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.

As has already been explained, that analogy is nothing like spot on.

It shouldn’t be surprising to people that information they put online is read by other people.

The human propensity to gossip and be interested in our neighbours is extremely well known- it’s glaringly obvious that new technology would be incorporated into that.

So is knowing when to mind one’s business.

And the OP is being pretty disingenuous to couch it in terms of ‘looking up someone interesting’. I met an artist recently, and afterwards I looked up her work, as I love art and going to galleries and museums, and have bought work from local artists in the past, plus we exchanged numbers and are going to meet for a drink. She mentioned a fairly obscure artist who was active between the 1930s and 50s whose name was only vaguely familiar to me and I looked up that artist’s work, and which collections owned pieces.

I wasn’t motivated by pure nosiness to try to figure out how much money a holiday acquaintance had, because they didn’t give me what I considered sufficient details about their visible wealth.

@Youdontevengohere I'd expect people to look at publicly available information if they had a need to for a specific reason. I wouldn't expect them to go trawling through a person's information for no reason other than nosiness. It's not really the same as judging people who watch love island, since the latter involves people who actively want viewers to know all about them.
There's something about searching out small pieces of information from varying sources and then putting it all together that's just creepy AF.

You must be very clever.

Ummm yea that's weird 🤣 blows my mind when people are so concerned with others. Did that knowledge of them strangers help you in anyway? I doubt it, just sounds like you're a bit bored.

Why? That's a good question; I suppose I find the challenge of seeing what I can find out from very minimal information enjoyable, which is what the OP said in their opening post as well. I don't understand why people can't accept that other people may find enjoyment in things that they don't
I can't fathom why people watch Strictly, or Love Island, but lots of people seem to enjoy it, and fair play to them.
Don't get me wrong, I really don't spend hours doing this, I work full time and have children, just occasionally I will go down a rabbit hole of research.
If you think I do this with friends IRL then you have completely misunderstood what I (and the OP) have said, what we are talking about is completely non-intrusive. I'm not one of those annoying and rude people that keep probing for private information.

Anyway, regardless of whether people think this is right or wrong, the issue here is that the OP thinks it's right but her DP doesn't and that is going to cause tension.

Completely normal 🤣. I do this and so does my friend. We are naturally inquisitive.

Omg @azureazure we could soooo be best pals.

I love this type of behaviour. I would also look on right move at their house lay out and then probably log in to Google earth for an aerial view

Totally stalker but I'm not harming anyone.

I do this all the time; most people are impressed by my research skills! If the information is publicly available, I can’t see why anyone would have a problem.

I'm sort of similar to this, I'd highly recommend doing a history degree. My research is always excellent, even if what I have written isn't quite to the same standard 😅

But why? Why would knowing how much the house of a random person you met on holidays sold for be of interest to you, or its layout, or what it looked like from overhead?

Some people are being very precious here!! The information she found was freely available online - fully accessible to everyone🙄

Because im a weirdo.

I also love murder documentaries and Google earthing the area after

Don't worry I'm not masked murderer. I'm happily married with two youngens

If you’ve got lots of free time, it could be put to better use being an amateur / arm chair sleuth for real life unsolved crimes . There are loads of these people in the US.

That uses your time, might have a positive outcome and is less stalkerish / weird/ grim behaviour from yourself. If you wouldn’t ask the person in conversation, it’s weird (putting it politely) to do it behind their back.

I can't believe 40% of respondents think this is ok!
I have a friend who would do this, she is fantastic in every other way but this makes me think less of her- it's totally demeaning to hunt after strangers info, why on earth would you GAF?
And as for the PP who said not doing this kind of thing means you're uninterested in life- this is not being interested in life. Being interested in the world and life means investigating food, culture, language, literature, religion, architecture. It does not mean small minded snooping and grubbing around for other people's information.

No one who runs a business thinks that 😂It's like the easiest thing to look up how much is in their business bank account/s and what assets they have.

So you basically stalk people and try to justify your behavior by calling it inquisitive. Your completely in the wrong here, others should feel free to speak without fear your checking up on them online. I'd also like to know what business ot is of yours what someone's house sold for!!!
This is crazy behavior and if I found out a friend or colleague had done that to me, I'd definitely be confronting them.

Yeah, but if I had only a half hour free time to spend on the internet, there are about a million more interesting things to read about, surely, than the house layout of someone I met on holiday.

I've never looked up anyones financial info, not for any moral reasons, I'm just not interested. I have looked on peoples social media though. I remember a few years ago going for an interview and looking up the interviewer prior which my DH thought was weird...I like to know who I'm dealing with!

I’m also surprised by th4 people trying to big this up and say oh I’m just curious or inquisitive, there are so many other things to be curious or inquisitive about rather than how much money someone has or what their house cost.

thats not curious or inquisitive, its intrusive grim behaviour . And you know how you tell the difference. If you’d be too ashamed or embarrassed to tell the people you are searching that you sat and googled their financials.

hey I looked up how much your house cost and how much your business sold for…dont want to tell them, then you know you’ve moved into unacceptable.

I don't understand posts like this. We all clearly have spare time to post on here - nosing online takes a couple of clicks. The op isn't rooting around dusty library archives!