I was using the power of the internet to write a review in Yahoo Yellow pages. It was about a local mechanic who ripped us off. Through the red mist, I noticed the members' profile page from where you can do an online identity search - by name, telephone or email address!

I already know the identity, number etc of this particular scumbag, so it doesn't interest me to go snooping for more of his personal details, but I tried a little experiment to see how much I could find out about someone else from an online search. I searched for my father's identity, using his email address.

How many fathers?

Bloody hell, judging by the extensive results, I could have a hundred fathers! It was like a reversal of a girl in every port. A pop in every state.

Anyway, the point is, I can barely remember my father's private email address, and I am his son. It seems creepy that a complete stranger could have his email addy on a mailing list and use it to find out his name and more. I though that access to that sort of info was a bit too intrusive for my liking. But that was just the tip of the info iceberg

From Yahoo Yellow Pages, I followed a couple of clicks and found a site, Intelius, where you could enter a name and for $49.95 find the Social Security number, name, address, neighbors and all sorts of personal details. Now, I thought that was well spooky. Why would I want to know all about my father's neighbor?

That lead me to People You will see in hell. A site full of nasty people located all around America. I suppose that explains why people should be able to search for their neighbors' personal information!!

Sex offenders and online identity search

I am not on the side of the bad guys, but I do wonder if anyone can be trusted to do the right thing with info publicly available online. For instance, if you are a serious sex offender, (as opposed to a horny teen prosecuted for dipping his wick a year before his future wife was "old enough"), I think your identity and basic personal info should be publicly available your whole life.

On the flip side, it is only right that society be educated enough to know how to deal with the information they glean online about such people. It was reported recently that a sex offender was horribly mutilated by a mob in London. Those attackers should not have had access to his personal details.

Pediatrician not pedophile

Even.if you are not a sex offender and have nothing to hide, it can be a big deal when the wrong people come to the wrong conclusion about your identity, and address and personal details! An upstanding paediatrician had "Paedo" sprayed on the walls of her house by neighbors. That's right, a pediatrician, a doctor dealing with kids' health issues. The neighbors were so illiterate, that after coming across her personal info in public records, they thought that her job title meant child molestor! They smashed every window in her house too! Seriously, that happened in the UK a few years ago.

Online identity theft

Then there is risk of identity theft via online searches. There is a lot more to it than on-line bank frauds.

There is the risk of harrassment from nasty people who wish you physical harm, harrassment from Nigerian people after your money, politicians after your vote, children after your approval...

Even your company brand name can be stolen as a result of online identity searching. Click on the image to see if your user name has been hijacked on social sites. It may not matter to most of us, but as SEOsmarty alludes to, when big companies cannot sign up as themselves, it is a bad deal for building a brand!

How to prevent online identity theft.

Don't go online, ever!

Too much freedom of information

Yes, I am very wary of all this freedom of information crap, but not because I have a guilt complex. Having recently been checked out by the FBI, I can proudly announce that I have nothing to hide in terms of illegalities. However, I am a private person by nature, and a cynic too. From knowledge comes power and with power comes all sorts of bad shit, especially when power is in unaccountable hands.

Why should I feel relaxed knowing some marketing clerk at a commercial online retailing company is looking through all my spending habits trying to work me out? I am not interested in them, so leave me alone - or at the very least do your job properly and stop mailing me brochures for colostomy bags. Just because I am called the Pisstaker, jeezus.

I don't trust anybody outside of the top agencies to do the right thing with my info, and neither should you! And I guess if I were a former blonde bombshell CIA spy called Valerie, I wouldn't even trust the authorities to keep my personal info private, either!

Don't be paranoid, be very paranoid about your online identity - I know your IP address! Dr Zblovskch from Bucharest.