# How does Intelius know who my family members are?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 19, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144 "2006-10-19T21:13:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144/1 "2006-10-19T21:13:25Z")

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For shits & giggles I put my name into [Intelius](http://www.intelius.com/) and it came back showing most of my nuclear family under “Relatives”.

How does it know who my relatives are?

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**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144/2 "2006-10-19T23:29:44Z")

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[QUOTE=niblet\_head]  
For shits & giggles I put my name into [Intelius](http://www.intelius.com/) and it came back showing most of my nuclear family under “Relatives”.

How does it know who my relatives are?  
[/QUOTE]

I’m not positive, but I think they look for:

- Directly applicable public records, like birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc.

- People with the same last name as you who have lived at the same address as you at some point

- People who have the same last name as you and live in the same area(s) at the same time

and things like that. However they do it, they’re pretty good. And scary!

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144/3 "2006-10-20T00:48:49Z")

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When I tried it, there was a listing labelled “relatives”, but nothing under it, nor any apparent way to expand that or open a new page on it. Is that one of the things they want you to pay them for?

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**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144/4 "2006-10-20T02:13:11Z")

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It didn’t find it so smart. It couldn’t even find _me_.

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**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-intelius-know-who-my-family-members-are/377144/5 "2006-10-20T03:24:09Z")

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[QUOTE=NinetyWt]  
It didn’t find it so smart. It couldn’t even find _me_.  
[/QUOTE]

Ditto. Not impressive. I’ll stick with Lexis-Nexis and its ilk.