I have an erstwhile friend in Canada, and both he and his wife are in positions I would have thought might have garnered some notice. He is an Anglican priest, and she is an academic.

Their shared surname is not especially common, although it can be mistaken for an adjective.

Whatever the case, I was looking him up online, and neither he nor she have any footprint on the internet at all. I mean whatsoever. No mention in a parish newsletter; no inclusion on a university website. Nothing.

This seems extraordinary to me. I can understand not having signed up to any vanity service like facebook or linkedin or twitter or whatever, but to not have done anything anywhere to have got your name onto the internet is amazing.

Or is it?

How common (or even possible) is it for people to stay completely invisible in this day and age? I mean, even the online phone directory service doesn’t proffer any leads!

I know a few people who are right luddites and difficult to contact. SMS only. A fair few who totally refuse to use FB, twitter etc. Though oddly give away a lot more personal details on LinkedIn.

My real name is the same as a prominent national-level road cyclist. Google me and all you get are pages of links to him

Fantastic

I know a few people who are right luddites and difficult to contact. SMS email only

it works really well

Not that hard. If you don’t use forums / social media etc. why would you be “on the radar”.

Your definition of on the radar means being online. If your not on line then your not on your radar. But their friends and colleagues know them on their real life radar.

Bit like all of us back in the early 90’s.

(Either that, or the FBI have given them a new identity)

Email is good for ignoring people. 99% junk/spam in mine so most emails to me get ignored.

It’s not that hard, if you’ve not left traces already. My dad’s half brother/my uncle has been off-radar for a good 10 years. We think he’s hiding from the dodgy family of an ex, and gone a bit paranoid. He’s also managed a alienate most of the family with behavior before he left.

I found him by a completely random method.

– found a previous address via 192.com (no current listed)

– followed up a few of the shared occupants with searches on social media. came across a facebook page for something one of the shared occupants was involved in

– noticed my uncle in the background of a picture

– this was all without a single “friend request” and about 4 quid on 192.com to do a look up.

– phone the guy and explained situation. found out that he was OK and his a rough idea of his situation (which is what my dad wanted to know)

sadly other family members have pressured my dad into not much more contact than that (they’re scared the black sheep will return) but we know where he is, and rough a way to get in touch if need be. i’m sure a electoral roll etc followup could drill down more info.

Not that hard. If you don’t use forums / social media etc. why would you be “on the radar”.

I know, for example, that Mrs SR’s name appears on 192.com even though the closest Mrs SR has been to the internet in her life is to make a grocery order.

Likewise, I show up in different organisation’s newsletters for having given a talk or whatever. And I did say that I would have expected both my friend and his wife to at least have done something that would appear in some old PDF newsletter (or similar) somewhere!

“If all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails”

Or

“If all you have is google then anyone not online is invisible”?

Googled my parents, almost nothing about my mum, a few newspaper articles by or about my dad.

I would have expected both my friend and his wife to at least have done something that would appear in some old PDF newsletter (or similar) somewhere!

Depends if google have databased it. Even if the .pdf is online it doesn’t mean google has read it, so if you searched for the parish newsletter then read it they may still be mentioned.

For an academic? Academics survice on getting their name out there

There can still be plenty of information out there which isn’t showing up on a Google search. Electoral Roll, Marriage Certs, Shareholder information, Directors register, national insurance searches are all available via the right channels.

If they’ve ever been a UK citizen and paid into a pension then the DWP can carry out searches for roughly £5

It’s surprising how easy it is, as per Canopys reply, once you start pulling at a thread it can lead you where you want to go (or not)

It’s part of what I do for a living and sometimes is very interesting indeed

This came up in the recent thread about racists at Gisburn. It’s frightening how much you can find out about somebody especially if they are verbally incontinent on social media. I once heard a Police detective talking about somebody the Police wanted to trace; he said: “He’s proving hard to find because he’s not active on social media.”

