Being stalked?

Moe_The_Bartender

My wife accepted a friend request on Facebook from someone she knew years ago but lost touch with. The ‘friend’ has sent a message saying that he's found our house on Google earth which shouldn’t be possible from the very limited information on the site and we both try to fly below the radar. The person is a computer nerd but it bothers me why someone would take the trouble. Does anyone know how it could be done?

(The house isn’t in the UK)

dan958

Public records, found out from someone else etc  The list could go on. I wouldn't say having a friend request and a message means you are being stalked, unless there is more to this story? Just ignore them if you want, or block them if you want.

Neil_Jones

If you know an address, a house number and a postcode/ZIP code or whatever other countries use, Google Earth will take you there.

Moe_The_Bartender

He doesn’t know the address and even if he did, it doesn’t have a street name or number and the post code covers a large thinly populated area. The address is the name of the nearest village, two kilometres away. Public records wouldn’t help unless someone was fluent in a language which isn’t in Latin script. I'm just curious to know how it could be done.

cajef

Maybe they just think they have found it, have they actually shown you evidence that it is yours that they have found?

Moe_The_Bartender

Good point. I suspect I could be found if he knew my IP address but don’t know how he could get that.

DoaM

Moe_The_Bartender said:

Good point. I suspect I could be found if he knew my IP address but don’t know how he could get that.

Your IP address doesn't define your physical address, it defines the location of the end point where your ISP's server connects to the wider Internet. If you went to a website that he had created then he could easily get your public IP address.

RumRat

Great reason not to have Facebook.....Acquaintances from years gone by getting in touch. You didn't keep in touch for a reason and they may have done a prison stretch...

avoidtheupsidedownbottles

Does FB allow access to data associated with photographs?

dan958

avoidtheupsidedownbottles said:

Does FB allow access to data associated with photographs?

I would hope that all social media platforms wouild remove exif data from images.

MinuteNoodles

Despite people thinking they don't put much information about themselves on social media sites like Facebook they often put far more than they realise without realising. It could be something as innocuous as a roadsign or noticeable object in a picture taken and uploaded.