Employers can find personal information online

2/21/2009

You probably know you have personal information online. But you may be surprised by the amount. Perhaps you put some of it there yourself. A simple search can reveal a lot about you.

If you can find this information, so can others. This can include your boss or potential employers. It’s a good idea to know what is out there.

There are plenty of tools for digging up personal information. You can use them to research those around you. But first, use them to look up yourself. That is some of the most interesting material.

Search engines

The obvious place to start is Google and other search engines. You can usually find sites containing information on specific people. You may even find a phone number. Several sites, including Google, can uncover this information.

You may be able to remove your number and information from these sites. But it isn’t always easy. The information could be on a number of sites. And some sites may just ignore your request to be removed.

Google is powerful. But it isn’t the most precise tool. It will often return way too many results. This is especially true if you have a common name. Having to wade through thousands of pages just isn’t realistic.

Get social

The most information-rich sources are social-networking sites. People put their personalities into their profiles. It’s also a record of their current activities. Searching popular social-networking sites is pretty easy. Check out this tip for some snooping strategies.

There are search engines specifically designed to sift through social-networking sites. Wink and pipl are two popular ones. They can search sites like MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and more. See this tip for a rundown of their abilities.

Your profiles help you share your life with friends and family. But you may also be sharing it with your boss and others. Make sure you’re OK with that. There may be information you don’t want open to the public. Read my tips on keeping Facebook and MySpace profiles safe and private.

Blogs are also treasure troves of information. People use blogs to display their opinions. If you have a blog be careful what you write about. It could come back and bite you. To see how people can find your blog, read this tip. It’s about finding a child’s blog. But the techniques can apply to anyone.

Favorite things

The sites you visit regularly can say a lot about you. Your bookmarks reveal your hobbies, interests, medical issues and more. Sites like del.icio.us are used for storing bookmarks online.

But they are also used for sharing your bookmarks with the world. You can examine the bookmarks of others. You only need their user names. Would you want an employer looking through your bookmarks?

In the same vein, what you purchase can reveal personal details. Amazon allows people to create a wish list in their personal profiles. People use this to list things they’d like to buy. However, wish lists are searchable. Anyone can read them. All they need is a user name.

Both sites have a privacy setting to keep selections hidden. But you must enable these settings. By default, all selections are open to the public.

Hard facts

Employers can also find some interesting facts about your surroundings. Zillow, Trulia and Cyberhomes offer detailed real estate information. Just enter an address to get an estimated home value.

You can also get a breakdown of the neighborhood. What’s the average income in the neighborhood? What is the school district? Find out more about these real estate sites in this tip. Where a person lives can reveal personal details.

Not everything an employer could find is bad. LinkedIn is a social network built around professional connections. It’s a great way to show off your professional accomplishments. You may even want to point employers in this direction.

Background check

Some employers will do background checks. Do you know what would show up in a report? You can get background checks from sites like ZabaSearch and InfoSpace.

These can reveal basic background information. You may even find accurate address and contact information. These often link to deeper background checks. They can turn up criminal history, lawsuits and more. But you usually need to pay for those details.

There are other places to find background information. You can check things like court records, licensing boards or alumni associations. Read my column for more detail on those sources.

What about privacy?

Were you surprised by the amount of information available? Can employers really dig up all of your personal information? It can be jarring to see what others can learn about you. Much of this information was always public. The Web just makes it easier to find.

More tips for job hunters: