Private Investigator Research Links - May 5 - May 29

• Acronyms and Abbreviations and Texting Lingo

  "The Acronym Finder allows users to decipher acronyms from a database of over 600,000 entries covering computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military."

• Netvibes - Realtime information gathering

  Custom keywords monitored on the web.

• A Guide to Facebook's New, Simpler Privacy Controls

  Settings changes as of May 2010.

• Plastic Bag Recycling

  Sites that accept plastic bags for recycling.

• Prize winner employees at major retail companies

  Search by name at Google, with site search.

• Unclaimed Property Recovery & Reporting

• Online Reputation Research

  "Research commissioned by Microsoft in December 2009 found that 79 percent of United States hiring managers and job recruiters surveyed reviewed online information about job applicants." Download the pdf study.

• Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials

• The Best Twitter Tools and Twitter Apps - oneforty

• California Live Scan Locations

  California LIVE SCAN Fingerprint Services Locations

• Licensed Health Facilities in California

  Search all the licensed Long-Term Care facilities or Licensed Hospitals in California and get complaints and citations.

• Mexican Records Searches

• Advice For Scam Victims

  "Report Scams: What To Do If You Get Scammed"

• Check Username Availability at Multiple Social Networking Sites

  Search for availability of profile names at multiple social networking sites.

• Unclaimed Property and Escheat Law

• Street Name Lookup

  "Enter a 5-digit ZIP Code to get a list of all the unique street names in the ZIP Code. Or enter all or part of a street name to get a list all the matches nationwide."

The rest of my favorite links are here.

Embarrassing collection of law firm employee postings on Facebook Community Pages http://ping.fm/QlPpQ

Colorado Online Juror System Streamlines Verification for Employers http://ping.fm/MsMkG

Colorado Online Juror System Streamlines Verification for Employers

"State Judicial has announced a new computerized system that will allow employers to check their employees’ jury service online."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Embarrassing collection of law firm employee postings on Facebook Community Pages

"Bimbos at Baker & McKenzie. Slaves at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Whipping boys at McDermott Will & Emery. These groups -- and dozens of others for virtually every major law firm -- now have their own Facebook pages.

They're not the product of disaffected employees -- at least not directly. Instead, they've been automatically generated by the social networking site itself via a new feature called community pages.

For brand-conscious law firms, Facebook's latest "innovation" is a bit mortifying. After all, does Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe want to be known for its porno stars? Shearman & Sterling as paper-pushers extraordinaire? Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman as ticklemasters? DLA Piper -- well, we won't even print the one about DLA Piper."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Chat on Facebook shows up in court

"When Disa Powell's husband and brother were badly burned in an electrical explosion while conducting maintenance at a Walmart store and the family sued, the defense went after something she never expected: her online life.

Through a subpoena seeking information about the injuries, Wal-Mart gained full access to her Facebook and MySpace social-networking accounts -- every public and private message, contact and photo for the previous two and a half years.

There were the pictures of Powell's newborn baby lying in a hospital bed after heart surgery (Label: "The hardest day of Mommy and Daddy's life.") The messages detailing problems with her pregnancy ("I got a bladder infection, which has moved to my kidneys.") And the messages dissing on friends ("Brad is a big fat BABY, and can't do anything by himself. The whole issue is that he's lazy.")

"I was livid," said Powell, 35. "I felt like I had been seriously violated." The case, settled out of court in January, offers a window into an issue that has riled members of Congress, consumer advocates and account holders: what your social-networking sites know about you and whom they share it with."
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Santa Rosa suspect whose witness was deported loses appeal

"Santa Rosa man charged with stabbing a restaurant patron was not deprived of a fair trial when immigration officials deported his only witness, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

A Sonoma County judge had dismissed charges of assault and attempted murder against Armando Jacinto, finding that local authorities violated his rights by allowing the federal government to deport a jail inmate who was prepared to testify that someone else committed the stabbing."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

New proposal would require identification to buy prepaid cellphones

"A bipartisan pair of Senate leaders have introduced a first-of-its-kind bill aimed at stopping terrorist suspects such as the would-be Times Square bomber from hiding their identities by using prepaid cellphones to plot their attacks.

The legislation sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) would require buyers to present identification when purchasing a prepaid cellphone and require phone companies to keep the information on file, as they do with users of landline phones and subscription-based cellphones. The proposal would require the carriers to retain the data for 18 months after the phone's deactivation."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Napa County Supervisors say background checks now mandated for private caregivers

"Napa County leaders passed a new ordinance this week requiring that privately hired caregivers working in the county undergo criminal background checks.

