The topic of this Guide is most assuredly an oxymoron of the highest order. Nothing is private on the Internet. The material included within this Research Guide will show you what others can find out about you, and conversely, what you can find out about others.

The important thing to remember is that as an Internet user, you leave "tracks." All users do. To find out information about people, you just have to follow their tracks. Let's start out with a very general search, and then go through the various Internet sites where information can be found out concerning an individual.

We'll start our tour with search engines and meta-search engines. A person's name can be used as a search term to find webpages containing the name. You can also search for a topic of interest, and discover the name of a person with whom you would like to correspond. Try the following: Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, or MetaCrawler.

When you locate someone with whom you would like to correspond, travel over to Yahoo's People Search. There you can search by a person's last name to find a phone number, address or e-mail address. Similar people finders include: Switchboard.com, Netscape White Pages, Black Book Online and Anywho. If you have an e-mail address or street address, you can find a person's name using the reverse look-up feature on Netscape White Pages, Black Book or Anywho. You can also obtain a list of all the residents on a particular street by using InfoSpace White Pages reverse look-up. Another useful search tool is YBlost.com, which is directory of directories. You can access people finding directories, directories to public records, and more. There are also people locator services which charge fees, such as U.S. Search.

If the person you are trying to locate belongs to a particular profession, you might try a directory for that profession. Try: American Medical Association - DoctorFinder or Martindale.com Lawyer Locator. To see whether a person is a licensed physician, and/or whether the state medical board has disciplined this person, go to Citizen.org or Doc Finder. The following site will indicate whether a physician is a licensed specialist: American Board of Medical Specialities. For links on attorney licensing, discipline, etc.go to our You and Your Lawyer FAQ.

Let's say you were successful, and lo and behold, the person lives in a city near you, but the street name is unfamiliar. To get a detailed street map of where the person lives, link to MapBlast. Mapblast is free, but you must register first. This service allows you to enter an address for anywhere in the United States and receive a street map of the area. There is an X on the map with the caption "You Are Here." You can change the caption to read something else. There is a zoom capability for the map depending on the type of detail you desire. For other map services, try: Yahoo Maps, Maps on Us, and MapQuest.

Before you contact this person, you want to know a bit more about their interests. A good source is DejaNews, which is an index to Usenet newsgroups. You can simply enter an e-mail address in the Author Profile Form (under Advanced Group Search), and if that person has posted to any Usenet group, you will receive a statistical summary of those posts.

At this point, you would hopefully send an e-mail message to the person and start a normal dialog. Unfortunately, there a lot of people out there who won't stop. You should be aware of other information that can be accessed by those types of people.

Limited information on social security numbers is available to anyone. Free services such as Search Bug , tell whether a social security number is valid and the state and year it was issued. Social Security Number Verification, a site created by the Social Security Administration, will verify if social security numbers are correct, if names and social security numbers are entered. The Social Security Death Index is another source readily available to anyone. Ancestry.com can provide you with the latter index, along with American Marriage Records, and a score of pointers to genealogical information. Fee services such as FindaFriend.com, can find the name and address of a person based on their social security number. Other fee services are geared toward employers, attorneys and debt collectors. For example, OPENonline checks the validity of social security numbers for employees, and will also provide addresses and other information based on the social security number. These services require the user to certify that they are using the information only as permitted by law.

Another site, CSRA Online, boasts of hundreds of millions of records available for prepaid access. Information provided for living persons includes name and date of birth. A military service index is also available.

Personal information databases abound on Lexis (LIENS and ASSETS libraries) and Westlaw. Real property transfers and refinances, aircraft, watercraft, and stock locators, people finders with a neighbor listing, and telephone trackers are among the tools available to anyone with the cash to pay for access. An additional source for information is the Ohio State Bar Association's fee-based Ohio Professional Electronic Network (OPEN). Subscribers to OPEN (such as the Cleveland Law Library) have access to to Ohio driving records and vehicle registrations, and criminal records from most Ohio counties.

