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One thing for you amatuers to consider, is some people have extremely common first and last names. Unless you have 3rd, 4th, and 5th unique data points to filter on (such as social security numbers, reverse image matching online photos to the Facebook profile, former residences, etc) you can be totally wrong that the results you are looking at is the person in question. How many "Joe Smiths" live in your same town, and might also have criminal convictions, but are not the same Joe Smith you met via POF or match.com?
I am another "Sarah Conner", there were at least 5 of me in the same area code last time I looked.
THIS is crazy! Not having an online presence of any sort is grounds for suspicion? That's insane. Believe it or not, tens of thousands of people have never authored a book or article, or spoken in public, never run for public office, never won any awards or organized an event, never owned a company or been on a board, and never been in a lawsuit or been interviewed by anyone. Quite possibly half the people in the US fit this description. It's staggering to think that ordinary people living mundane lives could be under suspicion for the crime of not standing out in any way. Unbelievable!
It's not insane. I'm a retired PI who has done thousands upon thousands of background checks on all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons. I specialized in locating missing persons and I was very good at it. Generally, adults who don't show up on a Google search fall into three camps:
Camp A: People living unusually mundane quiet lives (usually retired, elderly folks)
Camp B: People intentionally living under the radar (hiding from debt collectors or law enforcement)
Camp C: People in nursing homes or other institutions
Camp B is true about 80% of the time. If I were single and dating, I wouldn't be interested in any of the above, hence my comment that it would be a red flag. I never said that I automatically assumed they were a criminal, but it would make me curious about their lifestyle and I would be looking for explanations. I think that it would be prudent and reasonable to keep my eyes and ears open.
ETA: I'm not including those with such common names that a Google search is meaningless. Also, I'm assuming that you are spelling their name correctly.
Last edited by Butterflyfish; 08-19-2014 at 06:05 PM..
Reason: Edited to Add note
One thing for you amatuers to consider, is some people have extremely common first and last names. Unless you have 3rd, 4th, and 5th unique data points to filter on (such as social security numbers, reverse image matching online photos to the Facebook profile, former residences, etc) you can be totally wrong that the results you are looking at is the person in question. How many "Joe Smiths" live in your same town, and might also have criminal convictions, but are not the same Joe Smith you met via POF or match.com?
I am another "Sarah Conner", there were at least 5 of me in the same area code last time I looked.
I've thought about this. Here's the conclusion I've come to, so far. Back in the old, old days, when communities were smaller, and people tended to know each other, or know someone who knew others in the community, it was easy to vet people. Your parents might know your new bf's family from somewhere, or Aunt Millie could tell you whether he was from good family, and whether he'd been in any trouble. That kind of stuff happened naturally.
Now, in our highly fragmented and mobile society, we don't have those connections. We all live in isolation to some degree. So the internet has become our Aunt Millie resource. When you look at it that way, it doesn't seem so invasive, or like stalking, or anything. It's just doing what people have always done--vet their new love interest, whether through friends (girl talk), family, or business contacts.
A Google search is not a "background check" by any stretch of the imagination. But if I were to do a Google search on an adult and absolutely nothing came up, I would first assume that I misspelled his name or had incorrect data. If the spelling was correct I'd guess that the individual did not own property (in his name). He did not have a license through a local, state or federal government agency. He never authored a publication, or spoke in public. He never ran for public office, never won any awards, or spear-headed an event, such as a fund-raiser. He'd never been involved in a lawsuit or interviewed by a journalist about anything. He did not own a company nor was he on any board of directors. I'd assume that this person wasn't involved in their community. If he had friends and family, they did not mention him in their social media accounts or online photo albums.
I could go on.
I would be suspicious, mainly because deadbeats who are hiding from debt collectors can be very savvy about not having any assets in their name and staying off the radar. You know, the type of man who doesn't want to pay child support. It would be a red flag for me, personally.
