The Not-so-ancient Art of 'Googlestalking'

In the misery of which is the post-xmas period I have been recollecting in some old tunes from a few years back. I dug out an old Kerrang CD from like 2001-2 and with curosity played the whole thing in the kitchen (of course, music in the kitchen is the best place to listen to anything) whilst washing the dishes. Immediately I remembered the likes of 'A', Lit, Fu Manchu and Alkaline Trio, which floated my boat back in the day. It made me acquire the new Trio album, Crimson, which is awesome. Get it - it might just change your life. Might.

In an attempt to get back into the academic feel of things I have been reading the comment section of the Times. Oh what a bad idea. Especially when the subject prays upon my overactive paranoia. For some who know me well, they will explain that I have very strong paranoid tendencies. For example, checking the front door is locked after I leave the house (even if Im 10 minutes down the road) and when I lived at home, ringing my mum to wake her so that she could check if I had left the iron on.

The article I read was about internet identity and what information which we could describe as 'personal' actually reaches the web. 'Googlestalking' is a new craze for identity theives, paranoid androids and the bored. Just type your name into Google and see what comes up - you'd be surprised. Even if you don't appear in any of the articles once you've added a few details about yourself e.g. where you live, where you work etc. to narrow your identity down, what you can uncover is quite worrying. I now know that my father shares a name with a West Wiltshire County Councillor and that Jen shares her name with a law lecturer in Oxford. In another article I have read that some women track their ex-boyfriends if they were 'stalker-esque'. One woman discovered that her ex lover had left town by checking a newspaper article. This worries me - is this too much information to have avaliable?

People put the info about themselves on their blogs and sites in many different ways. Some will be very limited in what they display, some all bare all details including name, address, telephone number etc. and for some, they even create separate identities entirely for the internet and effectively become a duality. We are all permitted to share information about ourselves in what ever way we choose, but surely we must be prepared we accept that what we place on the net is not just going to be seen by our mates, but the whole world. That includes the scum of this world.

Some other scary sites with worrying prospects:

Net House Prices - Enter your postcode and see how much some of the houses in your street have sold for. Good to reveal if someone is feeding you bullshit concerning the price they paid for their house. Bad as it is perhaps information which just shouldn't be on view.

Check Your Area - Enter your postcode once again and witness the real wonder of which is your street. This site will tell you what type of area it really is, who lives there, whether it's has a 'good or bad' credit rating (creditors consider the postcode, not just the house and it's occupants) and whether you read a newspaper or not. Designed for people moving house and to have an idea of their potential home. But once again, should we really have this type of info available to all?

Some things are just meant to be private.