I recently heard someone use this cliché: "The news spread like wildfire." Wildfire moves quickly, no doubt (as us Californians are all-too-aware), but have you seen the way a viral video spreads? Someone uploads a video of some girl at the mall who is too busy texting to notice she’s about to fall into a pool and, within seconds, millions of people are giggling and one girl is crying. Such is the power of the Internet Age: information spreads faster and farther. It’s a bummer for the girl, no doubt, but it’s actually a direct consequence of embracing the very technology she holds in her hands, texting like mad as she takes another fateful step towards the wishing-pond in front of the Cinnabon.
Here at Spokeo, we know that false information can spread like wildfi…I mean, spread-like-a-viral-video-of-some-girl-at-the-mall-who-is-too-busy-texting-to-notice-she’s-about-to-fall-into-a-pool (doesn’t have quite the same ring, huh?). There was a whole load of false information about Spokeo that sped through Facebook and the Twittersphere lately, and it caused some confusion: No, we don’t have social security numbers. No, we don’t have your credit score. No, Spokeo is not a scam. (Scams generally don’t offer extensive phone and email support for their customers, or hire bloggers like me). No, Spokeo does not monitor your dreams, à la the dream police. Spokeo is simply a people search engine that aggregates data from public record: no more, no less. Don’t want your listing on Spokeo? No problem. Unlike some of our competitors, you can remove yourself from Spokeo’s name search, email search and phone search for free at any time, no questions asked, by visiting our handy Privacy page (where you remove your listing from Spokeo’s name search, people search, email search and username search in a few easy steps).
When you’re wired-in to Twitter and Facebook every day (like me), it’s hard to fact-check each tweet or blog post. Thankfully, some people do their research and their Pranayama breathing exercises and are a little more fair, which we appreciate. While scare tactics are good for television ratings and web traffic, they are bad for your health, like falling into a pool, or Cinnabon.