[Cobh521]

I was searching the internet today and I put my home address in to see if any real estate sites gave an estimate of my property value. After entering our address I noticed in bold letters my husband's name. I clicked on it and found out it was public information from Florida's voters registration. It lists name, address, date of birth, date of registration, and party affiliation! Everyone who is registered to vote has all of this information on this site. Flvoters.com. I find this to be disturbing and can be a tool for identity theft

[Carla B]

I agree. There's all kinds of information on the internet about ones' self. By looking at these sites, I never knew I'd lived in places I've never been to and have relatives I've never heard of. Used to opt out of these sites but it is fruitless.

Why it should be public knowledge about someone's party affiliation is beyond me.

[Carl in Tampa]

Welcome to the Sunshine State where "Government in the Sunshine" is the law.

But, far beyond that, your information is available from dozens of Internet sources, especially if you participate in "social" websites.

Information about your home is available on the tax assessor's web site. As you discovered, information about you is available on the voter registration list.

Information on people with federally issued licenses, such as pilot's licenses and amateur radio operator's licenses is readily available.

You can probably be found, often with your date of birth, on Zabasearch.com. For a price, companies will research a person in all available public records, to include arrest records.

Enter your name in the web browser and see how many hits you get. Socially active people will find a lot.

Enter your home address is Zillow.com for details on when you bought the house and at what price. Just don't be misled about their estimate of its current worth. They are usually wildly off.

About the only Florida record not available is your driver's license and your automobile tag registration. That change was made after 9-11.

Another exclusion from the Florida Sunshine Law is current or retired law enforcement officers, but even in that case you must contact every source and "opt out."

I quit even trying years ago.

[2BNTV]

Invasion of your personal info, is scary stuff!!!!

I find it disturbing after shopping online at one store, several other stores send me a similiar product posting. Are they all links together thru Google?

Hmmmmmmmm...............

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by 2BNTV

I find it disturbing after shopping online at one store, several other stores send me a similiar product posting. Are they all links together thru Google?

Yes, I've had that happen. I shop online at Amazon, Zappos and other stores. Once you shop for a product online, you will be harassed by ads and pop ups from many sources. It feels as if they're reading your mind.

[Carla B]

I recently learned about using Startpage.com as a search engine in place of Google. They claim completely private searches on the web.

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Carla B

I recently learned about using Startpage.com as a search engine in place of Google. They claim completely private searches on the web.

duckduckgo.com will do the same.

[nitehawk]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

duckduckgo.com will do the same.

says' Who ???--- startpage.com ---- i have a bridge for sale

[Xavier]

Originally Posted by nitehawk

says' Who ???--- startpage.com ---- i have a bridge for sale

Hey, knock it off - I already bought that bridge!

Xavier

[Carl in Tampa]

Originally Posted by Barefoot

Yes, I've had that happen. I shop online at Amazon, Zappos and other stores. Once you shop for a product online, you will be harassed by ads and pop ups from many sources. It feels as if they're reading your mind.

If you do not routinely run an internal program to seek out and remove SpyBots from your computer it is probably infected with several of them.

SpyBots are Spy Robots that monitor your on-line shopping and report your activity to advertisers who subscribe to their service so that the advertisers can send you more ads for the same or similar products.

SpyBots gain access to your computer via having you access certain websites. They install "tracking cookies" in your computer.

One removal system, which is available for FREE is called SpyBot Search and Destroy. If you search for it you will find downloads offered at several websites.

I chose to download it from the web page of PC World which I was assured by someone more computer literate than I was a trustworthy site. Spybot Search & Destroy | PCWorld

After you install it, start it up and tell it to do a search. It will report the problems found and you click on the order to remove them.

Periodically run the program again. You will find many of the same spyware cookies will have come back as you visit various sites.

Regarding Pop Ups. Your web browser should have a setting that will block pop ups. Go to your browser's Help section and look up pop up blockers.

Happy shopping.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

If you do not routinely run an internal program to seek out and remove SpyBots from your computer it is probably infected with several of them.

SpyBots are Spy Robots that monitor your on-line shopping and report your activity to advertisers who subscribe to their service so that the advertisers can send you more ads for the same or similar products.

SpyBots gain access to your computer via having you access certain websites. They install "tracking cookies" in your computer.