We are ex-directory and I don’t use Farcebook or any other social media; I post on web fora like this one under an avatar and I decline Linkedin invitations. So if you Google my name you’ll find one mention of me from when I used to post under my own name on a Land Rover forum. Luckily it’s easy to lose that amongst hundreds of posts about an American sportsman who has the same name. My brother in the USA is a notorious sex criminal, apparently!

I am very surprised that an academic isn’t traceable online (unless she publishes under a different name). Google Scholar is particular keen to trace you at all costs, even if it is papers you haven’t authored!!

SR – Have you tried Strava? 😉

I have tried for years to track an old friend down. Last seen in 1995 living on a canal boat. I know he has been published under a different name but nothing in his personality has given me any leads.

Very easy.

In fact one of my mates is dam good at it by using social media.

All personal email accounts / social media stuff is not in his name, just nick names etc. So zero trace of him on the net.

Not hard at all in general, but virtually impossible for an academic I’d have thought. Maiden name maybe?

A number of employers will dig around for potential employee’s history, going beyond just social media (surprising or maybe not, how much they’ll dig into social media presence anyway now).

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Vc6oJ2qOM[/video]

hmm – not only am I findable, typing my name into Google brings me up as the first hit. It’s not even an unusual name!

Thank goodness there’s no record of me on LinkedIn, though.

Rachel

Likewise, I show up in different organisation’s newsletters for having given a talk or whatever. And I did say that I would have expected both my friend and his wife to at least have done something that would appear in some old PDF newsletter (or similar) somewhere!

They may have exercised their ‘right to be forgotten’. So those articles etc may well all be online but Google will ignore them their name is the search term.

You could try other search engines

An ex of mine is impossible to find on the web. We lost touch some ten or twelve years ago, then I found her by accident when her name popped up as a member of a folk band based around the Cricklade area, although she’s moved from Swindon to Cirencester.
Lost touch again now as the band has broken up, and she has no computer, email, or social media connection at all, that I can find. I don’t think she even owns a mobile phone.
If you’re not leaving an electronic snail trail, then you may as well not exist, even when living in a town like Cirencester or Swindon.
[Edit] Well, I spoke too soon! I just did another search for the fun of it, amending my search to include antiques, as I knew she’d got involved with them some time ago, and straight away I found her in a Daily Mail article to do with antiques complete with photo and her full name!
Just goes to show that there’s always something that you can be tracked down by, you just need to know the person’s likes and so on.

Seems that article pre-dates the last time we met, it’s dated 2010…
As I said, without email, social media, etc, there’s no trail, not even a chemtrail… 😉

If you go to the Uni page it will list all their employed academics, seen a load more these days hosting the name/email as a jpeg so it can’t be harvested easily.

I’ve thought about trying to find a random person from my past, just to see how easy it is with minimal information.

I show up on a few places outside of social media, but am probably only there because of social media.

Come across this in our line of business, if you stay away from all forms of social media, electoral role registration, NHS, Driving licence don’t have a bank account or debit/credit cards and stick with sms on PAYG mobile phone then you are fairly well off radar. Life is challenging at this point however, I know one individual who lives like this (but he is paranoid)

Go on genes reunited.
Find person you want pay for details
Google their names in the locations you think they live
Narrow the search (unless they have weird easy names)
Go by age if you need to narrow the search

That’s how I track people. Genes reunited also shows when and marriages took place
Which is another way to track people. Even those who don’t use the net as everyone else
Eg Government, councils,company’s will put you on the net

PS
Mr Panther needs to trim his lawn

Interesting then, that in this age of information and easy traceability that if you decide to take drastic action the cops are unlikely to be able to name you…

she is an academic.

Their shared surname is not especially common, although it can be mistaken for an adjective.

What are you talking about? I googled Dr F***ing and found loads of stuff.

I googled Dr F***ing

That’s a participle.

Interesting then, that in this age of information and easy traceability that if you decide to take drastic action the cops are unlikely to be able to name you…

Yebbut the internet doesn’t link actual people with their electronic personality. You could be reading about the most violent Lithuanian mafia gang leader who is hiding in Britain and the bloke might be sitting next to you in the pub.