How to Protect Kids' Privacy Online

Whether playing, shopping, studying or just surfing, today's kids are taking advantage of all that the web has to offer. But when it comes to their personal information online, who's in charge? In an effort to put parents in the catbird seat, the Federal Trade Commission has established new rules for website operators to make sure that kids' privacy is protected while they're online. These rules are part of the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Here's a look at what the law requires, starting April 21, 2000.

Website Operators Must:

Post their privacy policy.
Websites directed to children or that knowingly collect information from kids under 13 must post a notice of their information collection practices that includes:

• types of personal information they collect from kids-for example, name, home address, email address or hobbies.
• how the site will use the information-for example, to market to the child who supplied the information, to notify contest winners or to make the information available through a child's participation in a chat room.
• whether personal information is forwarded to advertisers or other third parties.
• a contact at the site.

Get parental consent.
In many cases, a site must obtain parental consent before collecting, using or disclosing personal information about a child.

Consent is not required when a site is collecting an email address to:

• respond to a one-time request from the child.
• provide notice to the parent.
• ensure the safety of the child or the site.
• end a newsletter or other information on a regular basis as long as the site notifies a parent and gives them a chance to say no to the arrangement.

Parents Should:

Look for a privacy policy on any website directed to children.
The policy must be available through a link on the website's homepage and at each area where personal information is collected from kids. Websites for general audiences that have a children's section must post the notice on the homepages of the section for kids.

Read the policy closely to learn the kinds of personal information being collected, how it will be used, and whether it will be passed on to third parties. If you find a website that doesn't post basic protections for children's personal information, ask for details about their information collection practices.

Decide whether to give consent.
Giving consent authorizes the website to collect personal information from your child. You can give consent and still say no to having your child's information passed along to a third party.

Your consent isn't necessary if the website is collecting your child's email address simply to respond to a one-time request for information.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

How to Track Down Anyone Online

When you're trying to find someone online, Google's not the only game in town. In the last two years, a handful of new people search engines have come onto the scene that offer better ways to pinpoint people info by name, handle, location, or place of employment. While there's still no killer, one-stop people search, there are more ways than ever to track down a long-lost friend, stalk an ex, or screen a potential date or employee. The next time you wonder, "What ever happened to so-and-so?" you've got a few power people search tools to turn to.

Note: Stalking is serious business. When we say 'stalk,' we're exaggerating, not recommending.

Find Phone Numbers and Addresses with ZabaSearch

Look up anyone's home address(es) and phone numbers at ZabaSearch, a creepily-comprehensive people search engine that will freak you out when you search on your own name but save your ass when you desperately need a former coworker's phone number. ZabaSearch's index includes listed and unlisted numbers and addresses (though the founders say all the info is public record.)

Search the "Deep Web" with Pipl

My favorite new search engine of the bunch, Pipl digs up information about a person Google often misses, supposedly by searching the "deep web" (or "invisible web.") Pipl returns an impressive number of results for most people who use their "real" names online, including personal web pages, press mentions, MySpace pages, and Amazon wishlists. You can also narrow your search for common names by entering city, state and country, too.

Search Several Social Sites at Once with Wink

So the person you're looking for likely has a Friendster, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, or Xanga account? Instead of searching each service individually, enter their full name or screen name, plus other identifying information like interests and location at Wink to do a one-hit comprehensive search of all those services at once.

Get Employment Results at ZoomInfo

Job-centric search engine ZoomInfo aggregates people and company information in one place to help candidates find the right job, but its people search tool also turns up information about corporate types especially well. ZoomInfo's information listings on people, culled from the web, include people's employment history and current job title, whether or not they're looking for a job. Search by a person's full name at ZoomInfo, and when you get too many results, filter them by geography (U.S. and Canada only.)

Find More than College Students at Facebook

Incessant notifications, Beacon, and zombies aside, one of Facebook's greatest utilities is finding people online, and it's not just for students anymore. Chances are your grandmother set up a Facebook account this year, so all those annoying emails might be worth tracking down your best friend when you were 9 years old who moved to Florida on Facebook.

Practice Your Google-fu for Better People Results

Okay, fine, you can't talk finding people online without mentioning the big G. For internet superstars you'll get great results by just typing his/her name into Google's search box, but for civilians, common names or names with double meanings, a few advanced Google techniques can help narrow down the field of results.

• Enclose the first and last name of the person you're searching for in quotes when you enter it into the search box (like "John Smith").
• Include other relevant words, like the person's profession, employer, location, or screen name, too (like banker or Austin, Texas.)
• If the person you're searching for is likely to appear on a particular web site—like a school—search only that site using the site:URL operator (like site:ucla.edu "John Smith").
• To look up people by face, search for them on Google Images to get a quick visual—especially useful for people with common names, or to determine the gender of a name you never heard before.

Get Context-Menu Access to People Search Engines with the Who Is This Person? Firefox extension

Finally, if you run across folks online you want to know more about often, search a ton of engines for someone's name with the Who Is This Person? Firefox extension. Simply highlight the name on any web page and look 'em up on Wink, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Facebook, Google News, Technorati, Yahoo Person Search, Spock, WikiYou, ZoomInfo, IMDB, MySpace and other engines from the Who Is This Person? context menu item.

For more online sleuthing resources, check out Wendy's great tutorial on searching public records online. To make yourself more findable? Have a say in what Google says about you. Also, many of these services let you "claim" your name and add information to your results. Do a search for your own name and click the link that says, in effect, "Is this you?"

Does the current crop of people search engines make you want to change your name, fail you entirely, or help you get in touch? Let us know what you think in the comments.