- Zabasearch.com
Zabasearch.com is a website that searches for and collates disparate information regarding
United States residents, including names, current and past addresses, phone numbers, and birth years, and then permits the user to query other search engines with this information to retrieve other data such as satellitephotos of addresses andcriminal background checks. The company claims that all of the information accessible on the site is/was already extant on theInternet on manygovernment or corporatedatabase s the likes of which could (usually) already be accessed piecemeal by the generalpublic . As such, they claim that the site fosters nothing new except the convenience of gathering the data automatically and is not suited for use by potential identity thieves.Zabasearch was founded by
Nick Matzorkis andRobert Zakari , and started offering database queries in February 2005. The website allows free searches, but requests for more information are directed to zabasearch's fee-based partners, includingIntelius . Zabasearch's founders claim that it overtookYahoo People Search as the highest traffic people search engine by May 2005. [cite web|url=http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2005/05/67407|author=Xeni Jardin|publisher=Wired news|date=May 6 2005|title=Your Identity, Open to All]The website allows consumers the option to be notified by email when they, or people they know, are being searched and who is searching their name or
social security number . The website may also be accessed on theGoogle toolbar.The website also claims to track the number of phone lines and their location (of all phone companies, such as
Cingular ) that call toll-free numbers in the United States, including individual 866-IDOLS numbers from the television show "American Idol " which it uses to make predictions about the show. However, posts on theDialIdol forums during season 7 show that Zabasearch changes its predictions when actual "Idol" results prove its earlier predictions wrong. [ [http://www.dialidol.com/asp/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5097&whichpage=6 DialIdol forum thread with Zabasearch screen captures (see third post)] ]References
External links
* [http://www.zabasearch.com Zabasearch.com people-search service]
* [http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,67407,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1 "Wired News: Your Identity, Open to All" - interview with Zabasearch]
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