do not have my address listed in phone company directories (though I do have my name and phone number listed), and never have. Can't fathom why anybody does. Searching my phone number on Google brings up my name and town -- after that, anyone who wants to find me will have to call me and convince me to give them directions.

[OldFriend]

Found out who had my son's number previously......and found out that my daughter's number is not in there........thankfully! But this explains a lot!

[eeman]

It does not work that well. I typed in my phone number, which we have had for 1.5 years and some other person's name came up along with the city, but no address for the previous owner of this phone number

[Macaw]

Nice title. It's one of the many, many phone number databases. So what? Wearing a tin-foil hat?

[stuartcr]

It's all part of being on the internet. If you don't want this stuff, do not go online, and only use a cell phone. Otherwise, that's part of living in the 21st century.