The Board of Supervisors is also urging the five cities in the county to pass their own laws or model a regulation on the one passed unanimously by the board this week.

The effort comes after years of lobbying by elder advocates concerned about the vulnerability of seniors with workers in their homes. While registered nurses must undergo background checks, until now caregivers were not subject to the same requirements."  
Read more   
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Advice For Scam Victims

• Advice For Scam Victims

  "Report Scams: What To Do If You Get Scammed"

The rest of my favorite links are here.

Mexican Records Searches

• Mexican Records Searches

  A private records supplier and retriever.

The rest of my favorite links are here.

Online Reputation Research

• Online Reputation Research

  "Research commissioned by Microsoft in December 2009 found that 79 percent of United States hiring managers and job recruiters surveyed reviewed online information about job applicants." Download the pdf study.

  
  

The rest of my favorite links are here.

A Guide to Facebook's New, Simpler Privacy Controls

• A Guide to Facebook's New, Simpler Privacy Controls

  Settings changes as of May 2010.

  tags: Facebook, privacy, social network

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

State Workers' Criticisms of Boss not Protected

"Complaints of mismanagement by an official with the Indiana Department of Insurance against the department's chief deputy are not protected free speech because the manager acted in his official capacity and not as a concerned citizen, the 9th Circuit ruled.
     Paul Ogden claimed in district court that his rights to freedom of speech were violated after he was forced to resign as manager of the agency's title division for writing a memo to the commissioner criticizing the department's chief deputy, Carol Mihalik. He also asked that his division be removed from her control." 
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Securing your Facebook privacy settings

"One wonders if Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow Facebook executives are wishing they could declare a do-over right about now, dating back to late April. That’s when Facebook held its developer summit and unveiled plans to make the social network even more ubiquitous on the Web—and that also raised a number of serious privacy concerns among Facebook users. Since then, Facebook has been the subject of what seems like a daily drumbeat of headlines about its privacy policies, whether it’s users quitting the social network service or pundits advocating for improved privacy rules."
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Public but not searchable: Problems with the lobbying disclosure database

"The 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act, requires all lobbyists to file reports with the Clerk of the House of Representatives and Secretary of the Senate and that those two offices “maximize public access” to the documents through “computerized systems.” But the searchable database of every filing by registered federal lobbyists, made available through the Senate’s Office of Public Records, has a major problem: its search engine doesn’t work correctly."  
Read more 
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Lawyer Uses YouTube for Video Depositions

"Thanks to our good friend Jim Drubert in Montgomery County, Ohio we learned of an attorney using YouTube to store the video portion of their electronic pleading.  According to the Maryland Daily Record in an article published on May 17, 2010 the Louisiana Lawyer:"
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Adoption records to be opened up under new Illinois law

"Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a measure allowing people who were adopted as children to access their birth records to find out more about their past.

The proposal is sponsored by Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, who was adopted and has pushed to open adoption records for years.

The legislation allows anyone adopted before 1946 to get their full birth certificate information by filing a written request with the state adoption registry. Those born after Jan. 1, 1946, could learn the same information if they are over 21 and at least one birth parent has not requested anonymity."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Florida Attorney General Rules Photo Tickets Are Public Records

"Attorney General Bill McCollum Florida's Office of the Attorney General last week issued an informal ruling that classified red light camera and speed camera citations as public records. That means anyone can order copies of the photographs taken by the private companies that operate the automated ticketing machines that were legalized this week with the signature of Governor Charlie Crist (R)."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

California Democrats want to eliminate the death penalty

"The California Democratic Party is calling for abolition of the death penalty, defying conventional political wisdom and raising an issue that its candidate for governor might prefer to avoid.

Democratic leaders have previously passed resolutions opposing capital punishment, but the party says its records indicate it has never enshrined the position in its platform - the formal statement of its principles - until this year."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Lack of Discrimination Inquiry Not Retaliation, Court Rules

"An employer’s failure to investigate a discrimination complaint cannot itself be considered retaliation, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York has ruled.

According to the opinion earlier this month in Cynthia M. Fincher v. Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., Fincher is an African-American who was employed by New York-based DTCC as a senior auditor when she resigned in 2006.
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Appeals court: Oakland to pay $3.7 million

"A federal appeals court upheld a decision saying the city of Oakland and two officers will have to pay $3.7 million in damages to a former parolee and his ex-girlfriend."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

3 Google Tricks When You Don’t Know What to Search For

"Sometimes you are totally sure which terms to use to search Google to find the information you need.

