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Web Site Likely Has Your Current & Past Addresses, Cell Number And Anyone Can Access it

WWL-TV has uncovered another website that you likely never joined, never heard of and had no idea had been collecting and sharing all sorts of information about you for free for years.

As Facebook tried to "save face" amid its privacy scandal - one so vast Congress made a federal case out of it - it became clear: if you had signed onto Facebook initially, you had signed onto fine print allowing the company to share information about you.

To see how to opt out, click here

WWL-TV has uncovered another website that you likely never joined, never heard of and had no idea had been collecting and sharing all sorts of information about you for free for years.

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“All these are my phone numbers. Oh my god!” Exclaimed one woman.

Viewers we talked to were surprised and sometimes stunned to find not only their current phone number and cell number listed, but their current address and all of the addresses they’ve ever had and the same information on other family members.

Familytreenow.com

It's called familytreenow.com. On the surface, it appears to look like any other genealogy site, but this one is different. Fortune magazine calls it "creepy." So does the Washington Post. And the Sacramento Bee questions whether it "makes it too easy to find someone?"

All you need is a name and state and up pops personal information about anyone you want instantly - their current and former addresses, phone numbers and those of their relatives and possible associates.

Look what we found

We tried it out with notable locals and famous personalities. We found Angela Hill's home number and the cell phone number belonging to the husband of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

We reached Arnold Schwarzeneggar's personal secretary. “Good morning. Oak productions,” she answered. When we asked to speak to him, we were told he was out of the office, but were asked if we could like to leave a message for him.

And we tracked down Kermit Ruffins on his cell. “Up popped your phone number, your address and all of those of your relatives,” we told him. “That's some weird stuff, huh?” he responded.

None had ever heard of familytreenow.com, but after we told them their contact information and their relatives' was available for free by strangers who can search anonymously, they were concerned.

“Imagine who could get that information and just be calling or researching or criminals or, I mean anything!” exclaimed Ruffins.

It would appear even James Comey, the former head of the FBI, isn't immune. We found a record matching his name, age and family members.

Cause for concern

“I was in shock when I saw this,” exclaimed Darlene Santana who runs “metro centers for community advocacy,” a group dedicated to protecting domestic abuse victims. “For our survivors, this is extremely dangerous. For them as well as for their family members because the abuser to get to them will use their family members.”

There's even a feature when you click on an address that'll take you to Google and give you directions to a home.

“It is scary. It’s lethal,” Santana asserted.

Seems to be legal

But it does appear to be legal. Bobby Deano heads up the IT team for WWL-TV. He says personal data can be culled from public records like real estate transactions, tax returns, and driver’s license applications.

A computer algorithm connects the dots. But while similar search sites require you to pay for records and provide information about yourself before searching, this one has no inherent deterrents.

“That's not right,” said Evelyn McCall. She knows she has enemies. Both her boys were murdered in broad daylight and though their killers are in jail, she still fears for the rest of her family. “Their family still has hatred towards me because they're in jail from killing my son,” she explained.

When she looked herself up on familytreenow.com and found information about her sister, all she wanted to know was how to get it removed. But while searching for records takes seconds, opting out is easier said than done.

Darlene Santana tried to figure it out and spent several minutes scrolling and searching before finally giving up.

It turns out, you have to go to “contact us” and from there you have to follow more instructions.

But when we tried to contact "them" we got no response--not by email, Twitter or Facebook. And perhaps this is no surprise, either: The CEO, Dustin Weirich, appears to have taken his own contact information off of familytreenow.com.

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