The recent flurry of hype over ZabaSearch got me thinking about privacy. For those who didn't have the pleasure of receiving a frantic e-mail from a friend about it, ZabaSearch is a search engine for personal information. Folks across the Internet were shocked to find that not only their current addresses and phone numbers but even information from the past several years came up in ZabaSearch. Even unlisted numbers appeared.

I received several e-mail messages with the Internet equivalents of gasps and expressions of horror attached. The truth is that ZabaSearch is no evil Big Brother. It's a search aggregator, and a rather efficient one at that. All the information in its database can be found elsewhere on the Web. Its crime, if any, was making personal information supereasy to find.

ZabaSearch is not the risk you're looking for
Having your address out in the world doesn't immediately mean the men in the black helicopters will land on your roof tomorrow. But neither does not having your address listed in ZabaSearch mean you're protected from all the crazies. We humans tend to overlook real safety risks in favor of the more shocking ones--hence the popularity of Fox TV.

If you really want ZabaSearch to exclude you, the company provides an e-mail address where you can request to be removed. Ironically, though, you need to provide a lot of private information in order to be removed, which seems sort of shady. The site staff did not respond to my attempt to contact them to discuss that. However, it's understandable that you'd need some verification from someone before you remove their private information from public view. Otherwise you might violate an individual's right to publicity.

If you really want to expunge your address and phone number from the Web, though, you need to go to the sources. Many, many places have your information and make it available to the public for free or even for a small charge.

Do a quick search on Google, and you'll find a few million directories for finding people. Many of these draw from the same database, and often it's the public telephone directory. If you want out, call your local phone company and make sure you're unlisted in all directories, for both phone number and address. You might have to change your number, though, since those older records will keep showing up.

You also need to be careful when you fill out forms--both governmental and otherwise. If there's a privacy box and you didn't check it, your information may go public. Did you allow the post office to alert people to your change of address? Then don't be surprised to find your address in a public database. There are also public records, such as property records, that are public and will stay public.

The real breaches you never think of
But while you're trying to track down every scrap of info on yourself and wipe it from the public eye, keep a few of these situations in mind. Do you ever give out your address or credit card number over the phone? How about in restaurants? Do you ever give your credit card to a stranger who then disappears into a back room for several minutes, totally unobserved by you? Is that safe?

What about contests? Ever enter one at your local grocery store or mall? Have you ever given out your phone number out loud walking down the street while talking on a cell phone?

The list could go on, but you get the picture. Somehow, when computers and the Internet are involved, the dangers become magically bigger and more evil. Not that you shouldn't take absolute care on the Web, especially with your financial info; you should. But a search engine with public records is hardly the huge monster it's been portrayed to be. It's not even the top priority for fighting identity theft. If you want to know the nuts and bolts of identity theft and what's being done about it, read Rob Vamosi's Security Watch.

Don't help the hype
This brings me back to the frantic e-mail messages I got this week. ZabaSearch expertly played on the overreaction people have to Internet privacy concerns. A little-known start-up with no business base suddenly has nationwide name recognition and a chance to make some money when it starts charging for the information it found free elsewhere.

There's no fault in that. Good for them. But maybe the next time you're about to light your hair on fire over privacy, think about whether you're raising the alarm or helping with marketing. Maybe put it to the waiter test. Is it riskier than eating out? If not, just step away from the keyboard. It's going to be OK.

Don't keep your opinions on privacy to yourself. Tell us what you think.