Criminal Searches

Ah, privacy, we hardly knew ye. Next up on the list of Web sites that can make your you-thought-they-were-secrets very public, help you check out your Match.com prospects and generally ensure that youthful indiscretions stay indiscreet: Criminal Searches. It’s in beta, but people already seem to be flocking for free searches on acquaintances who might have a rap sheet. The site touts itself as a way to look up your household help or your kids’ friends (really?), but its most natural application strikes us as seeing what that guy you ill-advisedly dated one summer has been up to since (we’re guessing he’s not on Facebook). We were, we confess, slightly hampered in our own research by an inability to remember the spelling of our most dubious ex’s last name, but we’ll keep searching.