It’s Friday again, so here’s another less-than-ledfrog style article. I was romping around the Internet taking care of some much needed things like bills, eBay auctions, etc. and I decided to see my Google rankings when I typed in my name, Brandon Hann. Under normal circumstances, I usually hold all of the top 10 spots on the first page, but today I found something interesting.

ArrestCentral.com

After typing in my own name into Google, this was the link I found:

First, I was amazed that there was such a website that allows you to research police bookings, but what’s worse is that it shows up right on the first page of Google! Now on the surface of things, this site seems like a great idea. I mean, you can look up people that might be in your neighborhood or check up on employees at work or find people that might be working with your children. But I wonder if there might be some type of privacy concerns that come out of this site.

After reading the FAQ on the site, it clearly states that ArrestCentral’s goal is to provide the public with a level of transparency so law-abiding citizens can keep tabs on people in their area who have committed some law, but may have not necessarily be convicted of such a crime.

My two cents

There is of course a way to have your name removed from the database, but naturally, it costs $100. I’m not a criminal myself, but it does perturb me that my name is associated with another individual who is. So now, if someone happens to be searching for me, they’ll see my name and it’s possible that a huge misunderstanding could take place.