# How does whitepages.com know who my brother is?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-whitepages-com-know-who-my-brother-is/789753>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-whitepages-com-know-who-my-brother-is/789753 "2017-06-24T14:35:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-whitepages-com-know-who-my-brother-is/789753/1 "2017-06-24T14:35:48Z")

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My brother lives across the country from me, and we haven’t lived together since we moved away from our parents. So how does [whitepages.com](http://whitepages.com) know he’s my brother?

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**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-whitepages-com-know-who-my-brother-is/789753/2 "2017-06-24T16:32:59Z")

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Databases are the general answer although it is hard to be more specific than that for individual cases. Sites like [Whitepages.com](http://Whitepages.com), Spokeo and Intelius crawl lots of different types of databases to attempt to make family matches. All it takes is someone to have an association in one of them to show a probable match. You don’t need to create the match yourself because it is bi-directional. Your brother or your parents could have filled out something that suggested the relationship.