However more often than not, you have to try dozens of various search phrases to accidentally come across a good result.

Today’s short search tutorial will show some Google search tricks you can use to search when you actually don’t know what you are going to find.

The tips will turn useful in a number of cases:" 

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

San Francisco appeals court verdict upheld against police in gun-planting

"A federal appeals court upheld $3.7 million in damages Tuesday against the city of Oakland and two police officers who, according to a jury, planted an assault rifle on a parolee's property.

Jurors found in November 2007 that the officers had violated the civil rights of the parolee, Torry Smith, and his then-girlfriend, Patricia Gray, by fabricating a case against Smith to justify his arrest in September 2004.

Smith spent 4 1/2 months in jail before being cleared.

The officers, John Parkinson and Marcus Midyett, denied wrongdoing. Alex Katz, spokesman for City Attorney John Russo, called the verdict a "travesty" Tuesday and said that "the officers are the victims."

Read moreLocation Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

LAPD's High Crime Report Fees Spark Class Action

"A class action public records lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles was recently filed in superior court, challenging the $23 fee for crime reports charged by LAPD to crime victims needing copies for their insurance claims, according to open government researcher Scott Nelson.
"Jim Lissner," Nelson says, "had provided me with all his files from his earlier crusade to lower the fees of crime reports statewide (Jim’s latest efforts are fighting the red light cameras in CA).

"In December 2009 I told a lawyer friend, Steven Derelian, about Jim’s efforts, and particularly about the LAPD fee. I then provided Steven with a copy of transcripts Jim had acquired showing the fee was abruptly raised from $13 to $23 (even after he had testified that they needed to lower the fee), and also gave Steven my several compilations on the "direct costs of duplication."
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

San Diego to establish sex offender email alerts

"The San Diego County Board of Supervisors moved Tuesday to establish an e-mail warning system to alert residents that registered sex offenders are living in their neighborhoods.

The move comes in the wake of sex offender John Albert Gardner III's admission that he raped and murdered two teenage girls in northern San Diego County. In a plea bargain with prosecutors, he was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Private Investigator News: Funds likely to save California court jobs, end closures

"An unexpected infusion of cash from the state should allow California's courts to end their one-day-a-month closures in July and will avert planned layoffs of more than one-fifth of San Francisco Superior Court employees, judicial officials said Monday."
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Changes to Google Search Engine Results

"Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer, stated recently that "we tend to make a change to our core search algorithms at least once a day." Yet for all that change behind the scenes, much of the Google interface that the public sees changes only very gradually and after a great deal of user testing. However, last week Google rolled out a major set of changes to search engine results pages and several smaller changes to its appearance. Left-hand navigational search facets are now turned on by default."
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Jury penalty against nursing home exceeds state's punishment

"State regulators were far kinder to an Auburn nursing home last year than a Sacramento jury was yesterday. The jury handed down $28 million in punitive damages over the death of one 79-year-old woman.
The state, after issuing citations over the facility’s failures in three different patient deaths, dropped its bid to strip the facility of its operating license a year ago.

The Department of Public Health first moved to take away the license in 2007, in line with a state law that calls on health authorities to de-license a nursing home if it gets two "AA" citations within two years. Those citations are only issued when a nursing home's failures result in a patient's death.

On May 7, 2009, the department dropped the case in favor of a $120,000 fee and probation agreement.

State officials decided that the facility had improved since the patients died. It had changed management, staff, training and policies, the settlement agreement said.

“The Department … believes that (Colonial Healthcare) has demonstrated its ability and commitment to achieve and maintain compliance with requirements,” the settlement says.

The Colonial settlement was in the reams of files I compiled in recent months while writing about a 2004 state law that has since given the state’s nursing homes an additional $880 million in funding."

Read moreLocation Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Banning Sex Offender E-mail Addresses

"The Justice Department on Friday allowed states to exclude certain personal information about sex offenders from public notification websites in a move to increase compliance with the law. "

Read moreLocation Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

California Education Code requires trustees to live in the town they represent

"Sal Ramirez, who has served as a Stockton Unified School District trustee since 2006, lives 60 miles away in Davis, a violation of state law that requires local elected officials to live in the communities they serve.

The California Education Code and former state Attorney General Bill Lockyer clearly define a person's home as a primary place of residence.

