When Maya Rupert wrote an article frowning at several Southern states for officially celebrating Confederate History Month, Internet critics lined up to fire back. ¶ But this time, they arrived with more than harsh words. ¶ The 28-year-old Los Angeles attorney's detractors dug up a photo of her and posted it, along with details of political contributions she'd made, in an online discussion of the article she wrote for the L.A. Watts Times. They called their finds evidence of her bias on the emotionally charged subject. ¶ "It really surprised me when I found out that people could see how much I donated to Obama," Rupert said, referring to the $400 she gave to the candidate last year, the record of which is available through several online watchdog sites. ¶ After that, Rupert
said, "they pulled a picture off my firm's website and said, 'Of course she's black.' " ¶ Until recently, personal information has been scattered across cyberspace, to be found or not depending on the luck and sophistication of the searcher. But a new crop of "snooper" sites is making it easier than ever for anyone with Internet access to assemble the information into a digital portrait. ¶ "It's amazing what you can Google," one of the people who criticized Rupert wrote in an online forum. ¶ Rupert has since learned that the photo and campaign contributions were just a small part of her online "footprint" -- an expansive dossier that she did not realize was available to anyone searching her name. ¶ On Snitch.name, users can enter a name -- their own or someone else's -- and watch as the site culls information from dozens of search engines, social networks and directories.
Rupert entered her name into Snitch last week, and within a minute she was presented with photos of herself, details of her California Bar membership and the names and addresses of her sister and parents.
"I'm a fan of open records and a fan of a lot of information being public," she said. "But there's public," and then there's the unfettered Web where "at the touch of a button, I can find out private information about you and use that for other purposes."
"It's really creepy," she said.
Looking in the digital mirror
Online information about consumers comes from several sources. Public records such as campaign contributions, property sales and court cases are increasingly posted on the Internet. At the same time, marketers are collecting information about consumers' Web browsing and buying habits. And then there are the thousands of online communities such as Facebook and Twitter, where users supply the personal information themselves.
In general, people have felt that their information is better protected within the walls of social networks, where they can control what is posted and approve who can view it. But privacy experts warn against being lulled into a false sense of security.
"The rule of thumb for Internet privacy is that you don't let it get out there in the first place," said Pam Dixon, founder of the World Privacy Forum. The moment information is openly accessible online, it can be -- and often is -- copied from one site to another, making it extremely onerous to stamp out even if it's deleted from the original site.
"It's not like chasing Alice in Wonderland down a rabbit hole," Dixon said. "It's like chasing a hundred Alices down a hundred rabbit holes."
In the course of exploring her own digital footprint, Rupert saw photos and information from a social networking profile she'd started in 2003 on Friendster.com, thinking that only her friends would be able to see it. Little did she know that, years later, much of the material would end up exposed to the open Web. Details from her MySpace profile had also been copied to third-party sites she'd never heard of, where they remained accessible no matter whether she removed the material from MySpace.
Even if you don't post any information about yourself online, however, maintaining a low profile can be a challenge.
Sites such as Huffington Post's FundRace2008 can freely gather and post information about hundreds of thousands of campaign contributions, including the donor's name and address and the amount donated.
BlockShopper.com maps home sales -- including the property's sale price, its address, and the names of the buyer and seller. That data is publicly available, often from county assessor and recorder offices.
Many kinds of court documents, which can contain social security numbers and family details, are public records. And city governments can post building permit applications, complete with blueprints of private homes.
Vatche Yepremian, who runs a mortgage lending company in Glendale, said he was well acquainted with the array of public information available about him online. His footprint includes details about several properties he owns, a home remodel plan he submitted to Glendale in 2007 and various court proceedings in which he is named.
Rather than being disturbed by the availability of data, Yepremian said it has been a useful tool when deciding whether to grant applicants a loan.
"If I want to lend money to someone, I want to make sure that everything and anything they've told me is the truth," Yepremian said. Even a few years ago, verifying an applicant's claims might have required a call to a title company or a crosstown drive to inspect a property. Now the Web saves him the trouble. "It makes life much easier," he said.
Perhaps the least understood by consumers is the practice of behavioral tracking, where marketing companies log activities such as the Web pages users visit, the ads they click and the terms they search for.
Most companies say information about user activities is stored securely and anonymously.
Even so, Paul Stephens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse said, "an individual's patterns on the Internet can reveal a tremendous amount of information about them, and it can be a gold mine for companies that want to market to you."
Rupert entered her name into Snitch last week, and within a minute she was presented with photos of herself, details of her California Bar membership and the names and addresses of her sister and parents.
"I'm a fan of open records and a fan of a lot of information being public," she said. "But there's public," and then there's the unfettered Web where "at the touch of a button, I can find out private information about you and use that for other purposes."
"It's really creepy," she said.
Looking in the digital mirror
Online information about consumers comes from several sources. Public records such as campaign contributions, property sales and court cases are increasingly posted on the Internet. At the same time, marketers are collecting information about consumers' Web browsing and buying habits. And then there are the thousands of online communities such as Facebook and Twitter, where users supply the personal information themselves.
In general, people have felt that their information is better protected within the walls of social networks, where they can control what is posted and approve who can view it. But privacy experts warn against being lulled into a false sense of security.
"The rule of thumb for Internet privacy is that you don't let it get out there in the first place," said Pam Dixon, founder of the World Privacy Forum. The moment information is openly accessible online, it can be -- and often is -- copied from one site to another, making it extremely onerous to stamp out even if it's deleted from the original site.
"It's not like chasing Alice in Wonderland down a rabbit hole," Dixon said. "It's like chasing a hundred Alices down a hundred rabbit holes."
In the course of exploring her own digital footprint, Rupert saw photos and information from a social networking profile she'd started in 2003 on Friendster.com, thinking that only her friends would be able to see it. Little did she know that, years later, much of the material would end up exposed to the open Web. Details from her MySpace profile had also been copied to third-party sites she'd never heard of, where they remained accessible no matter whether she removed the material from MySpace.
Even if you don't post any information about yourself online, however, maintaining a low profile can be a challenge.
Sites such as Huffington Post's FundRace2008 can freely gather and post information about hundreds of thousands of campaign contributions, including the donor's name and address and the amount donated.
BlockShopper.com maps home sales -- including the property's sale price, its address, and the names of the buyer and seller. That data is publicly available, often from county assessor and recorder offices.
Many kinds of court documents, which can contain social security numbers and family details, are public records. And city governments can post building permit applications, complete with blueprints of private homes.
Vatche Yepremian, who runs a mortgage lending company in Glendale, said he was well acquainted with the array of public information available about him online. His footprint includes details about several properties he owns, a home remodel plan he submitted to Glendale in 2007 and various court proceedings in which he is named.
Rather than being disturbed by the availability of data, Yepremian said it has been a useful tool when deciding whether to grant applicants a loan.
"If I want to lend money to someone, I want to make sure that everything and anything they've told me is the truth," Yepremian said. Even a few years ago, verifying an applicant's claims might have required a call to a title company or a crosstown drive to inspect a property. Now the Web saves him the trouble. "It makes life much easier," he said.
Perhaps the least understood by consumers is the practice of behavioral tracking, where marketing companies log activities such as the Web pages users visit, the ads they click and the terms they search for.
Most companies say information about user activities is stored securely and anonymously.
Even so, Paul Stephens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse said, "an individual's patterns on the Internet can reveal a tremendous amount of information about them, and it can be a gold mine for companies that want to market to you."
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