So my home address is the third result on google if you search my name

[lilek22]

Husband and I just bought a new house, I knew that deeds were public information but in my state you have to pay something to get that information which I figured would deter most people other than people who so determined they would probably find my address somehow anyways.

There's a website called blockshopper.com that makes this information readily available for free and if you google my name results 3-5 are from this website street view included. I am not sure I would be that worried if it was just me and my husband but I have an infant and I am absolutely paranoid about him.

As a psychiatry resident, who's name will probably be on discharge paperwork/prescription bottles/etc... do I have anything to worry about?

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[Psychotic]

Contact each of those websites and formally request that you be removed from their search results. All of them have a way to go about making the request - I have done it and had success. You might even contact Google about it.

Should you be worried? Who knows?

 

[Guyton]

Unfortunately, once the Genie is out of the bottle it is difficult to stuff it back in and personal privacy is on the wane. I was rather miffed when I recently purchased a house. Despite my county clerk agreeing not to list my name on the electronic tax database, the local paper published my purchase of the property. Now my home address is the first hit associated with my name on Google news. I discussed this with my attorney and he told me there is basically nothing to do. He recommended in the future I could use my LLC to purchase property under. Of course, then any search for my LLC would give my home address. So, outside of setting up a shell company in Panama, I guess I should just invite my patients over for a housewarming. At least then I might receive some interesting gifts. My recommendation, get a loud dog.

 

[Extralong]

Contact each of those websites and formally request that you be removed from their search results. All of them have a way to go about making the request - I have done it and had success. You might even contact Google about it.

Should you be worried? Who knows?

That is exactly what you should do. Login, and or contact each website and change the info yourself to your general residency hospital information. This will take a bit of time as I think there about 20+ websites. Additionally, go and log into the NPPES website( the website for your NPI) and change your address to your residency hospital and your phone to your residency hospital general phone. That will save you tons of headaches.

 

[lilek22]

That is exactly what you should do. Login, and or contact each website and change the info yourself to your general residency hospital information. This will take a bit of time as I think there about 20+ websites. Additionally, go and log into the NPPES website( the website for your NPI) and change your address to your residency hospital and your phone to your residency hospital general phone. That will save you tons of headaches.

Thanks for the NPI tip, I hadn't even thought of that. I've been able to keep my name off of websites like whitepages.com, spokeo, 411... they have opt out options. This website is called blockshopper and does not seem to have an opt out option. I contacted them twice now explaining my situation and have received no response. This is the statement they have on their website about opting out:

Public records are public for a reason. That is, your name isn’t on the title of the property you own—for all to see—to facilitate neighbor nosiness but because it is in the collective public interest.

The most important charge of a local government is to guarantee land title; to keep accurate, timely records of who owns what. If we couldn’t learn the “who,” uncertainty would reign and land transactions would slow to a crawl. This would be bad for everyone’s house value.

Furthermore, the prices we pay for our homes are public as they serve as the basis for local property taxes. Keeping this information like a secret would result in a lucky few paying too little, while the rest of us pay too much.

In the spirit of fairness, we report public records as they are reported to us. We do not eliminate records on BlockShopper.com, as doing so compromises the integrity of our data.

I know I am on overly anxious and paranoid person. I don't actually think of patients in psychiatry being more dangerous than the general population. What I am worried about is during my inpatient months. In my medschool clinical rotations, we had quite a few patients with gang affiliations and would make threats to try to be discharged. There was also one patient with delusional disorder who was stalking someone that they thought they were married to. I'm actually going through CBT right now for post partum anxiety and I'm pretty a big reason that I'm worked up over this is all the (unnecessary) anxiety/paranoia someone is going to hurt my baby.

 

[Psychotic]

Blockshopper has many detractors: https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/blockshopper.html

It is one thing to report property transactions, and another to attach names of property owners.

And their self serving statement is full of crap - the price we pay for homes is not the "basis for local property taxes." It is the responsibility of the tax assessor to appraise/value property, and the assessor has access to all the comparable sales. The "who" as in who buys, sells, or owns a property is irrelevant in the assessment process.

I would sue them.

I would also appeal directly to google and other search engines to stop showing blockshopper in search results.

 

[northernpsy]

I think you are justified to be concerned. I would definitely try to contact this website to see if they are willing to work with you on removing the name and if you don't get anywhere doing that then I would definitely talk to a lawyer about if you have any legal recourse.

I definitely think it is NOT an overreaction to be worried about this issue. I found that I had the most patients attempting boundary crossings during the psychotherapy portion of my training, actually, and would say that with the vast majority of my inpatients I am more worried about their chances of harming themselves than I am worried about them trying to harm me. However, every now and then I have had a patient who genuinely scared me (especially when we end up being expected to treat and cure anti-socials or when we have a very determined drug seeker, for example).

 

[birchswing]

As sympathetic as I am, I don't see how you could sue over this. It is public information; they've presumably received it from your local county.

Why not use a different name on your title? You mention being married. Maybe the opposite (maiden vs married) of whatever you use at work.

 

[northernpsy]

I suggested contacting a lawyer because I certainly don't know all the ins and outs of the law on this issue, but my non-expert opinion is that you might be able to argue that by publicizing this information against your wishes in a situation where it could potentially put you or your family in danger they are essentially harassing you.
Just because your address or phone number may be available in public records doesn't mean that someone should be able to plaster that info on a bill board to make it easy for random people to use the info in an inappropriate way. To me, posting it on a website is very analogous - it's just a matter of degree.

 

[birchswing]

Very well could be. Donald Trump blasted out Lindsay Graham's private cell phone number, which is, at the very least, rather gauche. Not sure what is legal or not in that regard. I don't know with any certainty, but my guess would be that it has to do with the intention (whether you are intending to incite harassment). The Democratic party chair of Nevada had her private cell phone number posted, apparently by Bernie Sanders supporters, and she really was harassed and threatened, and I haven't heard about any charges against whoever posted it.

 

[Bartelby]

The bad news is that in the "information age" people will probably be able to find this information if they really want it, despite our best efforts. Minimizing what's out there is still a good idea, but as you are finding it just might not be possible to get your info off google. The good news is that I have worked in a major academic center with a lot of seriously ill patients, including in specialty forensic and personality disordered units. In four years not a single psychiatrist I have known out of dozens has had anyone show up on their doorstep. I have heard such stories from two or three older attendings, and in each instance the patient had borderline PD, was in individual therapy and it was nothing more than creepy (like describing what the family was doing later when later discussing it in therapy). I have never met anyone in real life who has been physically harmed (or had their family physically harmed) by a stalking patient. I have also never heard of threatening antisocial patients showing up to hurt anyone, although around here specific threats to do so are not common either.

I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but I think it's quite rare.

 

[Shikima]

Don't worry, the NSA knows who you are anyways.

 

[Ibid]

Don't recomend you live in Scandinavia then... everyone tax return is available on line for everyone to see...

http://www.channel4.com/news/taxes-are-an-open-secret-in-scandinavia

 

[lilek22]

I was able to get it taken off.

 

[Psychotic]

I was able to get it taken off.

Great, but how did you do it? Share your experience, please.

 

[deleted307836]

One option is to put the title under your initials and last name. That way when people search your first name and last name the results will not show. You will need to use your initials for both the title and for the name the county has on record for you. If this is a serious concern, you can talk to a lawyer about using a LLC or Trust.

 

[lilek22]

Great, but how did you do it? Share your experience, please.

I had to email their contact person twice begging and pleading with a sob story about how I had someone two weeks out of jail threaten to murder my whole family (true story) and that I don't care what happens to me but my poor baby. I hate groveling but it seems to have worked