For Ramirez, that place is Davis. The Record made a dozen visits over a 30-day period to a home on Nutmeg Lane in Davis. Ramirez's car was there each time.

The leafy, middle-class street is far from the gritty south Stockton neighborhood he represents as Stockton Unified's Area 2 trustee.

Ramirez lists a duplex on Church Street in south Stockton as his residence, but the gate to that dwelling is padlocked, and neighbors say they have never seen or heard of Sal Ramirez.

Retired Stockton Unified teacher Rosalinda Galaviz has filed a complaint with election officials asking for an investigation into Ramirez's residency. "The strong rumors about this man are that he works and resides in Davis," the one-page complaint says in part.

Ramirez, 46, calmly denied last week that he lives in Davis while standing at the front door of the Davis house where he has been seen repeatedly in the past month.

"My own home's in Stockton," Ramirez said. "It's my parents' home. ... I just stay (in Davis) sometimes. I live there (in Stockton). That's my home. ... I do not own or rent or lease anything else. I'm single, and it gets boring at my house."

But a background check produced by Accurint, an online public records database, links Ramirez to the Davis address from 1990 to 2010. The same report also links Ramirez to the Church Street address." Read more Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

CA Gov Pitches $3.4B for Strapped Courts

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released an $85 billion California budget proposal that includes $3.43 billion for the courts, slightly more than requested. The court budget does not address an ongoing controversy over the use of those funds, a discussion that could end up in the Legislature. "We are still dealing with a $20 billion statewide budget shortfall, and there are many competing interests," said Les Spahnn, legislative budget consultant to Assemblyman Warren Furutani."

Read moreLocation Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

'Sexually Dangerous'Can Be Kept in Prison

"The government can indefinitely hold inmates considered "sexually dangerous," even after their prison terms are complete, the Supreme Court ruled Monday."

Read moreLocation Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Supreme Court rules some juveniles can't be sentenced to life in prison

"The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that juveniles who commit crimes in which no one is killed may not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Five justices, in an opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy, agreed that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment forbids such sentences as a categorical matter.

The case, which attracted nationwide attention because of a trend toward increasingly strict punishment for juveniles who commit violent crime, could reverberate in Silicon Valley. Four defendants, including three teenage boys, are currently being tried as adults in Santa Clara County for an attack last Halloween on a pair of young trick-or-treaters. The attempted murder charges against them still could result in life sentences, but the Supreme Court ruling ensures the juvenile defendants will have a shot at parole if convicted."
Read more Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Does three DUI's justify revoking a teacher's license?

What if the teacher is, by all accounts, really, really good? And the DUIs are in 1987, 1997 and 2001? And are all on the weekend, with no evidence -- whatsoever -- that she ever, ever drinks on the job or is hungover or the like.

I'm conflicted. On the one hand, multiple DUIs are incredibly bad. It shows a real lack of judgment. Huge. Especially when at your last DUI you're blowing a .25.  
Read more Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Chicago mayor to post all public records requests on website

"Chicago mayor Richard Daley announced today that the city would begin posting logs of all freedom of information requests on its website, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

The logs will contain the requester's name, requester's organization, documents requested, request date and the date the document is scheduled to be released."

Read moreLocation Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

South Carolina emergency medical service calls are now a public record

"Incident reports, response times and other EMS data are now available to the public under a new law signed Tuesday by Gov. Mark Sanford.

Ratified by both chambers of the state legislature last week, the law repeals provisions of a 2004 law that made access to nearly all operational EMS data off limits to the public.

Sen. Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, sponsored the original bill six years ago and introduced the revision in December. He said Tuesday he was proud to see it enacted.
"It's been a long row to hoe ... but we were able to clear up some confusion that had been on the books for the last several years," Peeler said. "It's a giant step forward."

Bill Rogers, executive director of the S.C. Press Association, trumpeted the new law as a victory for government transparency across the state, despite the inclusion of an amendment that keeps confidential the names of first responders"

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Give Life to Your Social Media Accounts After Your Death

"To illustrate just how valuable our online identities have become, enter Entrustet, a free service that catalogs your digital assets and gives you the power to assign an heir to them when you pass away. The company's tagline is: "It's your legacy..."

"Launching April 26th, Entrustet acts as your online will for your social media accounts, including your web mail accounts. You can designate people to become "heirs" to these accounts, ensuring that your social media profile is left in the right hands when you're no longer around.  Otherwise, loved ones might be left to haggle with the social media giants like Facebook over privacy policy rights and potentially valauble information such as photos, documents and insights into your life might be locked down indefinitely."

