You swear you hit the unsubscribe button to that one email you kept getting from that one company, but you turn around only to see your SPAM box has exploded again. You rearrange your privacy settings a million times on social networking sites, only to figure out that you're still advertising the photo of your keg stand and the subsequent vomit on your shirt. But THEN, you see that your getting a friend request from the brace face that you talked to once in middle school. Now you SWEAR you checked unlisted...Sound familiar?
In this digital world of instant information, we are sharing much more about ourselves than we think we are. Entering your information just once in wrong place can spread across servers, across the world in seconds. Think you've got your shit on lock down? Think again. Sometimes it's as simple as googling yourself to find an unpleasant surprise, but I guarantee you, you will find information about yourself that you do not want listed by typing your name into spokeo.com.
It seems the more we try to limit our information, the more it gets out there. Spokeo capitalizes on this fear by advertising as "not your grandma's phonebook." Spokeo not only lists your name, address, and phone number, but how long you've lived in that home, your interests, your photos, age, hobbies, your job, how much you make each year, and even (gasp!) your zodiac sign! Granted, most of the people I looked up had a lot of wrong information listed under some of the more detailed areas, but if you pay a small fee (of $2.95) you can have access to all of it. Sounds more like stalker-o.com
Your personal and private information is being sold on the Internet to anybody that has two bucks in their pocket, or at the bottom of their fanny pack.
After discussing this outrageous website over a drink or five this Memorial Day weekend, my friends and I came up with the most brilliant entrepreneurial plan, sure to ease the fears of the American public: eraseyourshit.com. By providing us with your full name, address, phone number, social security number, credit card numbers, interests, hobbies, your mother's maiden name, your first pet's name, your high school mascot, your first born child's name or what you plan to name it, and any other information you think is out there about you, we'll delete you from other websites. Just give all of your info to us instead. It's not an oxymoron. It was a brilliant idea (after 4 beers and a few rum and cokes). Give us your shit to erase your shit! That was our slogan....yeah...never mind.
In the meantime, I encourage you all to remove yourself from this website: http://www.spokeo.com/privacy
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but eraseyourshit.com is an available domain for anyone who wants to invest!
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