To think is not too nosy?

[azureazure]

My dp thinks I’m very nosy. I think I’m inquisitive. If someone tells me something and it interests me, I will do some research on the topic later. Or if I meet someone who interests me, I’ll look them up later.

Most recent example he thought was strange is that we went on holiday and got talking to a couple. Knew first names only and the area they lived in. They mentioned they’d just sold their business and seemed like they had a LOT of money. They were also very vague about what the business was but said along the lines of “We sold carpets”.

So from that info I was able to spend about 20 mins tracking down who they were. Could see how much their business sold for and how much their house cost e t c

Does anyone else do this? I’m just interested in people. I can find out lots off little info and see it perhaps as a challenge for my detective skills.

Terrifying?? What looking at sold prices on Zoopla?? Having a butchers on Google Earth?

Appearing at their front door in a balaclava and a horses head under your arm, that’s terrifying.

I don’t, and based on the OPs post neither did the couple she was talking to. If she was so inquisitive as she says, she could have asked them directly.

Instead, they were vague because they could probably tell she was a creepy stalker, and she chose to do her “detective” work. She really needs a hobby.

It isn't the time or the effort that's weird because it's the going away from a random chat with strangers and wanting to know details about how much their house sold for etc for no purpose other than wanting to know. No use in it, no benefit to you or anyone else.

That's what makes it nosiness.

But why? It's not like you're going to have a future relationship with them, it doesn't affect the time you spent with them or your life going forward. It's pure nosiness.

And gosh, of you treat total strangers like that, what are you like with friends and family? Do you route through the bins so you know what colour pants they wear and how often they have sex?

Yes it is nosiness. I’m not disputing that, on my behalf. The information is there for all to find. I find it.

She just googled them, she didn’t hack their email accounts.

What she found is public information, made available on purpose for anyone to see.

Everyone who owns a business is aware of that, and shouldn’t expect that information to be in any way private. Same goes for house sales.

I think it's very nosey. And I would do it myself. So no judgement from me.

There's a difference between knowing info is in the public arena and expecting someone you once chatted to over half a lager to be digging around looking for it so they can gossip about it to others

They will never know that she looked the info up though. So it isn’t affecting them.

None of these are remotely similar to ‘looking up someone I met on holiday because I was nosy about how much their house cost and how much their business sold for’. The OP is an online knicker-sniffer.

I like a good internet rabbit hole as much as anyone, but it will be a topic I’ve come across and want to know more about — like I was recently on a racing stud farm, and ended up looking up things about thoroughbred breeding,

If someone surreptitiously went into your bedroom and checked out your underwear/ sex toys/contraception methods, and you didn’t find out, would that make it ok?

I think you’re forgetting that this information is in the public domain. They are aware that their information is in the public domain. There is a reasonable expectation that people can access this information. It’s nothing like going through someone’s private property. That’s trespass. Looking at information that is an available to anyone to view is not trespass.

It would be more like me hanging my underwear out of my bedroom window and being annoyed that people saw it.

Being inquisitive is healthy.

Being nosy isn't. Nor is it respectful of other peoples private business.

What you did to your holiday acquaintances was being nosy.

Do you work for the government? 😂

To me it's on a par with using someone's bathroom and snooping in their bathroom cabinet. Yes it's there and available but (I like to think) we all maintain an element of decency that prevents us from filling our brain with private details about a person just because we have the chance.

It’s in the public domain, sure, but piecemeal, and not usually linked to these people’s names, so it takes someone nosy to burrow about to find and collate it.

The information only has value to someone so repellently nosy and small-minded that she’s prepared to spend 20 minutes figuring out the address and business of someone she met briefly on holiday so she can find out how much money they have. That’s not intellectual curiosity or detective skills, that’s plain nosy.

That makes 3 of us now 🙋🏻

Ok, but it’s nothing like going through someone’s underwear drawer, which is illegal. Accessing information on a public website, when the owner of the information is aware of the fact that it’s accessible on a public website, is not illegal.

You don’t get to police who sees what on line, or what they do with that information, unless it’s illegal (and even then it’s hard to control).

Thats what people don’t seem to understand about the internet- it’s exactly like telling a series of random people in bars all about you- except worse because the information is all written down for them to save or reproduce however they like.

That’s a very good point.

The poster never said it was like going through an underwear drawer. And no one is saying it’s Illegal?

but meeting someone briefly on holiday, deciding they look like they have money so going on line to try to find out how much is just grim.

The poster I was quoting absolutely did say it’s like going through someone’s underwear drawer. It’s right there in the conversation thread.

I think it suggests OP doesn't have enough interesting going on in her own life tbh!

I mean you can find this information....but why??! It's of no use to you so it's definitely pure nosiness.

The funny thing is, I’ve spent far longer reading and replying to this thread than it would take to look up how someone paid for their house and how much their business is worth. Both past times equally as useless, and both of no benefit to anyone. People do pointless, time wasting things all the time.