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Are students' parking tickets public records?

"There is ongoing debate about what student information universities can share with parents, authorities, journalists and others. Universities have the power to call your parents if you get caught drinking in the dorms or if they are concerned about your health and safety. If you are a tax-dependent, your parents can get a copy of your grades. Pretty much everything else is private.

But what about parking tickets? (And we all know colleges are notorious for handing out reams of citations-- and college students are notorious for parking where they should not.)"  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Status report for California Court Case Management System

"Court administrators are jockeying with disgruntled judges for the support of lawmakers who will help determine the fate of a statewide computer system as budget season begins.

On Wednesday, the Administrative Office of the Court demonstrated to legislators the Court Case Management System, a project to link courts statewide.

Read more

Office of the State Chief Information Officer Review of the California Court Case Management System, 2010 Read more (pdf)
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Official state homepages ignore social media

"State government Web sites do not have the obvious centralized structure that most fed sites do. Many states merge tourist info, government services, and assorted other information into one big splashy homepage. Others separate the tourist stuff and gov stuff from everything else with their own URLs, and a few state homepages are merely an unsightly text-filled directory with links to other pages.

While there is no die-cast right or wrong way to approach the state Web site structure, one thing is for sure: when citizens do a Google search for their state, what they usually find first is the state’s official homepage. And if that is lacking, it makes for a lousy first impression and a blown chance to engage citizens.

States that ignore this “window-display” opportunity to showcase their social media efforts are missing out. When the links to state social media efforts are buried any deeper than the homepage, we have to ask… why?

Of the 15 most populous U.S. states (populations ranging from California's 37 million to Massachusetts' 6.5 million), only FIVE ranked in our top tier for displaying social media links, with California leading the way. Four other states showed mixed success, enough to earn them a spot in our second tier. But disappointingly, more than a third didn't make it out of the bottom tier, earning them a FAIL grade. Two states --- North Carolina and Arizona --- showcased absolutely zero social media on their official state homepage."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Orange County Court to determine release of retiree names and pension data

"For nearly a year, the Orange County Employees Retirement System has refused to release the names of retirees collecting at least $100,000 annually.   Requests from The Orange County Register under the California Public Records Act have been repeatedly denied.

On Thursday, the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility is coming to Orange County Superior Court seeking a court order to force release of the data. The odds — and the law — are on the group’s side, as judges in Contra Costa and Stanislaus counties have ruled that such information is public."

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Colorado Rejects Bill Restricting Video Surveillance

"he Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee last night defeated a bill that would have limited the use of surveillance of employees who have submitted a workers' compensation claim.

Among other things, HB 1012, would have restricted video surveillance to only when the insurer or employer had a reasonable basis to suspect that the employee committed fraud or made a material misstatement concerning the claim; and would have required the insurer or employer to destroy all materials collected during the surveillance within five years, unless the materials were reasonably necessary to resolve an ongoing claim of fraud.

"We and others in the anti-fraud community felt the bill wasn't the best bill out there and didn't need to go forward," said Howard Goldblatt, director of government affairs for the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud."

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Online tools promote amateur sleuthing

"The bar's hopping. The guy's hot. She's curious. He's mysterious. She decides to go gumshoe on him.

The bathroom stall becomes her office, the smartphone her secretary. And using a tech tool like DateCheck that can scope out a potential partner's background in a Philip Marlowe minute, she's cleared him for a romantic go-ahead.

Case closed.

From the ladies room to the chat room to the tweet-stream in the next cubicle, America is becoming a society of amateur spies. With a burgeoning arsenal of websites offering cheap tricks to sniff out subterfuge, abetted by multitudes baring their souls on Facebook, everyday life has become a realm of nonstop intrigue: Spouses are snooping, business competitors are spying, sexting celebrities are apologizing, and everyone's following President Ronald Reagan's advice to trust but verify.

"Everyone's checking out everyone else," says Wolfgang Kandek of Qualys, a Redwood City firm that helps companies like Facebook store and guard their confidential data. 'Once you put information online, it's there forever. So you can look someone up on Facebook, look at their house on Google Earth, and follow them around on Twitter.'"  
Read more Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

California bill would have eliminated access to names and addresses in crime records - Fails in committee

"A bill that would have eliminated California reporters’ access to names and addresses of most crime victims failed on a 4-2 vote this morning in the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, reports Melissa Cabral for the online news organization Crime Voice. The bill, up for reconsideration in the committee after failing its first hearing two weeks ago, was opposed by the California Newspaper Publishers Association and by Californians Aware, which called the central arguments supporting the measure a myth and a distortion." Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Private Investigator Research Links - April 3 - May 4

• Acronyms and Abbreviations and Texting Lingo

  "The Acronym Finder allows users to decipher acronyms from a database of over 600,000 entries covering computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military."

