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MILWAUKEE - We all know you can find a lot of information about people on the Web, but some search engines dig deeper than others.

MATC Computer Networking students at the West Allis campus recently learned about Web security-- an issue close to student Dan Ristow's heart.

"The more I learn about it, the more I learn that it's maybe more evil than good," Ristow admits.

What if we told you there are sites posting your mortgage...your income...even your marital status--all in one place!

"That would really scare me, because if you can do that then you could create my I.D., you can become me, and do anything you want: Take my account, take my identity--that would be terrible," Ristow exclaims,

It's a part of the Web you probably don't even know about: The Deep Web.

Jerry Lieberthal teaches computer security. He says the Deep Web can be a very invasive place.

"You look at what Google does, and they grab info that's primarily available on the surface throughout the Internet. It's what's below that, and it's pretty much like an iceberg--you can see the tip of it, but you have no idea what's underneath," Lieberthal warns.

The Deep Web is about 500 times bigger than the surface Web. The sites gather information from various sources like public records and social networking sites, and put them all in one place. Believe it or not--it's perfectly legal!

"There's nothing you can do about it. I take out a mortgage, that's a matter of public record. My real estate taxes are put up on the city of Milwaukee's Web site. Anybody can look at that basically," Lieberthal explains.

One of the most popular sites is www.spokeo.com. The site offers a service that lets you upload contacts in your address book, and see what they're doing online. Spokeo founder Harrison Tang started the site about 5 years ago with some fellow engineering graduates from Stanford University.

"We realized that there's a lot of sites out there that basically help you share information, and generate info, and then there hasn't been any technology that allows you to analyze and organize this info in a meaningful way," Tang explains.

Spokeo is getting a lot of attention lately. There's even a Facebook group called 'NO MORE SPOKEO," which warns people about the site.

Tang admits the site's popularity has grown faster than he expected, and the company is working to improve privacy. He says, "We care about privacy a lot, and we want to create a private people protection system that's actually better than anything else out there."

Student Barb Mcgraw says she's not surprised sites like this exist. She says matter-of-factly, "Anything you do online...you should probably just assume anybody can look at it."

Lieberthal adds, "The aspect of privacy, or any expectation of privacy, I think most people should assume it's pretty much dead."

Experts suggest you do a Deep Web search on yourself to see exactly what's out there.

There are steps you can take to remove your personal information from these sites. For example, there's a 'privacy' icon on Spokeo.

Also, the site's founder admits that some of the information on the site is inaccurate, since it gathers info from other sources.