A few weeks ago I received a couple of annoying messages on my home voicemail from some guy who sounded drunk and knew my name was Cheryl. The troublesome thing was he always ended by calling me “Baby.” Ewww.

Finally we were home one evening and Peter answered the call. He was able to insert a bit of testosterone into a the conversation. No more calls.

I started thinking. I remembered that I had blocked our address from Google’s search results a long time ago but suddenly I wondered if it showed up on Bing.

Bing-O! The top search result for my phone number (which he already had) displayed my street address AND a map. The above screenshot for World Help is similar to what I saw, but with my own info.

After a little searching, I found the link to remove my address from Bing’s search results and processed that request faster than Accenture dropped Tiger. Literally. Here’s the link in case you’re interested. Despite my speedy response, my results would still be available for 72 hours. Nice!

Argh!

Today as I was typing this, I wondered about Yahoo and other places that have public info. Yep. It’s out there.

Many would argue that the information has always been out there – public, for all to see. And they’d be right. Except it’s easier than ever now for someone to find your info, your address, and map it.

What does this mean for you?

• Do you want your address to show up in simple web search results? If not, click here for some good info on how to remove your phone number from Online Phone Directories.
• Do you have your home phone number listed in your social networking profiles? If you answered no to the first question, you should make sure your home phone number doesn’t show up on your Facebook account and other social networking profiles.
• Are your kids sharing your home phone number, and if so, with whom? (Click here to read Is Your Teen’s Facebook Page Open for All The World To See?)