Chapter 3: Opting Out

Overview

Practicing Stealth: How to Create a Digital Doppelganger

"Age is a number and mine is unlisted!"

”My mother

My mother, who has never touched a computer, has been practicing stealth her entire life. She grew up in an era when it was impolite to ask a lady's age and Jack Benny remained forever 39. Her friends might have found it a bit peculiar that my brother and I grew progressively younger as time marched on, but the ammunition to calculate her age has never crossed her lips! She wasn't fibbing, either. My mother was simply practicing stealth. The amazing thing is she beat the system, for a while at least!

Yahoo features a free People Search engine sponsored by USSEARCH.com, the same information broker that provided the report on Jane C. Subject in Chapter 1. Simply type in a last name, first name or initial, city, and state, and then click Search.

Figure 3.1: Yahoo! People search page

If you score an initial hit on the given name, you get an option to search the public records. A search box appears with the subject's name, and you're required to enter the persons state and approximate age. You click and voil ! A page appears with the exact age of almost every subject with that name.

Figure 3.2: USSEARCH.com public records search

As you can see, some search records draw a blank when it comes to the subject's age. Not knowing my mother's actual age, I couldn't resist doing some research. I typed in her name, and the public records returned zilch! When I informed my mother she was among the handful who beat the system, she was absolutely delighted ! Then she got a mischievous twinkle in her eyes and asked me to do an age search on some of her friends. I never did get around to it. Alas, that's not the end of the story. Not long ago, I was tracking down some lost friends on Yahoo! People Search for a birthday party. My mother recently purchased property in a different state, and I decided on a lark to do another age search. This time, her age registered! The moral of the story ”if there is one ”is that you can beat the system for a while, but nothing lasts forever! My mother has the right idea, though. She knows the system can be spoofed. That's the idea behind creating a digital doppelganger .

The Mythological Doppelganger

A doppelganger is a shadow-self that accompanies every human. Only the owner of a doppelganger can see it; otherwise , it is invisible to human eyes. Dogs and cats have been known to see doppelgangers. Providing sympathetic company, a doppelganger almost always stands behind a person, and casts no reflection in a mirror. Doppelgangers are prepared to listen and give advice to humans , either by implanting ideas in their heads or by a sort of osmosis. A doppelganger is said to be bad luck if it is seen, and rarely will it make itself visible to friends or family, which often causes great confusion. Doppelgangers can be mischievous and malicious.