Curio Lists
How to Find People on the Internet
The Internet is such a fantastic resource. My uncle Bill says you can find anything on the Internet. I'm always amazed at how Bill gets along with technology. He's a pretty cool guy for an old geezer.
Why would you want to find someone on the Internet anyway? Well, there is the usual innocent stalking that we all do. You meet someone interesting and you want to learn more about them. We look each other up all the time. As long as we don't invade other people's lives by contacting them for no good reason or trying to visit them without an invitation it's all good-hearted fun.
Some people practice "doxxing", which is where they find out all the information they can about someone and then publish it in one convenient place. They create a virtual dossier on the target of their research. Social activists do this when they want to organize a campaign of harassment against someone. I disagree with doxxing. I think it is unethical and should be illegal.
Some people pretend to be others. It's not exactly like identity theft because you don't try to get credit or use fake IDs. But you set up a Website or a Twitter account and you pretend to be that other person. I don't know why everyone does this but some people mock celebrities and politicians with satirical social media profiles. They research their targets and share information they find on the Web. Often they mix it up with jokes or in other ways to make their satire more biting. Satire is protected under the law as "free speech" but it can become unethical, in my opinion.
Another reason why we search for people online is that we want to verify who they say they are. With all the fakery going on these days you would be wise to confirm that whomever you are dealing with is the real deal. I think this is an important responsibility for people are using online dating sites. There are Websites that explain how to search criminal records databases so you can find out if your new online boyfriend or girlfriend has a criminal past. I'm not saying you should not date people who have been arrested. Most people don't like being in jail and work hard to avoid going back. But if your new love interest hasn't been up front with you and you have known each other for several weeks or months, that's a red flag.
Employers are not allowed to run criminal background checks in general. They must have a valid reason. The EEOC explains the rules companies must follow when conducting background checks on prospective employees. You cannot discriminate and only run background checks on some employees. You must run them on everyone. The two most common types of background checks are for credit and criminal records.
People who invest in real estate may go "prospecting" where they look for properties that are not on the market. Say you take an interest in a house in a nice neighborhood. You may want to find out who lives at a certain address. You'll have to do some research. You can search for property tax records, records of sales, and other real estate data. You could also just knock on their door or mail them a letter, I suppose.
When I start to search for someone on the Internet I look for them on Facebook. I don't search Facebook itself. Their search tool is awful. Instead, I use a "site:" search on Bing or Google like this one: https://www.bing.com/search?q=site%3Afacebook.com+john+smith. You would type that in like this: site:facebook.com john smith.
I also search for people on Twitter this way. Twitter has a better search option than Facebook and sometimes I search Twitter for people's names but this is not as reliable as searching on Bing or Google. Twitter will show you people's accounts (see this example for "john smith" accounts on Twitter). But sometimes it's easier for me to find people's Twitter accounts if I search on Bing or Google.
You can use some real estate Websites like Zillow and Trulia to search for who bought a property. They may tell you all sorts of cool things. You can also search for combinations of things like "resume" and "124 main street, anytown, USA". You might find someone's resume online that way.
I believe in practicing responsible searching. I don't believe in sharing people's personal information with others even if it is easy to find on the Internet. I do this to learn more about interesting people. I don't stalk them online or try to harass them. I think that is wrong.