The Value of Digital Privacy in an Information Technology Age

1. List and describe at least three (3) technologies that allow an individual to research citizens’ private data.

Facebook is free and available to anyone in the world. You can share your point of opinions on various subjects such as place of employment, beliefs, prospect dating, become a member of any social group or advertise an event. You can chat with friends and promote anything of interest.

If you use Facebook it can be a powerful tool for marketing and networking for online and offline business. Facebook is another popular website people use to obtain personal information. Facebook is the biggest online social network provider.

Facebook is one of the most-visited website in the world with more than 350 million users who provide personal information such as details concerning their lives, friendships, interests and activities. Researchers can also find out about activities and establishments a person visits. They can also find out the location of the event.

Facebook has some disadvantages such as privacy issues. People give personal information in videos, text and pictures. In addition, people waste valuable time. Some people have fake profiles and ID’s, typically to insult or harass someone. I’ve discovered that some people are living double lives and many feel they are somebody on Facebook because the amount of friends they have on their page.

At Peoplefinders.com you can verify if a social security number is valid. You can search public records associated with that social security number or just perform a Social Security Number Search on anyone you want.

Intelius.com allows you to conduct an address, email and search. You can also get social network profiles. You can find out who's calling you with a confidential reverse phone lookup. This site gives you reports on the phone type and carrier, owner's name, location, address history, age, and relatives.

County Property tax websites can be used to access personal information pertaining to a person and their home. You can use a person’s name and it will give you information pertaining to the property and property taxes. This site can provided information such as an individual’s address and property value.

InstantCheckmate.com will give a researcher information concerning an individual background check, telephone number, place of residence, census information. The researcher can search the database to see if an individual is an offender.

At Whitepages.com you can find out a person’s current and past address, email addresses, criminal record, age, phone number and the number of household members or relatives. White Pages provide a limited amount of information for free of charge, but offer the opportunity to provide more information for a one-time or recurring fee.

Google Maps is a great website that makes it simpler to find an individual. Google maps will give you