Product Description

Surveying the types of personal records that are available on the Internet and through online services, this encyclopedic book explains how researchers find and use personal data, identifies the most useful sources of information about people, and offers advice for those with privacy concerns. Researchers will learn how to use online tools and databases to gain competitive intelligence, locate and investigate people, access public records, identify experts, find new customers, recruit employees, search for assets, uncover criminal records, and conduct genealogical research. Added to this updated edition is a more comprehensive listing of all vendors of public records.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #766307 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 586 pages

Amazon.com Review
What can you find out online about others? What can anyone find out about you? Quite a lot. Carole Lane shows you both how and why in this encyclopedic book. Naked in Cyberspace reveals the personal records available on the Net and demonstrates both how they are used and how to use them. Lane further examines the issue of Net privacy, noting what information is not available to the average searcher and discussing what safeguards protect you from unwarranted intrusion. This is an important work for anyone who values both privacy and information.

From Booklist
Everyone needs information about someone else from time to time. Probate attorneys need to contact heirs, collection agents need to find debtors, genealogists need to trace ancestors, and librarians often need to locate biographies for their patrons. Lane, who founded her own information brokerage in 1993, explains the mysteries of mailing lists, telephone directories, and news databases, as well as bank records, consumer credit records, criminal justice databases, vehicle registrations, death and tax records, and a host of other sources containing public information. The word online in the subtitle is slightly misleading, since many of Lane's database sources are CD-ROM-format subscriptions. Lane is well versed in privacy laws and warns that computerized personal data is getting easier to collect and harder to conceal (on accessibility see David Freedman and Charles Mann's At Large ). Since Web sites change frequently, Lane provides an updated list to the URLs mentioned in the book at http: //www.onlineinc.com/pempress/naked/. George Eberhart

About the Author
Carole A. Lane is the owner of TechnoSearch, Inc. a technology research firm. She lives in Vista, California.

Customer Reviews

Be prepared to spend yer hard earned cash...
The title should be: "The Best Places to Spend Your Money on a Whim, and Lordy, I Hope You Got Time". Lane's book is well-written, researched, and simple to understand. It covers an enormous number of topics and is actually quite useful--IF, and yes, that's a capital IF, you wish to find things as a way of making money or starting a business. The book gives you many ideas and starting points, but it, and it's official review are somewhat misleading. There is plenty of info about where to find minor stuff (geneaology, search engines, et cetera) on the 'net, but most of the good stuff (credit reports, skip tracing, legal records, criminal records, et cetera) requires you to sign up and PAY for things like Nexis-Lexis, Knight-Ridder Databases, and Dun and Bradstreet, depending on what you would like to find. For a corporation that needs these information constantly, or someone trying to learn what is available, and where to look, "Naked" can be very informative. But for those of us who just want to find someone/thing once in a while, "Naked in Cyberspace" is not worth the money nor the time spent. Bought it--returned it. 'Nuff said

Perfect Tool For The Job
I'm referred to often by talk-show hosts as 'expert on personal safety and privacy', and yet - here is a resource that is an endless wealth of information on Web resources and a few tricks even I did not know.

I have to disagree with the 'yawn' offered by another reviewer - this book isn't aimed at professionals who have already been around the block, though they can still benefit to a degree. It's aimed at people who don't have the tools and skills already at hand. Further, the best part is that there is a well-maintained Web site that keeps all the links and information up to date - more like an insider's association membership than a book with respect to usefulness. That's a value to all, especially a professional who is too busy applying what he knows to continually research the narrow topic on their own.

I've even tracked down former intelligence community types using her advice. With a table of contents 20 pages long, its in there. While the book focuses on trying to help you find someone, it logically follows that if you are trying not to be found - knowing what you are up against and how it works can help you defeat the system.

A good come-on but not much follow through
Some of the sites are informative -- for instance, if you are doing academic or "serious" research, the search engines, etc. provided are great. But as far as real "spy" stuff, there's not much new between the covers here.