Snitch.Name: PR Tool or Violation of Privacy?



2009 August, 17th
Genesis Davies
Genesis Davies
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Snitch.name is a site that claims to let you find people’s social media profiles, a good thing right? However, the site doesn’t just cover social media. In fact, you can dig up a lot of dirt on just about anyone if you really want to, using Snitch. Actually, the very name indicates that it is meant for malicious purposes, doesn’t it?

As you can see from this screenshot of the homepage, Snitch.name offers you a variety of options, including the ability to check and see if the person you’re looking for is a US inmate or has a criminal past.

snitch

I took the site for a little test run, using my own name. I was amazed at . . . how little it turned up. I like to think of myself as fairly visible on the internet and my name is certainly no Sara Smith, but despite this, Snitch turned up pretty much what you can find on Google. I did discover two other people, living in the US, who have the same name. One was male.

Needless to say, some people have decided that Snitch.name is really a violation of privacy, making it possible for anyone to view your entire life online. Others view it as the perfect place to get a feel for who someone is, based on their online photos and blogs. Not sure if you should follow that guy with the weird profile on Twitter? Check him out on Snitch.name and find out what he’s really all about. Looking over resumes and trying to decide who to hire? Snitch could make your job a lot easier if you want to eliminate anyone who posts nude pics of themselves online.

Snitch does do social networks best, showing up Facebook profiles, MySpace pages and tweets very well, but it did seem to lack a lot in the whole local search. Of course, this could be due to the fact that it is still in beta, like the vast majority of sites these days, or possibly, because I don’t live in the US. Either way, there’s a lot of information on there, but nothing that you wouldn’t be able to find with a little digging on Google and no one is complaining about that, now, are they?

The moral of the story? You should be careful what you do online. Just like before the existence of Snitch.name. Everything you say, do or post is up there forever and if you want people to take you seriously, it’s a good idea to think ahead before posting those kegger pics from last weekend! My rule of thumb is, if I don’t want my grandparents to read about it, don’t post it.

About the Author

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Genesis Davies is a freelance writer and blogger and a work at home mom. She works as account executive for Pamil Visions PR and she also runs a blog for work at home moms, At Home Mom. For Everything PR she covers the news column. Follow Genesis on Twitter or email her at gdavies [at] pamil-visions [dot] net.

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There Are 2 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Matt Keegan on 19 August 2009:

    I’m resigned to having a lot of information about me posted online. There isn’t much that I can do about it; Snitch.name simply makes it a bit easier for people who don’t know how to dig up that information.

    Though I usually respond as “Matt Keegan” through blogs I write under “Matthew C. Keegan” almost everywhere else. Thus, a number of my works don’t appear through Snitch.

    Snitch is a good name — at least it is honest about the intent of the site!

  2. Comment by Mihaela Lica on 19 August 2009:

    Snitch.name is scraping various research tools and gives all the results in one place – pretty smart idea. This is indeed a privacy issue, but it is also a great research tool for a possible employer. The truth is that there is no such thing as “privacy” anyway. People should understand that if you publish any information about yourself online you actually share it with the world. They don’t teach this in school, unfortunately.