If you can no longer find the mailing address of a friend, a former co-worker, or even a dear family member, it can be very disheartening. Life usually has a way of pulling us in different directions over time; however, with today’s technology, it is possible to reconnect, even if you don’t know the current address of the person you’re trying to find!
For this reason, we’ve prepared the ultimate guide on how to find anyone’s address with the use of a simple phone number.
The Connection Between Phone Numbers and Addresses
Unsurprisingly, there is a connection between the phone number you have and your address! Many phone number lookup services online get their information from public records, and these records usually have your phone number and your address on the same document.
After all, the first three digits of your phone number are actually the “area code,” meaning those three numbers alone provide a geographic zone to whoever looks the number up.
In addition, a mobile phone usually keeps the data of a person’s specific location, including a home address, thanks to apps that ask for this information or even navigational applications.
Using Online Directories for Address Lookup
Online directories are services that use the connection between phone numbers and addresses to pinpoint the location or address information, of any given person. By looking up the phone number in the directory, a person can be provided with all of the information linked to that number.
This can include not only the location of the person but usually, other information as well. Sometimes these facts can be where the owner of the phone number goes to work, what their job title is, their full name, and even their relationship status!
Safety and Legal Considerations in Address Search
Unfortunately, there aren’t federal laws that regulate what data brokers can publish concerning the address of a person. In addition, public records like Criminal Records and even property sales usually put one’s address out there for everyone to see online, or in databases.
Apps like the ones used to browse the internet or navigate from place to place on your phone can also contribute to your address being found, relatively easily, by anyone looking for it.
What this means is that, although delivery services, individual-specific ads, and even family members can find out where you live, so can scammers or criminals.
Protecting Your Own Address From Unwanted Lookups
All of this may help you gain ground in leaps and bounds for your goal of finding the address of someone you miss. However, it can also shed some unpleasant light on the fact that your own address may be all too easy for someone unwanted to look up.
Luckily, there are ways to protect your own address from unwanted lookups! We’ve got a few tips ready to put into action below:
Turn Off Location Tracking Whenever Possible
You may not be able to completely disconnect your phone from power every time you go home. As a result, the GPS tracking utilized by various apps on the phone, including helpful ones like navigational systems, can begin keeping track of the fact that you return to the same place nearly every day.
To avoid this address being added to a data log that might be found by unwanted lookups, turn off location tracking when you’re on your way home. This can be done in the settings of your mobile device. You can also switch on your mobile device’s “Airplane Mode,” which will cut off any access to satellite data.
This may keep you from browsing the Internet and receiving or sending calls and messages from your mobile phone while it is switched on, but it will also keep anyone tracking your location from seeing which address you frequently end the day at.
Opt-Out of Lookup Sites
As we’ve seen, there are online directories and tracking services or apps all over the Internet, and many of them may have your address in their database. This is hardly surprising, given the amount of times someone needs to enter their address into public records, such as in legal land-ownership documents or criminal records.
However, many of these sites will actually remove your address from their databases if you simply ask them to. To build upon customer trust, these sites usually have an “Opt Out” page where internet users can ask for their information, including their address, to be hidden from lookups.
Download a Privacy Scanning Service
Some services have specifically been invented in order to scan a wide variety of popular websites and lookup services, keeping an eye out for your specific address. When it is found, services like the Experian tool offer an option to go directly to the Opt Out page of any lookup service it found your address in.
This is usually performed every few months, which can save you quite a bit of hassle weeding your address out of multiple lookup services at once.
Conclusion
To sumup everything that we’ve learned, a person’s phone number is linked to their address through the actual digits in the number. Additionally, a phone’s apps and GPS services can keep track of, and even provide access to, someone’s location and address.
Though this can make finding friends and family easy with online directories and phone number lookups, we learned that it can also pose a security threat to one’s privacy. Luckily, you can opt out of public lookup sites and use your phone’s location services settings to protect this information, using it to your advantage!
