One of the great things about the Internet is that it offers so many ways for people to connect. With people search sites such as Spokeo, social media, genealogy sites, and even plain old Google, it\u2019s easier than ever before to track down that former colleague, distant cousin or long-lost love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With that in mind, you might occasionally wonder, \u201cWho is searching for me, and why?\u201d After all, you might be that \u201cdistant\u201d cousin for good reasons. More importantly, not everyone who\u2019s looking for you necessarily has your best interests at heart. While there\u2019s no surefire way to find out whether people are looking for you, we have a few helpful suggestions to consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before we go any further, a disclaimer: all searches performed on Spokeo<\/em> are confidential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keeping on top of this isn\u2019t simply a question of vanity or idle curiosity. Suppose, for example, it becomes clear that collection agencies are suddenly taking an interest in your life. This is one of the biggest red flags that you\u2019ve been a victim of identity theft, and that scammers are actively defrauding you<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On a more positive note, it may be someone is looking for you because of a bequest from a distant relative, or because the deceased named you as an insurance beneficiary. You might be a possible organ donor for someone in your extended family, or perhaps an old flame<\/a> is reaching out to you in case the spark is still there. As with so much of your online life, there\u2019s always a reason to know what\u2019s going on and why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It may sound counterintuitive, but the most useful starting point for this exercise might be a quick review of your own digital presence. Knowing what information about you is publicly available, and where, and what the gaps are, can give you some insight into what anyone searching for you might be curious to know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Spokeo\u2019s people search tools<\/a> are your best bet for this sort of thing. Work your way methodically through the name, email, phone and address searches, and take note of what information is out there. If your life is highly visible, you can be reasonably certain that anyone who wants to find you can do so (and by inference probably already has, if they\u2019re looking). If you\u2019re okay with that, great! If not, you can take steps to minimize your digital footprint<\/a> and be less accessible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, any gaps in your visible information can provide clues to the reasons people are looking for you. If there\u2019s little to tie you to a physical location, for example, a lot of searchers might simply be trying to distinguish you from others with the same name. To narrow things down further, you\u2019ll need to do a bit of digging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back in the heyday of newspapers, people and businesses who were reputation-conscious (or just had oversized egos) could sign up for a clipping service, which would scour the newspapers for mention of their name. The digital equivalent is setting up a Google Alert<\/a> for your name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s important to understand that this won\u2019t tell you that someone has Googled your name. What it does, instead, is search for mentions of your name in a variety of places, including news sites, blogs, websites and forum discussions. You can tweak the alerts to restrict them to specific sources or geographic regions (very handy if your name is common); decide whether to receive all alerts or just the ones most likely to be pertinent, and you can receive them as an email or through an RSS news feed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Seeing where your name is mentioned, and why, and in what context, will often help you deduce who\u2019s looking for you and why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have your own website or blog, for personal or professional reasons, you can leverage that to gain some insight into who is looking for you. Popular analytics tools from your website\u2019s hosting service, or from Google, can tell you surprising things about the people who visit your page. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Services offered by your host are probably similar to those from Google Analytics<\/a>. Once you\u2019ve set up Analytics (and depending how you set it up), Google can tell you how someone arrived at your site (typing it directly vs. search results vs. a link from another site), as well as their IP address, which can tell you roughly where they\u2019re located. For example, if the referral came from a genealogy site, and the IP address corresponds to a place where you have plenty of family, that would imply members of your extended family trying to find you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More detailed analytics can show you things like which parts of your site a given visitor clicked through, and which of those they spent time on. With this sort of information at your disposal, you can make some educated guesses about who\u2019s looking for you and why. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many social media sites have at least limited ways to find out who\u2019s been looking for you. The most explicit of those is at LinkedIn, which makes sense given that site\u2019s positioning as a professional networking service. If you\u2019re using the free tier of the service you\u2019ll only see the searcher\u2019s work affiliation and job category, but Premium members can see much more detailed information. If you\u2019re on the free tier and see a spike in views, you can sign up for a trial of the Premium service to see who\u2019s checking up on you (as of this writing, LinkedIn offers a month-long free trial of the Premium service). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Facebook won\u2019t tell you who has viewed your profile (a much-desired feature) but there are a couple of workarounds. One is to post as a \u201cStory,\u201d rather than to your news feed. These posts will disappear within 24 hours, but while they\u2019re up you\u2019ll see a small eyeball icon in the lower corner of the post. If you click that, you can see who has viewed your Story. If you\u2019re active in public or private Facebook groups, you can also hover over the \u201cSeen by\u201d link to see who has viewed your post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Twitter also won\u2019t tell you specifically who has viewed your profile, but it has its own built-in analytics tool<\/a>. It\u2019s primarily meant for businesses who use Twitter to build engagement or conduct advertising campaigns, but it\u2019s still useful. It breaks out which of your tweets gathered the most views, and tells you demographic details like gender, household income, and your visitors\u2019 own interests. That can help you make some educated guesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Like most forms of online self-defense, being aware of who\u2019s looking for you is not a one-and-done affair. Think of it instead as a regular habit, a form of online hygiene, like regularly assessing your online digital footprint<\/a> and scheduling a reminder to take advantage of Spokeo\u2019s Identity Theft Protection service launching in 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Modern life is conducted largely online, and the combination of Spokeo\u2019s tools and your own diligence can give you the confidence to live it well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the great things about the Internet is that it offers so many ways for people to connect. With people search sites such as Spokeo, social media, genealogy sites,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":24935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[612],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides"],"yoast_head":"\nWho is Searching For Me, and Why?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Start by Assessing Your Online Visibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Start With a Google Alert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Leverage Your Blog or Personal Site<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Check Social Media and Special-Interest Forums<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a Process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n