Online privacy has become one of the most hotly debated issues of this decade, and with each passing day it seems as if more and more websites are adopting intrusive practices when it comes to how they collect information. The Web is replete with various “people finder” sites and other online directories that routinely invade personal privacy, offering contact information and other sensitive data that may or may not have been collected by permission. If you have ever had the unpleasant experience of finding all of your personal contact information online without your previous consent, you know how easy it is for various search engines and data scraping programs to harvest your personal information and post it online with relative impunity.
One of the most common places for your personal contact information to inadvertently show up online is on various phone directory websites such as the Internet White Pages (whitepages.com). The White Pages is one of those “information aggregating” sites that basically grabs any information it can find from various public records and pieces it together to create your online profile. This happens automatically, whether you are even aware of it or not. While the White Pages is a great place for you to locate people and businesses (and for people to locate you), it is better for you to be in control of what type of information you want to have displayed online. The White Pages does not allow you to fully delete the listing that they created, but you can take steps to modify what information appears to the online public. Below is a series of steps you can take to get your name (or other information) removed from an online phone directory:
1. For this example, we will use the Internet White Pages (whitepages.com). Many other online directory sites operate in a similar manner, but White Pages is one of the most prominent sites in terms of sheer size and popularity. You can perform a site search to see if your information already appears on the site. This can be done in a couple of different ways:
* You can go directly to whitepages.com and enter your name in the “Find People” fields, or you can enter your phone number in the “Reverse Phone” field. You can also enter your street address in the “Address Search” field. Whatever data you think may be exposed online, use that data in your lookup. After you have entered your information into the appropriate field(s), just click the magnifying glass button to initiate your search. If White Pages has any of your information, it will be displayed in these search results.
* You can also search through Google by entering your name followed by “site:whitepages.com” (without the quotation marks) in Google’s search box. If White Pages has any listings containing your name, they will be revealed in the search results. At this point, click the listing that pertains to you.
2. You should now be on the page that contains your public profile. If you already have an account with White Pages, you will see a button entitled “Edit” among a row of buttons underneath your name. If you have never created an account with White Pages, the button will appear as “Claim/Edit”. Click that button in order to enter into the editing module. You will need to create an account (if you have not yet done so) before you can make any edits. Whitepages.com will automatically detect whether you have an account or not when you attempt to make edits, and if you do not have an account, it will prompt you and walk you through the account creation process.
3. You can then change the details of your listing and choose which information you want to be made publicly available. You can also edit the settings so that your entire public profile will not appear on the White Pages website or search results. To do this, go to the Privacy Settings section on your main account page and click the link entitled “Hide Information”.
4. Now click “Update”, and you’re good to go!
Tag Archives: directory
White Pages Directory – Finding information about people
White Pages Directory is a website which aims to help individuals find more information about certain persons or businesses. The webpage features a reverse phone lookup feature, which enables anyone to find out more about a person or company just by typing in the phone number. Information such as area code, cell phone carrier and city/state are visible in this manner for residents of United States. Furthermore, anyone can report a number and thus the other webpage viewers will know that it is to be avoided. Modern smartphones enable people to block certain numbers straight from the call settings menu, in case an emergency arises.
Anyone can use this website free of charge and for an unlimited number of times. An account is not needed in order to use it. However, you do have to know the phone number. According to the website, you can find information about 90% of the Adult Population in U.S., regardless of their carrier number or city area.
With this in mind, White Pages Directory also gives individuals the option to find people or businesses according to several filters. In the first panel, people can be discovered using first & last name plus city and state or ZIP code. In this case you can discover their address and phone number (in most cases), as long as they are registered persons. You can also find a certain business according to its name or category (Health, Entertainment, Pub, etc.), but you also need to insert a city and state name or use the ZIP code for chosen area. This is a very effective mean for discovering newly created businesses but also ones which rejoice from popularity in several cities.
There is also a Reverse Address Search, which means you can discover people by entering their address + city and state name or ZIP code. However, the reverse phone lookup feature is much more convenient to use as long as you know the phone number of an individual. This way you can discover exactly where the call was made from and which the carrier is, so you can file them a complaint and let them know if an individual is bothering you. The same goes in the case of businesses.
White Pages Directory is also available in the form of a mobile application for Android and iOS devices. There is also a Pro version dedicated to business use as well an option for area code lookup and reverse code lookup. These are very useful to know if you are looking to discover a business or individual based on a certain region. Surprisingly to some, White Pages even includes a People directory where you can search for any individual according to its first and last name. You only have to select the starting letter and then proceed to looking up person’s name. This is very useful when it comes to discovering registered individuals. Nevertheless, the Address Reverse or Phone Reverse lookup are just as effective, requiring minimum feedback from the user. You can uncover almost any person in the U.S. within a matter of clicks.