My street address is on the internet

[capewalk]

I have long known that if you know my call sign and about sites like QRZ or even google for that matter you can get my street address. I had an off cape lawn customer tell me that whenever he needs my address to send me a check he just googles my name and it comes up. Then he mentioned the ham radio connection. I tried it and he's right. I'm a little concerned about it and I know I can get a p.o. box. but not sure if I want to go that far. So my question is are they other ways keep my street address more private?

 

[Acme.Armament]

Unlisted, unpublished phone number. You have to pay for it IIRC but severely cuts down on telemarketer calls also.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Good luck keeping your address private - between assessor's records, town reports and street lists it's out there for the world to see. Assume everyone knows where you are and bolster your perimeter defenses accordingly.

 

[appraiser]

us mere mortals can be found easily, it's not like we are police officers who have their names redacted from voting lists and such, but if you know where to look assessors office, registrar of deeds office online, voters lists, FCC licensee database, Commonwealth of MA Corporations database, professional licensing database, etc etc etc it is possible to find almost anyone.

 

[KMS]

Kind of hard to hide in this day and age,I've used QRZ to locate people in the past.

 

[cockpitbob]

My son was 11 when he got his ham license. Having his name & address on the interweb worried me a bit. But as others are saying, in this day and age, anyone can find anyone. That means we all have the same exposure, so I don't worry about it.

 

[Carnea]

You have a Call Sign...there is no hiding. You are all over the internet. Unfortunate, but true.

 

[inerlogic]

I have long known that if you know my call sign and about sites like QRZ or even google for that matter you can get my street address. I had an off cape lawn customer tell me that whenever he needs my address to send me a check he just googles my name and it comes up. Then he mentioned the ham radio connection. I tried it and he's right. I'm a little concerned about it and I know I can get a p.o. box. but not sure if I want to go that far. So my question is are they other ways keep my street address more private?

that's why my license goes to the UPS store.... it's a street address, but it isn't mine

Unlisted, unpublished phone number. You have to pay for it IIRC but severely cuts down on telemarketer calls also.

change the name the listing is under, it's free....
when i had a landline it was under "Brandy O'B." (Brandy was my GSD)

anyone called asking for "Brandy" i knew to just hang up....

 

[Rider]

I know this thread is old, but...

This is exactly why I haven't posted my call sign here. Your ham license is a public record, easily available to anyone. Other records are easy to find as well, but a person has to know your name or address or something. With your call sign, your name and address are a few seconds away.

Wrt using a different address, my understanding is that for your ham license, you have to list your primary station address on the license.

 

[Madball13]

I know this thread is old, but...

This is exactly why I haven't posted my call sign here. Your ham license is a public record, easily available to anyone. Other records are easy to find as well, but a person has to know your name or address or something. With your call sign, your name and address are a few seconds away.

Wrt using a different address, my understanding is that for your ham license, you have to list your primary station address on the license.

Same reason i don't post my my call sign. On NES people know i have guns but they don't necessarily know where i live. In Ham radio world people can get my address but they don't know i have guns.

 

[KBCraig]

I've never understood using call sign license plates. For anyone in the know, they provide two very important pieces of information:
1. Home address
2. "That dude has a lot of expensive stuff at home, and he's not at home right now!

 

[capewalk]

I know this thread is old, but...

This is exactly why I haven't posted my call sign here. Your ham license is a public record, easily available to anyone. Other records are easy to find as well, but a person has to know your name or address or something. With your call sign, your name and address are a few seconds away.

Wrt using a different address, my understanding is that for your ham license, you have to list your primary station address on the license.

My point in starting the thread was that I knew my call sign was public record but I didn't know if you just Google my name you get my call and on some sites my address. I don't use my call for anything outside ham radio. Try it with your name.

 

[Rider]

My point in starting the thread was that I knew my call sign was public record but I didn't know if you just Google my name you get my call and on some sites my address. I don't use my call for anything outside ham radio. Try it with your name.

I understand. A few weeks ago, my boss joked about googling me, and I told him to go ahead because he'd find nothing. That is just what he found. On the other hand, you google my wife, and holy cow, you come up with a lot - because she is on Facebook.

While I am sure you could find me if you looked hard enough, maintaining a non-presence on the Internet is very difficult and IMHO requires affirmative actions, rather than simple avoidance.

That said, go ahead and pipl yourself. You'll find a lot of information about yourself, your relatives, where you've lived, etc. and that is just the free search. And some of that information is pulled from the credit reporting agencies(who I assume are the ones whoring out our private personal data). I know this because it shows me having lived somewhere I've never even been, and the only other place I've seen that address is on an old Equifax report.

 

[KBCraig]

My son is a fan of a popular author, who writes for the teen and young adult market. Son has been able to get to know him well enough through Skype chats to legitimately claim they know each other.

So, Son was pestering the author about a particular autographed copy of a book (he signs random books from the production run, using different color pens, so that certain colors in certain books are pretty rare). Author told Son that if he could find Author's real address, he'd send him a personally autographed completely collection.

Son tried for a couple of hours, then when I got home he asked for my help. As the family geneaologist, I'm pretty good at finding living people as well as dead, so I started working on it and used nothing more than sources that are available free to the public.

Took me about 20 minutes to find his home address and phone number and take a screen shot of the Google Street View of their house.

They were clever, but not clever enough, in using a spelling variation of his wife's middle and maiden names.

Son sent him the info. Never did hear back, though. His wife is famously shy of publicity and probably freaked out and moved.

 

[drgrant]

I have long known that if you know my call sign and about sites like QRZ or even google for that matter you can get my street address. I had an off cape lawn customer tell me that whenever he needs my address to send me a check he just googles my name and it comes up. Then he mentioned the ham radio connection. I tried it and he's right. I'm a little concerned about it and I know I can get a p.o. box. but not sure if I want to go that far. So my question is are they other ways keep my street address more private?

If people know your full name it's not that hard to find you.

-Mike

 

[xtry51]

If people know your full name it's not that hard to find you.

-Mike

This. And if you're a land/home owner it's pretty much all there in local tax records.