TECHNOLOGY REVIEW

How to Get the Goods on Them,
How to Hide the Goods on You

by Dominick M. Maino, O.D., M.Ed.

You're interviewing an applicant for the office manager's job in your practice. She's sharp, well-dressed and very articulate. Her references are first class, but there is something that tickles in the back of your mind, something that just doesn't seem quite right. Did you detect a sense of wariness in the voice of her last employer?

You could hire an agency to conduct a background check for a couple hundred dollars. Or, you could first do some cyber-snooping on your own. Cyber-snooping, of course, has a disturbing paradox about it: What you can find out about someone else, someone else can find out about you. Here's a peek into the world of cyber-snooping.

Before you hire an agency with cyberspace connections to do a background check on your office manager-to-be, you might want to look at www.informus.com/ssnlkup.html. Informus (1-800-364-8380) is the Web site of a paid investigative service that will give you a sample of what's available online. If you hire the service, it typically charges $10-$13 for each report. Your report may include the individual's basic demographic statistics, the validity of his or her Social Security number and when it was issued, any criminal reports, and information from the state's motor vehicle division.

You can also dig up information about your future employee's workers' compensation filings, credit history and nearest neighbors. If you're hiring another doctor, you can obtain verification of his or her professional license, education, military service, past employment and personal references. It's amazing, but for a little more than $100 you could find out just about anything about your future employee.

Want to know more? Here's where you start if you're looking for free snooping tools.
Freeality Internet Search (www.freeality.com/findet.htm), a search/snoop engine, allows you to access many links that give you reverse telephone directory services, e-mail and street address directories, toll-free numbers, area codes and much more.

If you mostly need to send inquiries to several search engines simultaneously, I recommend www.dogpile.com as my favorite search vehicle. Using your caller ID, you can also use another reverse directory by logging on to www.anywho.com/telq.html, or even track a crank call to a pay phone by logging on to sorabji.com/livewire/payphones.

Want to dig up the dirt on a friend or acquaintance? Curious as to how much "dirt" others can dig up on you? Go to Codex (www.codexdatasystems.com/codex.html). This company's motto: "We don't spy on you, but we keep an eye on those that do!" Comforting thought, huh? This site lists many links into the world of spying. A few minutes here and paranoia may become your normal state of mind!

Maybe you have a compelling obsession to spy on others while they surf the web? Go to www.metaspy.com/spy/warningtop.html. This will show you what others are searching on the WWW. It can be a bit X-rated, so be warned. The bottom line on all of this is not to make you paranoid, but rather to give you the knowledge and tools to use the WWW appropriately to protect you, your business and your family.

How to Keep Snoops Away
Last year U.S. News and World Report had this to say about the Internet: "The Internet is now more like an unlocked diary, with millions of consumers divulging marketable details of their personal lives, from where they live to what they eat for dinner."

Are you anonymous on the Internet? Alta Vista recently found 24,430 web pages associated with the name "Dominick Maino." Not all of these were me, but it does highlight the lack of techno-privacy you may have. (A Usenet search on DejaNews yielded 55 mentions of the "Maino" name, none related to me. Whew!)

Want to keep your web surfing and e-mail private? Go to www.anonymizer.com. From this site I learned that by using my IP address, another web site can track my movements through its pages and monitor what I read. Companies can take this information along with my e-mail address and use it to send me unsolicited "spam" mail. I also learned that by using my IP address and knowing that I use Windows 98, another web site can automatically take advantage of any security holes in my browser and, by using various free hacking programs, access data on my computer. And you thought you were anonymous while surfing the web! Anonymyzer offers free and paid ($60/year) options to help you retain your anonymity.

Another way to find out what information may be out there about you is to go to www.rickman.com/finger.html or www.cs.indiana.edu:800/finger/gateway, and enter your e-mail address. You may be shocked at what you discover about yourself.

If you want to keep your e-mail private, you can use AnonMailNet (www.skuz.net/), and you won't have to know PGP (pretty good privacy) software or use other remailer systems. You only need standard STMP/POP3 software or any web browser. Fees range from $20 to $200 a year depending upon the level of service you order.

Finally, if you want to know how to get rid of all your spam e-mail, visit Antispam at spam.abuse.net/ for more information. In the meantime, beware of where you go and what you do. Someone in cyberspace may be watching.

Dr. Maino has no financial interest in any of the products or services he describes in this column. You can contact him at dmaino@worldnet.att.net. Be sure to sign up for his continuing education e-mail mailing list by sending an e-mail note to CE4ODsubscribe@egroups.com today.

Updates in Cyberspace

MedNets (www.internets.com/ophthalm.htm) offers easy access to professional associations, journals, clinical information and research.

Pen Clinic (www.synapticsoftlink.com/PenVision/PenClinic.html) aims to help you move your office toward being paperless. It interfaces with VisionWare 2000 and Optometry Front Desk, which provide the office-management side of a practice.

Visit the Retina Institute of Maryland (www.access.digex.net/~retina/clin.htm) for some pretty good online pictures of the retina. You can find more photos at the Institute of Ophthalmology at Italy's University of Pisa (http://web.tin.it/OCULISTICA/immagigb.html).

Do you treat glaucoma? The Glaucoma Foundation (www.glaucoma-foundation.org) may be of interest to you.

Interested in corporate optometry? Go to www.colenational.com for information about Cole National Corporation.

E-mail Lists. Establish your own e-mail mailing list by going to OneList at www.onelist.com (in an earlier column I had already mentioned e-groups at http://www.egroups.com ). Or, set up your own Usenet-style discussion group at http://www.dejanews.com/communities for free. You can use this to establish email/newsgroups that all share a common interest or even just for your office.

Investing and Business. Worried about your stockbroker? Log on to http://www.nasaa.org (North American Securities Administrators Association) for information about brokers. You can also view your broker's employment and licensing history at http://www.nasdr.com.

As many as 7.5 million investors trade online. Want to jump into the cyber-trading frenzy? For $5 a trade Brown & Company will help you out (www.brownco.com). Another low cost trader is Empire Financial (www.lowfees.com) which charges $6.95 per trade and nothing on trades of 1,000 shares or more worth at least $5 a share.

Need an online date book to help keep you on time and in the right place? MagicalDesk.Com (www.magicaldesk.com) is for you. This cross-platform virtual desktop is at home using any computer. Give it a try. I use my PDA (personal digital assistant) everyday. Want to find out how to make the most of these great business tools? Go to www.pdadash.com right now!

Want to start selling frames and lenses on the Internet? Go to iTool Technologies (www.itool.com); Store-to-Go (http://www.storetogo.com), which recently merged with alpha-WebHosting (alpha-webhost.com/), or IBM (http://www.ibm.com/hpc) to find out more.

Health. You can find C. Everett Koop, M.D., also known as "America's Doctor," at http://www.drkoop.com. He wants us to take charge of our own health. Check this site to find out how. Want to order prescriptions online? Go to www.drugstore.com, www.mybasics.com , www.planetrx.com, www.rex.com, or www.coma.com and give them a try. And you thought online buying of contact lenses was interesting.

Want free WWW access? Who doesn't? Call up www.netzero.com, but be ready to tell advertisers all about yourself.—D.M.M.

Dr. Maino has no personal financial interest in any of the sites, products or services mentioned here.