• Netvibes - Realtime information gathering

  Custom keywords monitored on the web.

• A Guide to Facebook's New, Simpler Privacy Controls

  Settings changes as of May 2010.

• Plastic Bag Recycling

  Sites that accept plastic bags for recycling.

• Prize winner employees at major retail companies

  Search by name at Google, with site search.

• Unclaimed Property Recovery & Reporting

• Online Reputation Research

  "Research commissioned by Microsoft in December 2009 found that 79 percent of United States hiring managers and job recruiters surveyed reviewed online information about job applicants." Download the pdf study.

• Find A Grave - Millions of Cemetery Records and Online Memorials

• The Best Twitter Tools and Twitter Apps - oneforty

• California Live Scan Locations

  California LIVE SCAN Fingerprint Services Locations

• Licensed Health Facilities in California

  Search all the licensed Long-Term Care facilities or Licensed Hospitals in California and get complaints and citations.

• Mexican Records Searches

• Advice For Scam Victims

  "Report Scams: What To Do If You Get Scammed"

• Check Username Availability at Multiple Social Networking Sites

  Search for availability of profile names at multiple social networking sites.

• Unclaimed Property and Escheat Law

• Street Name Lookup

  "Enter a 5-digit ZIP Code to get a list of all the unique street names in the ZIP Code. Or enter all or part of a street name to get a list all the matches nationwide."

The rest of my favorite links are here.

Proposed privacy legislation could nix business access to Social security numbers and addresses

"Proposed legislation on privacy landed with a thud when it was unveiled Tuesday — drawing criticism from both Internet and advertising industries, which are leery of regulation, and consumer privacy advocates, who say the bill does far too little to protect consumers."

"The bill stipulates that as a general rule companies can collect information about consumers unless a person opts out of that data collection — a point of contention among privacy advocates.

The regulation also specifies standards for the collection and use of personally identifiable information. Companies must disclose to consumers if they are collecting personally identifiable information and how they are using that data. Consumers must give a company permission to share that personally identifiable information with outside companies.

Companies also would need permission from consumers to collect sensitive data, such as medical records, financial accounts, Social Security numbers and geographic location information."

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Consumer Reports study reveals social network users post risky information

"Fifty-two percent of adult users of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have posted risky personal information online, according to the 2010 Consumer Reports State of the Net survey. And many haven't used their service's privacy controls to protect themselves.

According to findings from the survey cited in the Consumer Reports investigation, Social Insecurity, 23 percent of the users of Facebook, the largest social network, either didn't know that site offered privacy controls or chose not to use them.

Other findings from the survey, which was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center:
* A projected 1.7 million online households had experienced online identity theft in the past year.
* An estimated 5.4 million online consumers submitted personal information to e-mail (phishing) scammers during the past two years.
* Among adult social network users, 38 percent had posted their full birth date, including year. Forty-five percent of those with children had posted their children’s photos. And 8% had posted their own street address.
* An estimated 5.1 million online households had experienced some type of abuse on a social network in the past year, including malware infections, scams, and harassment."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Spying on students with school issued laptop computers

"Lower Merion School District in Ardmore, PA is under fire for having snapped 56,000 photos of its 2,600 high school students over the course of two years using the webcams in school-issued laptops.

USA Today reports that the “family of Blake Robbins, 15, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming invasion of privacy. The U.S. attorney is investigating, and the American Civil Liberties Union is supporting the Robbinses’ suit.” 

Blake’s parents realized their son’s privacy had been violated when he was asked to see the assistant principal about “possible drug use she learned of through photos and instant messages captured on Blake’s computer.”  The Robbins family says the “drugs” were nothing but a handful of Mike and Ikes.  The question is, is this really news?  Or just another story about poor little rich kids?

Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

FBI accepts FOIA requests electronically

"People can now submit Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI electronically through a new eFOIA form.

The FBI said the new electronic form makes requesting information easier. The bureau said it revamped its records Web site to include a guide for research in FBI Records, details on what happens after you make a request and data on how to file an appeal with the Justice Department."  
Read more
Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator