I suspect some people would just freak out that someone else had managed to trace them. It does seem a bit stalker-like. A few years ago I was talking to a lady online and she had posted a link to her blog. Just out of curiosity (having only just done something similar for my own domains) I did a very quick lookup of a few details and using nothing more than what she had provided in maybe three or four public posts managed to find her real name, her home address, when she moved there and what she paid for it. The only thing that was a slight mismatch (and it was based on an assumption I made) was that I thought I had the name of her husband when actually it was her father. I had considered sending her a private message to let her know how much was readily available from the small amount she had posted but then wondered how it would look if some guy she'd been talking had found out where she lived and who she lived with.
Yeah, well the claim of "stalker" was what I was labeled with on the other forum, primarily because I found out some people's real names based on their own public posts on that forum.
One chic (not the one mentioned in the earlier post) sent me a photo with embedded exif data in it, showing the geo location of where it was taken. I pm'd her and told her about it, and I said I would help her remove it when I knew how ( I didn't know how at the time but do now ). She asked me if I had looked it up. I admitted I did - it's a simple click on my program. Now even though I thought to help her protect herself online - she assumed (and said so) that I used the program for nefarious reasons and told a bunch of people I had stalked her. Some flipping Whiteknights on the board were all ears and sought to take up their lances for the fair damsel in distress. I got slammed ruthlessly on this whole scenario.
Oh, and why was I even using socks in the first place? Because that stupid place's rules are so flipping tight that if you say "hell" "out of a biblical context" someone can dob you in and report you. Or if you say you support Cannabis (which they will say is illegal activity even though it's legal in quite a few places in the world, including many American States)...but people abuse the system for people they don't like.
If "stalking" is using a search engine to investigate someone, I'm guilty as sin. The only thing is - unlike some whitewashed tombs I'll admit it.
Real stalking involves misuse and malicious use of information - such as setting up false profiles of someone, sharing sensitive data like nude photos or video, or threatening to, and/or putting it on sleazy websites advertising for partners - things of this nature. This is wicked and it is illegal (as it should be) in many places. Well, that is not something I have done nor would do.
However, one of my biggest accusers on that board doesn't know who I talk to. I can't verify it, but a former love interest of his made the mistake of sharing some nude photos with him. He threatened to expose them, according to her. If that's true - it's truly Karma in action and I hope she saved the evidence and told everyone he knew - because it exposes him as the biggest most ruthless hypocrite I have personally ever encountered.
