FYI a must read

[steveny]

Google has implemented a new feature where in you can type someone's
telephone number into the search bar and hit enter and then you will be
given a map to their house.

For a business this is probably a great feature, but sad to think in
this day and age what a twisted mind could do with the
information. Think about it -- if a child, single person, ANYONE gives
out his/her phone number, someone can actually now look it up to find out
where he/she lives. The safety issues are obvious and alarming.
This is not a hoax ... Mapquest will actually put a star on your house on your street.

In order to test ! whether your phone number is mapped, go to:
http://www.google.com and type your phone number in the
search bar with dashes (i.e. 555-555-1212) and hit enter. NOTE: If
your phone number is not publicly listed, you should be fine.

If you want to BLOCK Google from divulging this information,
click on the telephone icon next to your phone number. You will see a link where
you are allowed to REMOVE yourself

 

[TucAZNSX]

Yikes! I just put my phone number into google and there was the map to my house! I did remove myself, but it will take 48 hours. Thanks for the heads up steveny.

 

[coolnsx]

Google

Thanks for the information, very helpful to know.

 

[Tantheman]

Nope, did not work for me. Just a for sale add I placed a year ago

Tan

 

[aaronb]

They have the wrong zip code on my record, and therefore are 30 miles off on the location. Do you know where they're getting their information? Maybe they've got an algorithm guessing zip codes based on the address.

In any case, I don't like it.

 

[Ojas]

Do you know where they're getting their information?

In my case, they apparently got the information from the local phone company. I know because the phone company has my last name spelled incorrectly and the address is not quite right. The google listing has it listed exactly the same.

 

[flaminio]

Not new

This isn't a particularly new feature -- it's been in Google for over a year, at least. Snopes said this back in March:

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/google.htm

It's basically Google doing what Google does best -- taking various bits of public information and presenting them in an easy format. If this was for a business client, we'd appreciate the information. When it's our house, we're a little more concerned.

As far as finding where someone lives from a phone number, this has been a feature of reverse phone directories for many, many years. Usually you don't need that, however -- just someone's name will often get you their address from a regular phone book.

I'm not too worried about Google's phone number lookup thingy -- that's a bit of privacy most of us gave away a long time ago. For some reason, when it shows up on a computer screen rather than a printed page, we get a little wiggy about it.

 

[Jimbo]

Of course most of us have all this public domain info flung all over the net.

Check out http://www.ussearch.com/ too...

-J

 

[steveny]

I am sure anyone can find this info out with some effort but this seemed to easy to me. I sure would hate to be doing business in say a car audio shop. Speak my phone number to sales clerk only to have some punk behind me write my phone number down to use later. This would give the punk my address to come and uninstall the audio equiptment.

 

[FuryNSX]

NOTE: If your phone number is not publicly listed, you should be fine.

Hehehe. I can't find myself.

 

[aaronb]

Unless I want to be reached by a retailer, I always give them my area code and 555 1212 as a phone number. Most of them don't even notice -- once in a while I get a laugh.

A couple of years ago when Radio Shack was still taking tons of info from customers, I had a peek at the database (I worked for a subsidiary at the time) -- the most common names in it were Mickey Mouse and Alfred E. Newman.

 

[TucAZNSX]

In my case, they apparently got the information from the local phone company. I know because the phone company has my last name spelled incorrectly and the address is not quite right. The google listing has it listed exactly the same.

Same here. They have my name spelled wrong so I know the information came from our local phone company.

 

[96-EJ6]

Good thing I don't have a land line and they don't have any matches for my cell number!