IndustryYahoo! and Your Personal Information

Yahoo! and Your Personal Information

Yahoo's public records search offers very basic information, but for a fee, you might be surprised at all of the information about yourself that can be found online.

Yahoo’s public records search offers very basic information, but for a fee, you might be surprised at all of the information about yourself that can be found online.

Yahoo’s public records search says that it allows you to “search thousands of public databases with one click! Find addresses, property, licenses, court records and more.” If you enter a name and address, it returns a list of names that match, including ages.

These results aren’t from Yahoo itself, but rather from its partner, USSearch.com, a public records search company. While being able to find out how old your neighbors are is amusing, you can, for a fee, get much more detailed information about anyone in the vast databases USSearch.com taps into.

Try searching on your own name (scroll down to the public records search form, with the bluish background). If you find a link to what appears to be information about you, the company offers six services that provide more information.

A “basic people search” costs $9.95, and returns a full reported name (first and last, middle name or initial, and phone numbers (if available). USSearch.com says that they search over 200,000,000 records instantly to provide this information.

For $39.95, you get an “advanced people search.” This includes everything from the basic report, a full history of where you’ve lived over the years, possible aliases, and a deceased search.

$59.95 gets you an “expert assisted people search” where a “location specialist ensures you get the best possible results.” The report includes everything in the advanced search results, plus relatives, roommates and neighbors, bankruptcies, tax liens, small claims civil judgments, marriage and divorces, and real property ownership and value.

Want more? Just $99.95 gets you an “expert assisted background search” with everything above, plus an on-premise county criminal search, which includes case number, charge offense, arrest file, disposition date, disposition & sentence, and free local and national media web-based search including over 675 sources.

Sound creepy? As personal as it seems, almost all of this information is contained in public records. USSearch.com does not maintain the databases it searches. Instead, it accesses separately maintained third party databases to collect information for the reports they provide.

According to the company’s privacy policy, you can request to opt out of reports containing non-public record information (sources like information compiled from magazine subscriptions) that is available for sale to the general public. But the company “cannot provide any assurance that information that is otherwise public record information, such as court records, will be withheld.”

As time goes on, more and more public records are going online, and firms like USSearch.com, via major destination sites like Yahoo, are making it easier than ever for literally anyone with a credit card to access this information. While this can be a good thing (think: doing a background check before hiring a nanny for your children), it also has the result of exposing what you might consider very personal information to the prying eyes of anyone who cares to snoop about you.

Search Headlines

NOTE: Article links often change. In case of a bad link, use the publication’s search facility, which most have, and search for the headline.

Load Time Tip: Align Tables For Faster Pages
Net Mechanic Jul 17 2003 8:35AM GMT
Yahoo Japan heads for big list
BBC Jul 17 2003 7:07AM GMT
Fight against e-commerce patent gathers steam
Sydney Morning Herald Jul 17 2003 6:34AM GMT
A Hand-Held Portal to Musical Delights
New York Times Jul 17 2003 5:45AM GMT
Playing with Google
New Scientist Jul 17 2003 1:53AM GMT
AOL lays off Netscape developers
CNET Jul 16 2003 11:47AM GMT
Mozilla Officially Out of Netscape
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Embittered Registrars Sue Embattled ICANN
SiliconValley.Internet.com Jul 16 2003 10:57AM GMT
Yahoo Bolsters Portal Suite with Oracle’s Help
SiliconValley.Internet.com Jul 16 2003 10:57AM GMT
Yahoo Move Alters Paid Inclusion Industry
SiliconValley.Internet.com Jul 16 2003 10:57AM GMT
Yahoo, Overture: more consolidation likely
The Register Jul 16 2003 8:41AM GMT
PDF Format Shifting to XML
Boston.Internet.com Jul 16 2003 4:06AM GMT
FindSavings Expands Coupon Search Engine
URLwire Jul 16 2003 4:06AM GMT
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