On Tue, 22 Dec 2015 09:29:30 -0500, "Mayayana"
wrote:

| I didn't tell them any of these things. In the middle of the night
| they knew. Scary, huh?
|
| Google is not the only one who knows all about you.
|

Google knows what you're doing. I think the
tests you describe are using services like
LexisNexis. That is, companies pay for access
to databases where they can look things up.
(Ever notice how people search pages often
have an option to pay for more info?) Those

Yes, and I did that once. The one that was offerred was cheap, but it
gave very little information. The bulk of it was sex offender
information and not that the guy was a sex offender, which would have
been very important, but he probably wasn't, but all the sex offenders
who lived in his zip code. This was to be a business arrangement
with someone who lived in another city. Other than my distaste for
sex offenders, I don't care how many live in his zipcode. But it
made the report look big when it was thin.

I had hoped it would include criminal information, like whether he'd
been convicted of fraud -- I can't remember why I thought it would --
but it didnt' and it might not have even checked.

databases are owned by companies that just
collect and resell data of all kinds.

I remember reading, some years ago, that when
one calls a car dealer they know how to sell to
you before a salesman gets on the phone: income,
car buying history, etc.

Hmmm.

I was reading that Ted Cruz has his door-to-door campaign workers in
Iowa outfitted with tablets, and they know all kinds of background
about the people in the homes that walk up to, traditional,
non-traditional, anti-traditional, etc. etc. and they're coached on a
different pitch for each kind of person. If they did that to me, I
would find that two-faced, or 8-faced.

So the test you saw was from a combination of
sources, probably mostly public records.

I only have one facebook page, so I can be friends with my niece, and
it has no information on it, not even my real name.

I don't think where i worked is supposed to be public. It's not a
secret, but it shoudln't be in any records except the employer's and
the IRS's.

ONly the DMV and the sellers know what cars I've owned. In the case
of one of the cars mentioned, the seller was an out of state dealer
and for the other, the seller was a private party That leaves the
DMV. Can you go to your DMV and give them someone's name and
address and find out what car they own now and owned 11 years ago? I
dont' think so. So if you can't do it, why can they?

Where I went to college is also not a secret, but I've only told grad
schools and prospective employers who are supposed to keep their
student/personnel records confidential. When hackers break into
corporate records, do they steal the college background of employees,
to sell it to medical labs who want to verify who I am? Seems
unlikey.

OTOH, when I bought my house is definitely public. I've looked up a
couple of my neighbors and can see when they bought their houses and
how much they paid, as they can with me. (In NYS it's often recorded
as $1 and other valuable consideration, but not here I guess.) I
looked up the President-For-Life of my HOA, a lying, cheating,
stealing, obnoxious woman, and found that she'd bought her own house
and a house for her son (That's fine. He probably had no credit) and
she claimed both times that she'd never collected the Homestead Credit
that Maryland allows in many or all situations, but only once. So she
perjured herself on the form and illegally collected the credit a
second time. (An image of the entire form is online, not just the
information in it.) These things were always public, but you had to
go to the county seat, to the county clerk's office, during business
hours, and work your way through the files. Now you can read this
stuff at home 24/7.