What is Spokeo?

This morning, in something of the sick fascination way we all have from time to time, I Googled myself just to see what the world writ-large had to say about "Jesse Schmitt." There were a lot of the usual suspects; Jesse B Schmitt the Florida Gators fullback turned Marine, Jesse Schmitt the MMA fighter; Jesse Schmitt the 2009 Outstanding Education award winning teacher from Alabama and of course the usual cadre of self-depicted, fanciful musings on anything and everything from yours truly.

But then there was this other thing; Spokeo. For those of you who have never heard of Spokeo before, they tout themselves as a "People Search Engine." A device which allows users to "search for anyone via Name Search, Reverse Email Search, Reverse Phone Search or Username Search."

Hmmm. I don't know how much I'm going to like this.

A Google search brought me to the Spokeo search but this thing pulled up "Jesse Schmitt's" in 17 states. The only problem with this is that the majority of four of these states were me; or something like it.

Connecticut "Jesse Schmitt" had addresses for me dating back into the home I grew up in from 1993-2001, the place I moved into for one year in 1998, and the place I lived for one year in 2005. Huh?

Yes. The "South Carolina" listing for Jesse Schmitt has me listed as mid-80's and has my grandfather's phone number (I never had an '843' phone number attached in any way to my name) and street listing with what I'm assuming is my email address linked to it (my grandfather does not have an email address. And his name's not "Jesse Schmitt!) I lived with him for a few months a few years ago but why is his personal info conflated with my own?

Both of the "Jesse Schmitt's" attributed to the San Fernando Valley in Southern California were me…in 2007 and 2009. The 6 "Jesse Schmitt's" from Manhattan and one from Brooklyn are me. But I'm pretty impressed that Spokeo says I still live in Brooklyn (haven't lived there for a few years). Spokeo also has my exact age, property value, family tree, religious affiliations, political affiliations, education, occupation, hobbies, and so many other things available for subscribers. Actually the "property value" ($887,000) is listed on the free page. The only problem is #1) the property I lived at in Brooklyn is not for sale and 2) was not worth that much money (even for New York City real estate) so I don't know how Spokeo could have a property value for that apartment.

The blatant inaccuracies of this Spokeo service is a little unnerving. From their own about page, "…Spokeo has grown to become a leader on the cutting edge of people search technology. Every month we help millions of people find the people they are looking for."

Got that? So if you're looking for Jesse Schmitt from 1998, check out Spokeo.

Where do you fall in the Spokeo mainframe? If you're the type of person who gets spooked by things like this you might want to turn off your cell phone, get out of your GPS enabled car, and have a look.

Sources:

https://twitter.com/#!/JesseBSchmitt

http://www.hercampus.com/school/ufl/hes-not-your-average-zombie-jesse-schmitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEO08wmCpYE

http://www.annefrank.com/fileadmin/safa/JesseSchmitt09.html

https://www.facebook.com/jesse.schmitt

http://www.spokeo.com/jesse+schmitt