Scary Situations-Phone/Address Safety

[tink2dw]

Phone/Address Safety

Google has implemented a new feature wherein you can type someone's telephone number into the search bar and hit enter and then you will be given a map to their house. Think about it-if a child, single person, ANYONE gives out his/her phonenumber, someone can actually now look it up to find out where he/she lives. The safety issues are obvious, and alarming. This is not a hoax; Mapquest will actually put a star on your
house on your street. In order to test whether your phone number is mapped, go to: http://www.google.com and type your phone number in the search bar with dashes (i.e.555-555-1212)and hit enter.

NOTE: If your phone number is not publicly listed, you should be fine. If you want to BLOCK Google from divulging your private information, simply click on the telephone icon next to your phone number. You will see a link where you are allowed to REMOVE yourself. Even though it asks for your email address, this isn't necessary to enter to get yourself
removed.

Google also gives you several other links to places that have your info. By checking there privicy policies I have been able to delete our info from about 1/2 of them. Some even link to backgroud checks anyone can get!!

Tell your friends and family about this security glitch!!

 

[dtuleya]

Thanks for the information! Wow, scary what people can find out about you on the internet. I copied your post and emailed it to all my friends.

 

[tink2dw]

It took about an hour last night to delete our ph# and personal info from 6 other sites.

First I deleted our phone number from Google. In their delete box it lists other sites that may have your phone number so I went to those sites and seleted our phone number and deleted it.

And in the process I found out that they are ONLY suppose to be listing Business phone numbers. So, If they list your residents
ph # they give you a delete process!! .

I know we are never truely safe but at least I can do my part to keep maps from popping up for complete strangers.

 

[Belle0101]

and it came up as the number for a law office. I guess on the one hand that's good but maybe it explains why we've been getting so many wrong numbers. I'm going to look in the phone book and see what's listed there for the office's number.


Thanks for posting this -- better safe than sorry!

 

[gdulaney]

Thanks for posting!! I was glad to see that our number wasn't listed, but my mom and dad's number was...so I called and told them about it (and how to delete it!!).

- Ginny

 

[Ohanamom]

Yes, thanks for posting this info. Our # is supposed to be unlisted but when I typed it in, our number came up with someone else's name and address (and I do receive phone calls all the time for this other person). I still filled out the request to remove it as I don't want anyone else calling our number, even if they are looking for someone else.

 

[Eilonwy]

I couldn't seem to remove it from all of them (like SuperPages), but then I didn't go looking too deeply.

Makes you wonder just what's in those reports you can buy for $7.95 from Intelitus, or whatever that company's name was.

 

[perfectmatch300]

Thanks for the info. I just deleted ours from Google, now I'll have to go & work on the rest of the sites.