Here's how to fly under the radar of the internet and keep your home address private
(CBS DETROIT) - You may be surprised just how available your physical home address is online, and access to your address could lead to more than just junk mail.
If you've ever Googled your address, you may be astonished at how easy it is for anyone to find where you and your family live, even if you're not a celebrity.
With private information like that so readily available online, security problems are all too prevalent. Identity thieves could try to intercept mail or spoof an address, and burglars could use the information to spy on neighborhoods.
Real estate broker Nick Petrucci says people now more than ever want to keep their addresses private.
"I see a lot of that where people don't want it out there; they don't want the information out there publicly," Petrucci said. "I mean, I've been in the brokerage business for almost 10 years now, and the last couple years, I've seen more of that than in previous years."
There are ways security experts say you can protect that information. Experts say to only give out your address when required, report your address when you find it in search results and blur your current address on map apps.
Petrucci says that if you're buying a new house, there is another step you can take.
"You could put your title of the property into an LLC or an entity," he said.
While chances are your home will be safe even with your address online, it takes a few minutes and investment to decrease your chances of anything bad happening when the wrong people have your private information.
