Who Is Really Your "Friend" on Facebook? Have You MET Them?

I, as do many others, use a variety of social networks.

I have a tendency to use them more for business purposes, such as promoting new listings, or sales, price changes, my most recent blog, items of that nature.

I do get chastised occasionally from actual friends who want to see more of my non-work life, however!

A recent incident, however, made me re-think some of what I have been publishing, per se, and what information is available about me on the web.

I had a prospect contact me via a social network last year, and inquired about real estate. We never did get a chance to meet due to schedule conflicts, some more realistic than others. Easy come, easy go, was kind of what I thought.

Same prospect, different last name contacts me this year via a different social network. Same employer as well.

Long story short: I have never met this person, even though we both participated in a variety of the same social networks.  I'm not sure exactly when I started to feel uncomfortable, (maybe when he pulled down his Facebook page before I could block him? Or, was it the Linked In page?)  I googled myself and found a truly frightening website: www.spokeo.com.

Putting in my full name yielded a shocking amount of personal info, down to my astrological sign, the party I vote for and....

 

Wait for it....

A bird's eye view of my house, with my car in the driveway!

You can't find me on this site anymore, you can remove your listing, but I just had to share.  I don't live on a long street, and with my car in the drive, it's much too easy for someone I don't know to find me. 

Here's how you can pull your listing, should you desire: go to the site, find your profile, copy the URL, and then go to Privacy, and fill out the required form with the pasted URL of your profile, an email address and a provided Captcha code. This will remove you from the Spokeo site, but not necessarily the other public info aggregator sites out there, but I feel better knowing you have to hunt a little harder to get some of my info!

 

Carol Zingone is a full service Broker Associate proudly affiliated with Prudential Network Realty in Atlantic Beach, FL.  I help buyers and sellers locally, regionally, and internationally.  With hundreds of happy buyers and sellers over the course of my career, I'm thrilled to help first time buyers, military buyers, seniors, investors, 1031 exchange properties, short sales and REO's.  I have spent hours honing my expertise, including the designations of Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE), Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI), Loss Mitigation Certification (LMC) , Short Sales, Foreclosures, REO's, (SFR), and Senior Real Estate Specialist (SRES).  Recently honored as the Realtor of the Year for the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors for 2009, I pride myself on providing excellent expertise to all buyers and sellers. Search the MLS via www.carolzingone.com  for Jacksonville and area listings!