Some public records databases can be searched for free on the Internet. These public records portals provide access to real estate deeds and liens (county recorder's websites); property owned and property taxes (county auditor's websites); birth and death records; criminal records; sex offender registries; court opinions; professional licenses; business information and unclaimed funds. You can use NETRonline, SearchSystems.net, Merlin Information Services or Access-Central to find public records on the web. Public Records Sources offers links to public records, as well as links to document retrieval and screening services. For a comprehensive portal to numerous types of public records, phone directories, etc.,try Crimetime.com or Virtual Gumshoe. A good portal to State of Ohio and local county records is Cleveland.com - Your Right to Know.

Another way to access real estate records is through Portico. Portico also has information on aircraft, boat and horse ownership. Property Assessment Databases provides information on real estate ownership and property value. For aircraft ownership information, see Landings.

Some free criminal record search sites include Federal Bureau of Prisons, Corrections.com, Offender.us and Vinelink.com. The department of corrections for some states may have offender databases on the Internet. Information on criminal offenders who served time in Ohio prisons can be found on Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Offender Search. To find out if a person is a registered sex offender, try the following sites: FBI's State Sex Offender Registries; Sexcriminals.com or The Sex Offender Registry. The Virtual Chase: Research Guide for Criminal Records provides more links to criminal records.

Lexis and Westlaw also contain docket databases, where you can find out if a person was a party in a criminal or civil case. These databases cover federal and some state courts. Federal docket information is also available for a fee through The U.S. Party Case Name Index (PACER). The website for a particular court may have the court docket on-line. For example, see Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Criminal Docket.

To find out if a person or business has filed for bankruptcy in Northern Ohio, you can look at Pacer, and also the Daily Legal News Bankruptcy database. For more bankruptcy case finders, see the Cleveland Law Library's Bankruptcy FAQ.

You can also discover an individual's political campaign contributions. FECInfo provides a donor look-up for federal campaign contributors. Campaign Finance Information Center lists state agencies which maintain donor records for state campaigns. Some of the states have searchable databases on the Internet.

Now we go to the seamier side of the Internet. If you want to conduct your own electronic surveillance of anyone, check out the National Association of Investigative Specialists. You can order up some private detective services, or some equipment to do the job yourself. The Spy Zone advertises high tech products for surveillance and warfare protection. Virtual Gumshoe provides a directory of private investigators, as well as information on how to access public records and cellphone directories.

What can you do to protect your privacy as an Internet user? Travel on over to the WorldNet News Secure Remailer There you can send anonymous e-mail and postings to groups, and encrypt your messages. Another useful site is the Anonymizer. With this service you can surf the Internet without revealing any personal information. This combats what is known as a "cookie." A Cookie is a piece of information sent to your browser from a World Wide Web server. The server will then use this information if you visit the site again. This information lives in the directory on the hard drive where your browser is located. You can, and should, delete the cookie file every so often unless you feel comfortable with the possibility of someone finding out which web sites you've been visiting. If you use Netscape 3.0 or higher, you can decline cookies by toggling on a window that pops up every time a site wishes to set a cookie. You can then deny the request if you wish. This becomes annoying because you will spend a lot of time clicking on the word "no". Try it sometime. If you want to learn more about cookies, a good site is Penn's Cookie Page.

If you want to start indoctrinating yourself into this Internet shadow world, check out the Stalker's Home Page. Yes, that is the actual name of the page. It's where I started my research for this guide, and it will definitely open your eyes. Unfortunately, some of the links are out of date, but this page still contains some interesting information.

If you start to worry about e-mail security, visit the site of Pretty Good Privacy. You should also read An E-Mail Security Primer For Attorneys.

Finally, it may be comforting to know that others are also worried about privacy. Check out the following sites for information and links to even more privacy sites: Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Findlaw: CyberSpace Law: Privacy, Privacy.org or the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Oh, and try not to think about this stuff the next time you go "surfing."

Updated by:
Sue Altmeyer
Public Services Librarian
Cleveland Law Library Association

Created on: September 12, 2002 -