What kind of search do you do? I just tried to type in my name and the city where I live (two things someone would probably know about me after a first date) and barely anything comes up. There is an article about a person with my same name who was shot and killed downtown over seven years ago. However I have a license, own a condo, graduated college, was on the baseball team in college, played some intramural sports here in town, been selected to jury duty twice, have plenty of family and friends on social media. I guess I am a deadbeat for not paying child support for the kids I don't yet have.
The only thing I don't do is Social Media. I guess that's a major red flag for you
It's hilarious, reading all the men in this thread losing their shyte over the idea someone might google them .
Extra funny that most readers (male and female) don't even notice that you are talking about people googling you, not the other way around.
Nothing shows up for me, either. This is not deliberate on my part. I've never had anyone complain.
One has to admit, I come up with some interesting posts. Look how they go on and on for pages even when I am not here.
Two other points. Every so often, I do google myself; usually, I'm looking for a security leak, such as an ID theft.......and I'm pleasantly surprised when nothing comes up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
How would you know if someone ran a check on you?
AH! By the normal computer (ie, not having access to servers), probably not. But conceptually, theoretically, there is a philosophy known as the "Coventry Defense".
A person puts a block of false data on themselves that, if discovered, people will start acting differently to him. This will alert him that they are on to him (or at least investigating him) so he has an early warning to cover his tracks, it not skip town.
May sound interesting in concept, but it has a lot of flaws in reality. First of all, even if the false data is discovered, they may not act differently, either naturally or intentionally, to him. Secondly, it is very potentially self destructive since that nature of information, even if a lie, can stay active for years. Third, one may get picked up/attacked by someone not even connected to the purpose the person is defending against (ie,there was a final season Charmed episode where one of sister's glamor spell turned out to be the face that an unassociated agency was looking for).
It's far "safer" to have flags associated with the information so if it is accessed, the flags are tripped and the person is alerted that way. Catch is, one needs a little bit more computer access somewhere, a little bit more computer savvy for that.
Secondly, if someone who didn't know me intensely could find my FB page, they wouldn't get the whole story since I try to keep only one part of my life, a fun part, on FB. So-o, I guess that could produce an interesting appraisal of moi, someone who took my FB and decided it was the complete picture of me.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 08-19-2014 at 06:33 PM..
Khohf - Just using any search engine (Google, Bing, etc), I would start by searching on whatever data I knew about you, such as your name, your email address, your phone number, your place of employment and property tax records for the county you lived in. Your social media profile would provide a lot of data such as date of birth, family members, place of employment, etc.
.......................nothing comes up on them. The most you get is a name and an address (let's say you have that much to go on).
First level as in google search and free.
What's your reaction from there?
(derived from "when do you give your last name in dating")
I'm totally okay with it. I've Googled my name plenty of times and I've gotten absolutely nothing in return. My screen name (not the one on here) is prevalent due to the sites I'm an active member on, so I try my best to make sure there are no results from my real name, to keep the two disconnected. Hell, you can't even find anything about me from my Facebook, as it's locked down like Maid Marian's chastity belt. I value my privacy and have no problems or worries when I come across people who feel the same way.
It's not insane. I'm a retired PI who has done thousands upon thousands of background checks on all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons. I specialized in locating missing persons and I was very good at it. Generally, adults who don't show up on a Google search fall into three camps:
Camp A: People living unusually mundane quiet lives (usually retired, elderly folks)
Camp B: People intentionally living under the radar (hiding from debt collectors or law enforcement)
Camp C: People in nursing homes or other institutions
Camp B is true about 80% of the time. If I were single and dating, I wouldn't be interested in any of the above, hence my comment that it would be a red flag. I never said that I automatically assumed they were a criminal, but it would make me curious about their lifestyle and I would be looking for explanations. I think that it would be prudent and reasonable to keep my eyes and ears open.
ETA: I'm not including those with such common names that a Google search is meaningless. Also, I'm assuming that you are spelling their name correctly.
Dang. Nothing comes up for me, and I have been very active online since the days of usenet. Just not on sites using my RL name -- and before facebook, that was the norm. Nobody had their real name online. Initially that was because userids only had like 8 characters.
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