Wired UK Freaks Out Subscribers With Highly Personalized Covers

This blows away Time's cover when "You" were named Person of the Year. That flimsy piece of reflective paper meant to function as a mirror was a gimmick that helped to move copies of the magazine off the newsstand. The cover of the latest issue of Wired UK is much more personalized. It's so personalized, in fact, that it may be scaring some subscribers, who have been told everything from where they live to when they last had a rendezvous with an ex.

Titled 'Your Life Torn Open', I was asked if everything was well at Channel 4 News. Told at my next birthday I will be 29. So far fine, as I know that's on my public Facebook profile. But Wired also knew I just moved house (with the exact address of my last property). It printed that my parents had just moved too (with both addresses).

Using Companies House data it published how many shares I own in Pink Unlimited, the parent company of PinkNews.co.uk.

But then Wired knew I had a meeting with my ex-boyfriend Adam on the 6th January!

As I showed the magazine to a colleague, I racked my brain to what happened on the 6th January that could have allowed Wired to know that. Had we both attended an event that was organised on Facebook? Then I remembered, I had mentioned on Twitter that I was meeting my ex. I also tweeted that it went ok. At the time I thought nothing of it because Adam isn't on Twitter, so in a sense it was a 'private' message to the six thousand or so people who follow me.

What's shocking though is seeing all of this printed in black and white (or yellow in this case). Everything was available from Facebook, Twitter, Company House and the Land Registry but it shows the information is so readily available. It also shows how powerful these resources can be for private detectives or government agents.

Read the full story at Channel 4 News.