SocialStalking: The act of a person, or group of persons to gain information about a person, with or without their knowledge.  If we look at actual definitions:

“the willful, malicious and repeated following or harassing of another person.”

“a hunt for game carried on by following it stealthily“

Some people are actually stating they are doing this behavior through the social networks.  Any form of online behavior needed to be wrapped up into a larger group.  SocialStalking.

As we explore the sites to build SocialStalking.com and view not only what they collect but the stated privacy polices, the amount of required information social networking sites collect and optional parts that consumers willingly contribute is amazing.  Everyone should assume a decline of privacy and increase in the ability to be socially stalked.  WE have moved beyond simply Googling someone for general information.

Rarely do I uncover a social networking site that had a public privacy policy defining proper usage.  I recently ran across one that had some excellent verbiage in theirs:

• You could not engage in cyber-bullying
• You could not harass memebers
• You could not impersonate as someone else

While all of these sound like simple and common sense policies, I have not run across another site yet that places this directly in their privacy polices.  So this is where we begin to describe what SocialStalking is, how to protect yourself and what the sites do to prevent it.