[vox-tech] Alarming spam

[Ken Bloom]

On Monday 16 April 2007 15:57, Richard Harke wrote:
> On Sat April 14 2007 06:41, Gandalf  Parker wrote:
> > On Sat, 14 Apr 2007, Richard Harke wrote:
> > >      I find this rather alarming as I doubt if the sender is a
> > > friend. I also don't know where they got the info as I never post
> > > such info in public forums. I'm wondering if my ISP could have
> > > suffered a breakin as that seems the most likely to tie together
> > > all the elements.
> > >
> > > Has any one else had this problem or any suggestion?
> >
> > See if it can be googled.
> >
> > And the computer guru said "Google thyself".
> > Then he said "For to google thyself is to know thyself,
> > and to see thyself as others see you".
> > Now available as a shirt at
> > http://www.cafepress.com/oddthotz.40658864?pid=2837642
> >
> > Sorry, Im not playing light on it. This is a shirt I made to make a
> > point. Everyone should google themselves. If it can be googled,
> > then you will know whats out there and where it came from. Ive been
> > a netcop for as long as there has been internet and I think that
> > everyone should google:
> >
> > (A) their name. As a full string. On a regular basis I google
> > "Anthony A. G. Parker" and sometimes "Gandalf Parker" with the
> > quotes. (but Gandalf Parker comes up with way too many hits in web
> > and newsgroups. Its a good thing Google only goes back a couple of
> > decades)
> >
> > (B) their street address, maybe just their street. You might find
> > someone talking about you. You might find history on your house.
> > You might find something bad is happening on your street. You might
> > discover a friend near you.
> >
> > (C) your phone number. Is it listed someplace other than white
> > pages or yellow pages? Is it connected to your name and info about
> > you?
> >
> > (D) your social security number. Some people are nervous about
> > typing info like that into any computer. After all, search engines
> > do keep records. Its up to you whether you want to do that or not.
> > But its not like you are attaching it to anything. And if it shows
> > up, such as some kids "cracked info" page, then you want to know. I
> > wouldnt do this one too often.
> >
> > (E) your kids. By ALL means if you have kids old enough to type
> > then google your kids. They cant complain that you are snooping if
> > you find public info about them. You can setup google to do a
> > regular search on things and email you any new results.
> >
> > (F) your parents. If they are still living then for the same reason
> > as searching on you and your kids. If they arent then it can be
> > interesting.
> >
> > By the way, as far as any of that info... you can easily find any
> > of it on me (except social security number). Ive got info pages
> > everywhere, and resumes, and life stories. Im even in the whois
> > database if anyone still knows how to ask for a personal id mine is
> > gp1628
>
> Thanks for the ideas.
> I have googled several of these and not found anything bothersome. My
> street name turns out to be pretty well known in some cities so the
> number of hits is pretty large. I have tried searching on a piece of
> my SSN but the number of hits is huge.
> Richard

If you prefer privacy, in light of the AOL query log fiasco, I suggest 
you not query all of these things from the same IP address at the same 
time, nor when logged in to google.

--Ken

-- 
Ken Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory.
Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/
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