Tuesday, April 29, 2008

The problem with people search

Paul Taylor of the Financial Times
Imagine my surprise (and dismay) when I found my photograph, taken at a technology conference, alongside stories about a man of the same name, born in the same Liverpool suburb, who had been sent to prison for a racially motivated murder.

The unfortunate juxtaposition, which came to light as I was testing a new “people search” service called Spock (www.spock.com), was quickly remedied, but it underscores the importance of monitoring one’s online identity or digital persona – particularly if your name is not unusual.


People search companies need to do a better job of avoiding mistaken matches.

Taylor's article goes on to discuss some handy tools:
Intelius
Abika
LinkedIn
Plaxo
Wink
ZoomInfo

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