Personal Information on the Internet

[NoraMarzo]

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I wanted to know what all of you have thought and/or done about personal information about you available through a simple internet search? You hear about employees in different sectors concerned about what personal information might be available to their employers (e.g., party pics on Facebook), but what about information available to our clients?

For example, a recent internet search on a colleague revealed her home address and the name of her husband is within the "public domain." We can control – to an extent – the privacy settings on social networking sites, but what about websites that simply aggregate data of who's-friends-with-whom on Facebook, or the ones where you can pay to obtain someone's credit history (and place of residence)?

As psychologists-in-training, is this an issue with which we should be concerned?

Thoughts? Advice? Panic symptoms?

Let's discuss this...

 

[TenaciousGirl]

I wanted to know what all of you have thought and/or done about personal information about you available through a simple internet search? You hear about employees in different sectors concerned about what personal information might be available to their employers (e.g., party pics on Facebook), but what about information available to our clients?

For example, a recent internet search on a colleague revealed her home address and the name of her husband is within the "public domain." We can control – to an extent – the privacy settings on social networking sites, but what about websites that simply aggregate data of who's-friends-with-whom on Facebook, or the ones where you can pay to obtain someone's credit history (and place of residence)?

As psychologists-in-training, is this an issue with which we should be concerned?

Thoughts? Advice? Panic symptoms?

Let's discuss this...

I actually just heard a TRUE story from someone I work with that one of her pts who was a bit obsessive was able to look her up on the NPI number (national provider id number) database. She had put both her work address and home address. The pt showed up at her house. I immediately went onto the website to look myself up, and I had done the same thing. I'm not sure why I did that, either. Probably because I *thought* it was private. I recommend everyone go to this website to look up their information that is easily found by the public that wants to find it. You only need to time in the name and the state: https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/NPIRegistrySearch.do?subAction=reset&searchType=ind

As for other things on the internet ... I google myself regularly. Call me paranoid. I have a common name and nothing on me comes up. My facebook is unsearchable. I know practitioners who have facebook and it is on private, so an outside party can't see any details other than their name. Mine is completely unsearchable, it's like I'm not even there. It's like ... magic.

The best we can do is take precaution ... like always using your work address if possible instead of your home address. If someone wants to find out about you, they're going to do it. Like you mentioned, people can pay to get information. We can't necessarily control public information but we can control what we put on the internet. Every time you write something or post a picture that has your legal name attached to it, just think, do I want this on the internet for anyone to see? Because even with privacy settings and things of that sort, there is still a way for people to find it.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Because even with privacy settings and things of that sort, there is still a way for people to find it.

http://gizmodo.com/5530178/top-ten-reasons-you-should-quit-facebook

 

[KillerDiller]

I had a bit of a dilemma when I got married in choosing whether to keep my maiden name (which I have published under) or to take my husband's name. I ended up making a compromise which protects some of my privacy. I switched all of my social networking sites, personal email accounts, etc. to my married name. I kept my maiden name legally and will practice under that. So, now not only am I "unsearchable" on facebook and other sites, but I'm not even listed under the same name I practice under.

I also google both names regularly to check on what information is out there.

Sure, having two names leads to some confusion sometimes, but I think it is worth it.

 

[Wildcat06]

I'm really worried about this because I have an, er, unique name. Any suggestions or am I just SOL?

 

[bmedclinic]

I google myself all the time as well.
Sadly, 10 of the top 14 or so hits are me, and give some information about me. Most of it is innocuous, however. A very public part of my life is that I'm a nerd, and mostly what you'll find is that I share a name with a spy (from the 80's?) and a lot of nerd/IT bulletin board material.

What I'm really anxious for is when I'm out of universities. You can still find info about me via my old GA webpage at my MA program.

What concerns me is that if you took my name, googled it, found me and got my email address, you can get quite a few hits off that.

 

[PsyDGrrrl]

I Google myself obsessively, not so much because of work but because I had stalker (seriously) for the last four years. I have managed to remove almost all info about myself, and I only use aliases online (including on Facebook) so I am pretty much unsearchable.

 

[TenaciousGirl]

I'm really worried about this because I have an, er, unique name. Any suggestions or am I just SOL?

Well it might be harder for you to remove information online, especially basic public information. You might want to consider using an alias online for other stuff (like facebook) ?

 

[student til 30]

.

