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Spokeo Fined $800K By FTC For Marketing Its Services To Employers

Posted by Soulskill on from the ftc-wearing-the-daddypants-today dept.

nonprofiteer writes "Spokeo was one of the first public-facing person-profiling companies to attract the ire of those profiled. Taglined 'not your grandmother's phonebook,' it offers up profiles pulled from public records, social networking sites, etc, including your address, worth of your home, who's in your family, your estimated wealth, your hobbies and interests, and more. People freaked out when they first discovered it. Apparently, the company was selling reports to employers, but not following principles set forth by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Federal Trade Commission is fining them $800,000. FTC also chastises them for writing fake positive reviews around the Web."

6 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I am safe. by Jeng · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I typed in my own name. They had nothing on me. They found a few other people of the same name, but they were clearly not me.

    In some circumstances that can be much much worse.

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  2. Nice slap on the wrist... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    $800,000 and a "don't do that again, or at least don't get caught" is a slap on the wrist in this type of market.

    1. Re:Nice slap on the wrist... by Saroful · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The FTC should have forced them to send a copy of each and every report they sent out and to whom. The cost of sending out all of the reports, plus of all the lawsuits by those that were denied jobs because of the bad information within them, would be far above the fine.

  3. Re:I am safe. by Sarten-X · · Score: 3, Informative

    They found me. They found the address I lived at for a few months, but not the one I've been at for a few years. My sister's name is right, but she's apparently 40 years older than she really is, and exists in five different places at once. My father's name is "Father", and my mother's name is "Mother". They're male and female, respectively.

    I'm unimpressed.

    Several years ago, I told a friend on IRC that I could track him down in real life. He didn't believe me. I went through our chat logs, found his first and last real names, and the city he lived in. I then used a plain old phone book (you know, like grandma has) to call his potential family members. I eventually got hold of his mother's catering company, and she passed on a greeting for me. My information, discovered through plain old communication, was more accurate than what this thing has.

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    You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  4. Re:I am safe. by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Funny

    You're not the one from NY?
    http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Anonymous+Coward&s2=t24

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  5. Re:Spokeo is wildly inaccurate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    it had me living in a million dollar home (off by more than an order of magnitude)

    Oh I see how it is, mister fancy-pants $10M+ home.