Of Lynn McAlister Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2017 6:12 AM > ... another example of people using the internet to insert themselves as middle men and charge for information they did not generate and shouldn't profit from. Interesting point of view. Mine is different. Companies such as Google are searching the internet, providing me with an index of what they have found, and making money from it. Yes - I could search it myself but I rely on someone having done it for me unless I have already identified a site where the data I need can be found (e.g. FreeBMD.org.uk). There are search engines that specialise in certain aspects - for example 192.com. The problem with all search engines is that of trust. The example used - that of someone having resided at an address that they have never lived at - is just one such example. Companies that trawl news sites are at risk of presenting "fake news" - but obituaries and legal reports seem to be relatively safe. So - I am very willing to use the results provided by a commercial company once they have gained a degree of trust. Regards Chris -----Original Message----- From: GOONS [mailto:goons-bounces+christopher.gray=gray-ons.org@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Lynn McAlister Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2017 6:12 AM To: goons@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [G] Questions for USA Members maybe. Most of these sites (Intelius, e.g.) are basically compilations of information once available for free through the telephone book. Some of them claim to include criminal records, land sales, etc. - don't know if they do or not because I've never needed to do a background check on someone, but I suspect it's all information freely available elsewhere on the internet. Some of it must be taken from mailing lists - for example my in-laws' names appear as residents of our home even though they've never lived here, presumably because at one time my husband lived with them so when his name moved, theirs moved with it. In my opinion it's just another example of people using the internet to insert themselves as middle men and charge for information they did not generate and shouldn't profit from. But that's just my opinion. Lynn McAlister (6121)