 

[robinsena]

I actually just heard a TRUE story from someone I work with that one of her pts who was a bit obsessive was able to look her up on the NPI number (national provider id number) database. She had put both her work address and home address. The pt showed up at her house. I immediately went onto the website to look myself up, and I had done the same thing. I'm not sure why I did that, either. Probably because I *thought* it was private. I recommend everyone go to this website to look up their information that is easily found by the public that wants to find it. You only need to time in the name and the state: https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/NPIRegistrySearch.do?subAction=reset&searchType=ind

Can you tell me more about this website? I totally had no idea it existed.

My feeling is that if I feel even a bit 'in the dark' about social networking sites, like if I don't understand completely how to control my information, then I will not have an account with that site. I have a LinkedIn account and Facebook. I don't mind keeping the linkedin for now since I'm not a licensed professional yet, but once I get there I will probably drastically limit the information on there. I am ok with facebook for now since I understand how to use their privacy settings, but it's starting to grate on me how they are adding 'opt out' settings instead of 'opt in' for targeted marketing. Recently, though, I've started to remove a lot of my information available to everyone on that site (e.g. tagged pictures, email addresses, etc.)

I vaguely remember hearing some option where you can request info on you to be removed from search engines like Google but I don't know exactly how to do that at this point.

 

[TenaciousGirl]

This website allows individuals to look up information linked to someones national provider identification number. I'm not sure at what point people typically get this ID number. I got mine the first year of grad school because I was working in a facility that required it. There are a lot of different providers that would get this number ... nurses, MDs, DOs, DDSs, etc. etc.

so my coworker's patient knew about this provider number, and that all providers have one and so he looked up her information. She didn't realize it was open to the public and had her home address listed. He showed up at her house and, yeah... it was bad.


... does that better answer your question?

 

[deleted176373]

Put your name in here and see what pops up: SCARY

http://www.spokeo.com/

Not 100% accurate, but more information about me than I want available.

 

[jnine]

I'm not sure if this is brand-spanking new or what, but when I use youtube it shows me "potential friends" based on my gmail account contacts. Some of these contacts are profs I corresponded with about gradschool. Yeah, I checked out their home videos

Naturally, I'm sure this goes in reverse. So if you use gmail and youtube and don't want your gmail contacts to see what you have going on on youtube, pay a visit to the youtube privacy page.

Best,
J9

 

[robinsena]

TenaciousGirl - Thanks. Just wanted to be aware of how that number is assigned, so when I get one I'll think twice about putting in my real home address.

The youtube thing is one of the many reasons I always try to keep my professional and personal emails separate. I don't want my supervisors to see what my favorite videos are... that'd be kind of scary (for them).

 

[twilson]

Put your name in here and see what pops up: SCARY

http://www.spokeo.com/

Not 100% accurate, but more information about me than I want available.

I thought it was creepy until I looked at the profile and it said I was a white male (both false) who lived with a 50 year old head of household(false). Also, I apparently like family activities...............no lol

The second profile on me is so far off I am not sure I'm worried about it anymore lol

 

[olychick65]

Put your name in here and see what pops up: SCARY

http://www.spokeo.com/

Not 100% accurate, but more information about me than I want available.

What's weird about this is that it can't find my name (or any versions of it) but finds a lot of (fairly accurate) information under my undergrad email address. Good thing that will be deactivated soon...

 

[twilson]

What's weird about this is that it can't find my name (or any versions of it) but finds a lot of (fairly accurate) information under my undergrad email address. Good thing that will be deactivated soon...

You also can have the info removed by clicking the privacy link. Which is what I did to what was on there.

 

[lexicon]

What's weird about this is that it can't find my name (or any versions of it) but finds a lot of (fairly accurate) information under my undergrad email address. Good thing that will be deactivated soon...

Ugh when I search my e-mail address it links to my Flickr account. Time to tighten up those settings.

 

[olychick65]

You also can have the info removed by clicking the privacy link. Which is what I did to what was on there.

😀 Thanks for the hint! I might send an email around to my colleagues letting them know about this and how to remove it. I know we're in the information age and all, but this is a bit much...

 

[edified1]

The Spokeo site is especially frustrating because the privacy section, which purportedly allows you to remove your search result, does not seem to work. I have tried 3x and although Spokeo says it has been removed, it still shows up when I search again. Snopes suggests that the remove listing action is possibly just a ploy to collect email addresses.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp

 

[Only1saralee]

I found info on Spokeo and was frustrated that I must give them more personal info (email) in order to get my existing info off. So, I created a bunk yahoo email address to use solely for Spokeo's info removal process. I am bummed to hear though that your info was not removed; as soon as I went through the process, my info was removed and I haven't seen it up since.

 

[psich]

That's scary...

 

[cara susanna]

I used an outdated email address that I never check to remove it, and it seems to be gone. Dunno though.

 

[ClinicalTrainee]

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2565