Half of Brits have used people search sites and social networks to spy on
former partners and ‘enemies’, according to research of over 1700*
members of the British public.
Research carried out by the world’s most popular people search engine has
found that 1 in 2 people have searched for an ex or somebody they dislike
via social networks.
Women were more likely to search for exes, with 62% admitting that they had
on at least one occasion used the internet to look for an ex-partner. 46%
of men admitted to the same.
The research was conducted by people search site www.yasni.co.uk in a bid
to understand who people search for online, and why. 97% of people have
searched for themselves online via search engines and people search
websites in a bid to find out just how much information is online about
them.
Expectedly, the results showed that 96% of people have searched for friends
and family online, although just under 1 in 2, 46%, admitted to searching
for people they claimed to dislike on people search and social network
sites.
The third most common people search online is for celebrities and public
figures, with 93% of people claiming to have searched on social networks
and search engines for a well-known individual. When participant responses
were broken down, the over 30s were much less likely to search for famous
people via search engines and on social networks than younger more fame
obsessed counterparts; 86% and 100% respectively.
54% of respondents had searched for an ex-partner online. When asked “if
you have searched for an ex-partner online, have you searched for that
ex-partner on more than one occasion?” over a quarter of people agreed,
meaning that 1 in 4 people have used online channels to check up on
ex-lovers more than once.
When asked “if you have searched for an ex-partner online, what were your
reasons?” curiosity was the majority answer, followed by jealousy, with
57% and 21% respectively. 9% answered to the option ‘because I knew I
wouldn’t be caught’.
When broken down regionally, women in Newcastle are more likely to stalk an
ex online, proving the ‘fiery’ stereotype.
Percentage of women who have searched for exes at least once by region:
1. Newcastle – 72%
2. Liverpool – 68%
3. London – 68%
4. Leeds – 65%
5. Edinburgh – 64%
Steffen Ruehl, CEO of yasni.co.uk had the following to say,
“Curiosity is an interesting thing, it is human nature to investigate. It
can make people search for people they may dislike, or people they have had
personal relationships with in the past. The fact that so many Brits use
the internet and services like ours to provide them with undetectable
access to other people’s lives is a fact of today’s online society.
“The only way to ensure people do not access personal information about
your life is to ensure that social network profiles are set to private and
that any information about yourself online is hidden or deleted. Today’s
society is intent on using the internet as a medium through which to
broadcast personal details, which means that it has become increasingly
easy to find information.”
www.yasni.co.uk allows people to search for themselves and others online
and collects any publicly available information linked to their name from
all websites and social network profiles; consequently offering people the
ability to monitor and control what others have access to.
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REBECCA WANJIKU'S BLOG
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WOMEN MOST LIKELY TO STALK EXES ONLINE Posted: February 18th, 2009, 8:36am EST