Securing Your Online Biography/Information

God Bless Manchester

Prayers for all the children and young people affected by this heinous crime earlier today. There are no words to describe how we feel about these Islamic militants who have said they killed these innocent souls to please God.

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We had planned to blog on something entirely different today, but felt this was a good time to revisit this ongoing problem. A few years ago, a young woman was murdered in Muscle Shoals. All her online bios stated that she had one child. This is exactly what many news outlets reported. At that time, we linked at least one of these outlets, if not two. It seems the woman had two children. Why she had not updated her bio, we don't know. Perhaps she had found it difficult at first and later she was not living with her children. No matter the cause, local news outlets received harassing communications over their obituaries for this woman. Whose fault was the error?

We've always advised individuals to keep their bios up to date, as well as to check sites such as Spokeo, Redaris, etc., for incorrect information. It wasn't all that long ago that Spokeo listed a local candidate for city office as male, when in fact the person had been living as a women. We repeat...bottom line: You need to check online info about you if you really care what's reported when your name makes the news.

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Taylor Elise Brooks Boyles

Now we have an interesting twist on the above scenario. Earlier today a Moulton teacher was arrested for having sex with a student under the age of 19. Her online bio lists her as married to a R***. A reader has told us the marriage was very short lived and the couple is now divorced.

Is the ex-husband happy that his name still appears on his ex-wife's school bio? We're going to guess he isn't. We're also going to guess that he never bothered to check this bio to make sure his ex changed it. 

If you think you're possibly still listed as married to someone who may be a sex pervert, or simply someone you wish you'd never met, we suggest you check right now. If you find your name incorrectly listed, contact the website immediately to request a change. If not, don't be so de classe as to hurl epithets at those who use this information in news articles.