Online detective 3.31.11

Be an Online Detective! Finding People and More Using Online Sources

Today’s Agenda
The World of Online Public Records
Searching for People Using Online Tools
Protecting Your Personal Information Online?

Where Does FREE Online Personal Info Come From?
Public Records
Drivers license records, campaign contributions . . .
Publicly Available Information
Phone listings, professional directories . . .
Published Information
Newspaper articles, death and wedding notices . . .
Personally Provided Information
Blog postings, social network sites . . .

What Are Public Records?
Public records are maintained by government agencies (federal, state, or local) as directed by law and made available to the public (e.g., occupational licenses)
Publicly available records are maintained by private agencies and made available to the public without restrictions (e.g., telephone listings)

Myths about Public Records
All government records are public records
Certain categories of government records are always public records
All public records are freely and readily available to anyone
All public records are available online

Finding Illinois Public Records
Few Illinois public records are available for free online
Private companies buy public records in bulk from Illinois agencies and resell them
Some resold public record information then shows up for free online

Illinois Public Records Available for Free Online
Property Records (Cook County)
Business Registrations
Professional Licenses
Campaign Contributions
Sex Offenders and Inmates

Illinois Public Records NOT Available for Free Online
Vital Records (Birth, Death, and Marriage Certificates) unless 50+ years old
Criminal Records
Court Records, with minor exceptions
Voter Registrations
Motor Vehicle Records

Property Records
Cook County Assessor’s Office ( www.cookcountyassessor.com )
Search by address to find PIN and photo of property
Cook County Treasurer’s Office ( www.cookcountytreasurer.com )
Search by PIN to find who owns a property

More Property Records
Cook County Recorder of Deeds ( www.ccrd.info )
Search by PIN to find mortgage information
Search by name to see property owned by a person
Zillow.com ( www.zillow.com )
Find estimated market values for homes

Home Sales
Chicago Tribune Home Purchases ( www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/sell )
Cook and surrounding counties only
Public-Record.com ( databases.skokielibrary.info )
Provides home sale data to Chicago Tribune
Also has information on foreclosures, tax sales, bankruptcies, new businesses and homeowners

Federal Campaign Contributions
OpenSecrets Donor Lookup ( www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.php )
Search by name for people who contributed $200 or more to a federal political campaign from 1990 to the present
FundRace ( fundrace.huffingtonpost.com )
Search by name or address for people who contributed $200 or more to the 2004, 2008, or 2010 federal elections

Sex Offenders & Crime
Illinois Sex Offender Information ( www.isp.state.il.us/sor/sor.cfm )
Search for sex offenders by name or zip code
Chicago Crime Map ( gis.chicagopolice.org/CLEARMap/startPage.htm )

Vital Records
Cook County Clerk’s Office Vital Records ( www.cookctyclerk.com/sub/vital_records.asp )
Vital records can be requested in person, by mail, at currency exchange, or online
Request forms, fees, and ID required
Only related parties can request vital records less than 20 or so years old
VitalChek ( www.vitalchek.com )
Private company expedites records requests for a fee

Old Vital Records
FamilySearch ( www.familysearch.org )
Good source for Cook County vital records 50+ years old
Database of Illinois Death Certificates, 1916-1950 ( www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/idphdeathsrch.html )
Very basic information (name and date of death) for Illinois residents

Why Are Some People Hard to Find?
Some names are very common
Some people change their names or use variations on their names
Some people have unlisted numbers, nonpublished numbers, or just a cell phone
Some people are dead

Is Someone Dead?
Social Security Death Index at Rootsweb ( ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com ) or Ancestry ( databases.skokielibrary.info )
Unofficial Social Security Number Verification/ Decoding ( www.blackbookonline.info/bbo_ssnvalidator.htm )

Library Phone Directories
ReferenceUSA ( databases.skokielibrary.info )
Stronger for business listings than residential
Residential information taken from print phonebooks—may be out of date!
Good for reverse look-ups and neighbor searches

Library Phone Directories
Masterfiles (ask at Reference Desk)
Telephone numbers updated daily from phone companies
Includes names and addresses for nonpublished numbers
Must be searched by a Librarian

Reverse Look-Ups
Haines Criss-Cross Directories (print)
Best source for reverse look-ups for Chicago and suburbs
Includes names and addresses for nonpublished listings
Phone Validator ( www.phonevalidator.com )
Indicates whether a phone number is from a cell phone or landline, its geographic area, and provider
Melissa DATA ( www.melissadata.com/lookups )
Do many different kinds of reverse look-ups from this page

Cell Phone Numbers and Email Addresses
No good way to get this information for free
Intelius ( www.intelius.com ) sells email address and cell phone numbers on its website
Some people provide their email addresses on their own websites

Online People Finders
WhitePages.com ( www.whitepages.com )
Provides addresses, phone numbers, ages, and spouse’s names
Good for reverse look-ups and neighbor searches
Zabasearch ( www.zabasearch.com )
Provides assorted addresses, phone numbers, and birth years from public record sources
Zoominfo ( www.zoominfo.com )
Provides occupational info for people

Fee Sites with Free Info
Intelius ( www.intelius.com ) and USSearch ( www.ussearch.com )
Provides ages, previous cities lived in, and lists of relatives
Check Illinois ( consumer.public-record.com )
Preview search results for Illinois public records
Spokeo ( www.spokeo.com )
Includes lifestyle information

Major Social Network Sites
Social networking sites allow people to post personal information with varying restrictions
MySpace ( www.myspace.com )
Facebook ( www.facebook.com )
Friendster ( www.friendster.com )
LinkedIn ( www.linkedin.com )
Professional and business oriented

Meta Search Sites
Search multiple public record and social networking sites at the same time from these sites:
Pipl ( www.pipl.com )
iSearch ( www.isearch.com )

Helpful Search Engine
Yippy ( search.yippy.com )
Clusters search results into useful categories
May be helpful searching for people with common names

Other Interesting Sites
Teacher Salary Database ( www.familytaxpayers.org/salary.php )
See how much an Illinois public school teacher earns
Birthdatabase.com ( www.birthdatabase.com )
Find someone’s date of birth
The Smoking Gun ( www.thesmokinggun.com )
View public records on celebrity mishaps

Collections of Useful Links
Black Book Online ( www.blackbookonline.info )
Many useful links for the amateur detective
BRB’s Free Resource Center ( www.brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp )
Collection of links to public record sites provided by major publisher of public records books

Protecting Your Privacy
Get a new phone number and make it unlisted or nonpublished
Check sites for their privacy settings before making personal posts
Be aware that anything you post online may be found by other people

Avoid Releasing Personal Information
Be careful about releasing personal information to private companies
Warranty or product registration cards
Sweepstakes or contest forms
Online coupon sites
Read privacy policies of businesses and websites to see if they share your personal data

Online detective 3.31.11

by Skokie Public Library

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Online detective 3.31.11 Presentation Transcript