Naked in Cyberspace: How to Find Personal Information Online

625 Pages·2002·19.69 MB·English

by  Carole A. Lane

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2nd Edition
Carole A. Lane
Medford, New Jersey
iv
First printing 2002
Naked in Cyberspace
Second Edition
Copyright © 2002 by Carole A. Lane
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means
including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a
reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by CyberAge Books, an imprint of Information Today,
Inc., 143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, New Jersey 08055.
Publisher’s Note: The author and publisher have taken care in preparation of this book but make no expressed or implied
warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or conse-
quential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein.
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where
those designations appear in this book and Information Today, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations
have been printed with initial capital letters.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lane, Carole A.
Naked in cyberspace / Carole A. Lane.--2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-910965-50-1 (pbk.)
1. Electronic public records--United States. 2. Records--United States--Computer network resources. 3.
Biography--Research--United States--Computer network resources. 4. Investigations--Computer network resources.
5. Public records--United States--Electronic information resources. 6. Records--United States--Electronic informa-
tion resources. 7. Biography--Research--United States--Electronic information resources. I. Title.
JK2445.P82 L36 2002
001.4’2’02854678--dc21
2002004685
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Publisher: Thomas H. Hogan, Sr.
Editor-in-Chief: John B. Bryans
Managing Editor: Deborah R. Poulson
Project Editor: Owen B. Davies
Production Manager: M. Heide Dengler
Copy Editor: Pat Hadley-Miller
Cover Design: Jaqueline Walter
Book Design: Kara Mia Jalkowski
Proofreader: Dorothy Pike
Indexer: Sharon Hughes
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to the most important people I know:
Barry Wang, for his support and faith in me,
Skylar Wang, for regularly interrupting my work on the first edition for a cuddle,
for bragging about it ever since, and for being the son that I am so proud of,
and Alexandra Wang, for making all work on this edition nearly impossible,
but life so very wonderful.
I love you all infinity times infinity.
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Table of Contents
Foreword, by Beth Givens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
About the Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvii
Section I. Personal Records in Cyberspace
1: Welcome to Cyberspace (Check Your Clothes at the Door) . . . . . . . . . . 3
How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
What Type of Research Interests You? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Types of Personal Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Where Can I Find More Information? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2: Database Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Equipment and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Types of Online Database Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Boutique Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Multiproducer Database Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Gateway Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Types of Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Search Languages and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Delayed Retrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Online Database Pricing and Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Copyright and Resale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Errors and Omissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Information Professionals or Brokers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3: The Internet, Consumer Online Systems,
and Personal Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
What the Internet Is Not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
What Kinds of Personal Information
Can You Find on the Internet and Consumer Online Systems? . . . . . . . . . . 21
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viii Naked in Cyberspace
4: A Few Sample Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Locating a Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Searching for Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
A Background Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5: A Word About Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Privacy Laws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Technology and Personal Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
A Last Word About Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Section II. How Personal Records Are Used
6: Locating People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Problems with Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Databases Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
What Do You Know About the Person? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Is the Name Unique? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
How Long Has It Been Since You Knew
Where This Person Was? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Is the Person Hiding? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Is the Person Famous? An Expert? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Are There Friends or Relatives Who Might Be
Located as an Alternative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
How Old Is the Person? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
What Is Your Relationship to the Person?
Why Are You Looking for Him or Her? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7: Pre-Employment Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
What Is Pre-Employment Screening? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Professional Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Motor Vehicle Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
FAA Airmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Consumer Credit Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
An Alternative Social Security Number Screening Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Earnings History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Table of Contents ix
Education Verification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Employment History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Worker’s Compensation History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Occupational Safety and Health Administration Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Medical Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Public Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Combined Pre-Employment Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Other Pre-Employment Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
8: Recruitment and Job Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Job Seekers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
General Resume Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Military Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
College Students Seeking Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Hot Prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Job Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Classified Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Openings Within a Geographic Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Openings Within an Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Openings Within Specific Companies or Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Magazines and Newsletters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9: Tenant Screening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Credit Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Public Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Tenant Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
10: Asset Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Who Needs an Asset Search? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Anyone Who Is About to Sue Someone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Anyone Being Sued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Anyone Going into Business with Someone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83