Pipl API

@topdownjimmy uh, didn't you just describe the Internet?

@topdownjimmy the tool can be used for good and for bad. Shame on bad people, not on pipl!

@passingnotes No.

@topdownjimmy LOL. Every website on Earth is doing it. Pipl is just displaying it.

How can people honestly think Pipl is no different from "the internet" or "every website on earth"? Sure, this information may be "out there" already, but Pipl mines it, collects it, stores it, and indexes it -- even after it's deleted from its original source -- *with the express purpose* of making this information easier to find. They are facilitating the distribution of personal information without people's consent and in most cases without their knowledge. The average person would be horrified to see how much information is available about them by just typing their name into a box. (If you say Google is the same way, it's only because Google is returning Pipl, Spokeo, et al. in their results.) This is colossally immoral. How is this even debatable?

@chrismessina Did you try using a unique data point? I just used your Twitter name and found quite a lot, e.g. you went to Carnegie Mellon. https://pipl.com/search/?q=chris...

@chrismessina As you point out yourself, Chris Messina is not a unique name, so if that is the only information you provided I'm not surprised that you are not necessarily the first or even fifth Chris Messina that turned up. As in all searches, garbage in, garbage out.

@telavivberlioz you're calling my name garbage? Don't search engines rank results?

@chrismessina Of course they do, as does ours. But what makes you think that you are the top-ranked Chris Messina in the world according to our algorithm just based on your first and last name? What about all the other Chris Messinas in the world? Do you think when they type just their name in the search engine they should see your name first? Now take what your saying to the logical extreme: What if your name were John Smith?

@chrismessina For example, if you specified in your search that you were looking for a Chris Messina in the state of California you would have been the fourth result. The specificity of your search results is correlated with the specificity of your search query.