Stephen D. Isaacs (GRAPHIC: Kylene Kiang)
------------------------------
"A Background Check gives you the confidence necessary to make decisions about people such as nannies, coaches, plumbers, teachers or just about anyone in your life." -- From the people search engine Intelius
|
Search Tools - UC Berkeley's library guide to the best search engines - Infoshare: Population statistics for neighborhoods (viewed best in Firefox) - Pretrieve: Free background search aggregator
|
Invasion of Privacy for $50 or Less
By Julia Drapkin and Kylene Kiang
The Challenge
“Go ahead, I’ve got thick skin,” says Columbia University journalism Prof. Steve Isaacs to the proposition of having his privacy invaded by two journalism students turned online cyber-snoops. The weapon of choice: paid online background checks. For $50 or less, we wanted to know if these services would really deliver significant and accurate information about Steve Isaacs, author and former Washington Post editor.
For the test, we defined personal information as facts one would not necessarily want to reveal about family, property holdings, financial status, political leaning and neighborhood.
First we hit Google, looking for clues that might lead us to a phone number or home address. “I used to Google myself, but now I’m getting lazy,” Isaacs says. “I’m not embarrassed about most of the things in my life.”
After finding multiple entries for Stephen Isaacs on various public records search Web sites, we decided to blow almost our entire $50 budget on Intelius, a site whose marketing capitalizes on the fear of “making decisions about people such as nannies, coaches, plumbers, teachers or just about anyone in your life.”
For $49.95, Intelius gave us access to a background check on Isaacs. But we were less than impressed.
The Verdict
Intelius wasn’t able to provide Isaacs-related information that couldn’t already be found for free on Google. And the accuracy wasn’t stellar either. Only two of the five addresses in his address history – which did not include his current address or past residence in Washington, D.C. – were places he had actually lived. One address belonged to his ex-wife, Diane, while two he had never heard of.
Next was a list of five possible relatives and associates. Isaacs acknowledged knowing only three; two listings were for his ex-wife, Diane, and one was for himself.
The most detailed and accurate section of the background check was the property report of his last home in Dobbs Ferry, a small and affluent community north of New York City. It showed current owners, sales history, assessed value and neighborhood demographics.
For the complete background check, click here.
But some Internet searching sites, like Pretrieve, offer nearly all the information we paid for free of charge. The key to getting your way with free services by already knowing your subject’s vital information, such as a phone number or home address. Once you have those bases covered, an advanced search can get you information on property value, bankruptcy, criminal background and more.
If you have the money (the searches we found ranged from a $4.95 phone number search to a $295 “Due Diligence with Criminal Search”), it does save you time, bus fare, some frustration, and you can do it all in your pajamas from the comfort of your home computer.