One removal system, which is available for FREE is called SpyBot Search and Destroy. If you search for it you will find downloads offered at several websites.

I chose to download it from the web page of PC World which I was assured by someone more computer literate than I was a trustworthy site. Spybot Search & Destroy | PCWorld

After you install it, start it up and tell it to do a search. It will report the problems found and you click on the order to remove them.

Periodically run the program again. You will find many of the same spyware cookies will have come back as you visit various sites.

Regarding Pop Ups. Your web browser should have a setting that will block pop ups. Go to your browser's Help section and look up pop up blockers.

Happy shopping.

Carl, Thanks for this info. I have Malware Bytes but this program found additional spyware and malware. There are 3 threats that it will not remove because it says it needs permission of the administrator. No one else uses my computer - I'm running Windows 7. I right clicked on the program in the start up menu and said that I was the administrator. That didn't work. Can't figure out how to get rid of the final 3 threats. Any suggestions?

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

If you do not routinely run an internal program to seek out and remove SpyBots from your computer it is probably infected with several of them.

SpyBots are Spy Robots that monitor your on-line shopping and report your activity to advertisers who subscribe to their service so that the advertisers can send you more ads for the same or similar products.

SpyBots gain access to your computer via having you access certain websites. They install "tracking cookies" in your computer.

One removal system, which is available for FREE is called SpyBot Search and Destroy. If you search for it you will find downloads offered at several websites.

I chose to download it from the web page of PC World which I was assured by someone more computer literate than I was a trustworthy site. Spybot Search & Destroy | PCWorld

After you install it, start it up and tell it to do a search. It will report the problems found and you click on the order to remove them.

Thanks for the explanation Carl. Can Spybot Search & Destroy be used in conjunction with Avast and PC Registry?

[JourneyOfLife]

IMO it just goes to show you how information can be published without much regard toward citizens' concern about their privacy. This may be a wake up call to some of you. This is not even the tip of the iceberg about data privacy.

Contact your elected officials and complain! Turning it into an issue will be the first step to get privacy laws updated in the US and at the state level!

Now about those websites! The website operator seems operate a bunch of sites making that sort of information available for anonymous access and it is not just voter reg info!


Here is a discussion about this very issue and the operator on another forum:Subject: Online Privacy - Personal Information - Company in Nashua, NH - Topix

After taking a look at a few of those posts on that thread/forum... and the consequential primal scream or rant, depending on how you look at it.... I did a couple of quick web searches on the name.

These are just a few links that showed up.


Tom Alciere - VOTING

http://www.tomalciere.com/benton.html

Bill seeks to limit access to Utah voter information

Bill aims to stop publication of voter information :: The Salt Lake Tribune

http://nyc.indymedia.org/media/text/dont_kill_.txt

NH State Representative Tom Alciere

Former legislator charged with assault - New Hampshire Business Review - April 10 2009

[Carl in Tampa]

Originally Posted by jojo

Carl, Thanks for this info. I have Malware Bytes but this program found additional spyware and malware. There are 3 threats that it will not remove because it says it needs permission of the administrator. No one else uses my computer - I'm running Windows 7. I right clicked on the program in the start up menu and said that I was the administrator. That didn't work. Can't figure out how to get rid of the final 3 threats. Any suggestions?

I also run Malware Bytes sometimes. It sometimes catches some that Spybot doesn't catch and Spybot gets some that Malware misses.

In order to run SpyBot S&D as the administrator I put my cursor on the icon for starting it and RIGHT click. It brings up a drop down menu that allows me to select "Run as Administrator." That's how I do it.

[Carl in Tampa]

Originally Posted by Barefoot

Thanks for the explanation Carl. Can Spybot Search & Destroy be used in conjunction with Avast and PC Registry?

I have Avast as my basic antivirus. However, I don't think antivirus programs always protect against spyware.

Avast is my basic firewall but some sneaky spyware gets picked up when I visit some websites. Double Click is one of the most frequent. Spybot S&D catches Double Click very well.

I don't use PC Registry, so couldn't answer that.

I always run Spybot with all other programs closed, so I haven't had any problems. It can take quite a while for a full scan.

I once had a very persistent advertising spy program which kept giving me pop up advertising. Spybot couldn't detect and fix it. I was finally successful in getting rid of it using Malware Bytes, which is also a free download.