I don’t scare easily, especially when it comes to the Internet. I grew up on it. I met my wife on it. I’ve found jobs and clients around the world with it, and even today it’s a vital source of my income.
But there is soooooo much info out there, and it’s finally starting to scare even me. I’m finding that I know things I don’t want to know about people.
For example – someone opted-in to my list on jasonpedley.com about five minutes ago. Within those five minutes, I have gathered the following about this person:
From the AWeber email I get when someone signs up:
Email address
Name (first, last)
IP address
The URL for the page they were on when they signed up
Yes, it's possible to be TOO curious.
From Facebook (by entering the person’s name only):
Hometown
First names of (presumably) every sibling
Names (first, middle, last) of all four children
Marital status
Anniversary
Physical address
Education info
Names of 11 ‘friends’
From Google:
Twitter @name
Where this person hangs out online
Political Affiliations including some of their voting record
Places they’ve lived
Photo
Age
Occupation
Blogger.com profile: Interests, Favorite Movies, Favorite Books, Favorite Music
From Statcounter:
IP Address
ISP name
Keywords used to get to my site
All pages visited
Length of visit
I’ve obviously gone a little extreme on this because the person who opted-in lives quite close to me – which is rare. But the fact remains that this could have been anyone – even you. Or me.
To sum it up: If you took just the things I’ve listed here, I know more about a complete stranger than I do about myself. I think that’s the real scary part.
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