Is Your Home Address Exposed Online? - Comments Page 1

I can remember a time when our government had a listing of everybody's name and home address, and even their personal telephone number.

It had very special name. It was called:
THE TELEPHONE BOOK

Ooooh, so scary.
Give me a break.

Nothing appears to be private anymore, I was traveling and needed a cell number for a friend, googled his name and there all the infor was..really to much is out there about us, even when we try to be careful.

The telephone company was not and is not the government. But your point about publicly available information is valid. That telephone book was often valuable BECAUSE it provided an address.

I must be missing something here. My connection to the WWW is via a computer connected to a router which is connected to a separate modem. Unless I turn off or reboot the modem the ISP will always "see" something at my assigned IP address. Wouldn't that prevent DHCP from assigning a different IP address after a computer reboot? Since I use a separate router the modem always "sees" the same device unless I reboot the router. Hence the advice to "clear" a connection: turn everything off, wait a bit, turn on modem, then router and finally computer.

There seems to be an implication in this article that we should be worried that someone might know our name or address. Why be worried? Is the worrier doing something illegal, immoral, or that they might be ashamed of? Do they act in ways that suggests they should remain anonymous? Heck, come on over and introduce yourself and maybe we can be friends or even discover we are neighbors.

I work on the principle that anything I say or send by phone, SMS, email, or enter into a web site may be intercepted. So I'm very careful about what I say or write.
And I check my credit card statements carefully. Having said I am amazed at what I hear people say on their cell phones in public places.

Used to work with a guy that was completely paranoid about the police knowing anything about him and his family. I knew him well enough to know he wasn't doing anything wrong but it was a constant fear he had. Couldn't live that way.

@Chris : In the sixties, there was even in a phone book the name of the spouse and the children.

I have news for you, anyone really wanting to know your address only has to make an inquiry at a Public Records office. Yes, it's there and you can't void it out.

Twenty Years ago, I had a home business. To avoid some State fees I used my legal first and last names as part of the business name. I even listed my business on a business registry. Other business registries copied me onto their listings. My name is unique. No one else has that same first and last name. Googling it took you right to my front door. I was getting junk mail and advertising and catalogs in my snail mail. Fat catalogs of warehouse and office supplies. Even years after I no longer was in business, I received tons of junk mail. Canceled the catalogs, but the next year they'd be back. Canceled myself from the business directories, but the next year they listed me again. One told me I even had a listing on Dunn & Bradstreet, and they automatically registered all businesses from there. (I had not applied for it, but someone's credit check on me got me onto there!) The directories automatically listed every business on Dunn & Bradstreet. Finally, after contacting Dunn & Bradstreet, a phone interview, and filling out an affidavit they removed me. Now, I won't even put my (real) name on my computer, or use my real last name online in any emails anywhere except to purchase stuff.

Yes your address can be found on sites such as
freepeoplesearch.com and whitepages.com

Paul S.,

The answer to your question "My connection to the WWW is via a computer connected to a router which is connected to a separate modem. Unless I turn off or reboot the modem the ISP will always "see" something at my assigned IP address. Wouldn't that prevent DHCP from assigning a different IP address after a computer reboot?" depends on how your ISP configures their DHCP service, but the short answer is no.

For clarity, your router has two logical parts. It has a WAN (Wide Area Network) side that faces the ISPs Network and receives an IP address lease from the ISP. This IP address is what any site on the Internet sees. Your router also has a LAN side. Your router provides DHCP services with NAT (Network Address Translation) for your home Network. The router has a fixed IP address on the LAN side (known as the default gateway), and it issues (and manages) IP address leases for any devices connected to your home Network.

The fact that my ISP-provided modem remains connected to my ISP (and effectively to the Internet) 24/7 has no effect on DHCP services, or the reassignment of an IP address. The same holds true for any device I have connected to my home network. Everything regarding IP assignments depends on how my ISP has configured their networks DHCP server(s). Renewing an IP lease takes a matter of nanoseconds from the point of view of the devices on my home Network, so my devices never see any break in connection or interruption in service. If you want to learn more about how the DHCP service works, you can search "DHCP" on the Internet.

I hope this helps,

Ernie

https://ipleak.net/

For Michigan physical addresses:
https://michiganvoters.info/index.html

It's all legal based on registered voters.

There may be other states. I think Florida, but you'd have to Google it.

Would changing your name to John Smith help to become anonymous? I just searched and there are over 12 million in the USA alone.

Would changing your name to John Smith help anonymyze you? I just did a search and there are over 12 million dudes with this name.

Would changing your legal name to John Smith anonymize you? I just did a search and there are over 12 million dudes with that name.

There are over 12 million John Smiths in the USA alone. Change your legal name and disappear in a poof.

test

Great idea!
I'm becoming John Smith, too.

Great idea!
I'm becoming John Smith, too.