Data Mining!
Have you ever heard of data mining? Well, I'm here to tell you, it's more serious than you think. The easiest way to describe this is: the ability to find new data from existing data to find patterns (data collection). Sounds harmless, right? Well, sometimes it can be. For example, in instances of networking, data mining can be a good thing. That being said, data mining is a controversial subject because it does create privacy and security issues.
What I Found
This was really surprising. Not only did I find my parents home address (my previous home), I also found cousins, uncles, and other family information. Creepy! Have you ever looked yourself up on Google? Who hasn't! There are tons more websites that have personal information on there than you think. Here are a few websites you may have never even heard of that you can use:- Spezify: As this website searches for information, it asks a series of questions to get the best results.
- PeekYou: The intention of this website is to connect with friends/family/classmates but tends to go a bit further
- BlockShopper: Look up your address (or a friends!), I lucked out on this one, as my house wasn't listed. BUT I did see my whole neighborhood on here. So, a bit invasive.
- Radaris: You can look yourself up here, find any sex offenders as well. I found myself here, but all the information is wrong so I question the accuracy.
Students and parents:
It can be worrying to find all your private information on these sites. If you find any information on these websites that you don't want on there, you're able to call customer service and request they take it down. I've had friends do this with success. However, if they end up pulling information from a different database, your information might end up back on that website. You can check back on those websites periodically if you're really concerned about this.
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| Ron Swanson |
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