[.ca] Naked in Cyberspace: How to Find Personal Information Online (ISBN 0910965501)

From Amazon.com:
What can you find out online about others? What can anyone find out about you? Quite a lot. Carole Lane shows you both how and why in this encyclopedic book. Naked in Cyberspace reveals the personal records available on the Net and demonstrates both how they are used and how to use them. Lane further examines the issue of Net privacy, noting what information is not available to the average searcher and discussing what safeguards protect you from unwarranted intrusion. This is an important work for anyone who values both privacy and information.

Perfect Tool For The Job:
I'm referred to often by talk-show hosts as 'expert on personal safety and privacy', and yet - here is a resource that is an endless wealth of information on Web resources and a few tricks even I did not know. I have to disagree with the 'yawn' offered by another reviewer - this book isn't aimed at professionals who have already been around the block, though they can still benefit to a degree. It's aimed at people who don't have the tools and skills already at hand. Further, the best part is that there is a well-maintained Web site that keeps all the links and information up to date - more like an insider's association membership than a book with respect to usefulness. That's a value to all, especially a professional who is too busy applying what he knows to continually research the narrow topic on their own. I've even tracked down former intelligence community types using her advice. With a table of contents 20 pages long, its in there. While the book focuses on trying to help you find someone, it logically follows that if you are trying not to be found - knowing what you are up against and how it works can help you defeat the system.

Be prepared to spend yer hard earned cash...:
The title should be: "The Best Places to Spend Your Money on a Whim, and Lordy, I Hope You Got Time". Lane's book is well-written, researched, and simple to understand. It covers an enormous number of topics and is actually quite useful--IF, and yes, that's a capital IF, you wish to find things as a way of making money or starting a business. The book gives you many ideas and starting points, but it, and it's official review are somewhat misleading. There is plenty of info about where to find minor stuff (geneaology, search engines, et cetera) on the 'net, but most of the good stuff (credit reports, skip tracing, legal records, criminal records, et cetera) requires you to sign up and PAY for things like Nexis-Lexis, Knight-Ridder Databases, and Dun and Bradstreet, depending on what you would like to find. For a corporation that needs these information constantly, or someone trying to learn what is available, and where to look, "Naked" can be very informative. But for those of us who just want to find someone/thing once in a while, "Naked in Cyberspace" is not worth the money nor the time spent. Bought it--returned it. 'Nuff said

A good come-on but not much follow through:
Some of the sites are informative -- for instance, if you are doing academic or "serious" research, the search engines, etc. provided are great. But as far as real "spy" stuff, there's not much new between the covers here.