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Ten years ago someone told me that you can find out where someone lives by typing their name into Google Maps. I tried it on a few friends and it was shockingly accurate. I was completely mystified by how it worked (we were all college kids and none of us owned property) Doesn't seem to work any more though.

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There used to be these books available that had a compiled list of everyone in town and it included their address and phone number. It was huge.

The cornerstone of social engineering and phreaking.

Assuming you are referring to phone books white/yellow pages, which do still exist - the major difference being of course that these could be trivially opted out of by calling the phone company. These days, you cannot come even close to reliably opting out of the digital “phone book” and it contains much more than your name, number, and address.

Mostly being facetious. But at the time, I never knew someone who opted out. It just wasn't seen as a danger. It was a great way to find Doc Brown or Sarah Connor.

How did it work? Did Google get recorder of deeds records?

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