I think in aggregate the data over a span of 10 years would be much scarier than name,address tel no. etc. at a given point in time, however Spokeo is actually making this point anyway right now - they look like they're collecting exactly the sort of data I'm talking about, if you want to call it 'public records' that's fine - most people aren't thinking through the implications of leaving a public trail like this. Not all the data will be available for everyone, but when the data-mining becomes advanced enough, and if you've left a trail on social media, you're talking about possibilities like:
Your exact coordinates at say 20,000 points in the last 10 years (from pics or posts by you or others)
Your meetings with, relationships with, and messages to friends over that time (again posts by you or others)
Your activity at work/home, when you worked, when you didn't (again posts by you or others)
Your use of alcohol and other drugs (legal or not)
Your opinions on almost every topic (culled from various linked postings via your Facebook ID say)
Your membership of hundreds of websites (again culled from links to Twitter/FB logins say)
NB This doesn't just apply to Facebook but I think it will trigger real hesitations about opening up your data to them or similar sites when this sort of scandal first hits in a big way. It also applies in a smaller way even to forums like this.
Of course if someone can mine your email or your bank accounts (i.e. your gov), they'd hit a similar treasure trove of information, so the change with social media is that a lot of your activity is public or only semi-private (and therefore likely to become public), and innocuous in isolation, but possibly very useful/dangerous in aggregate if you and your friends post enough of it.
"Public records" means data generated by the government that are available to anyone. Drivers license registration, voter registration and participation, county auditor databases, arrest records, etc are all accessible to anyone (usually a nominal fee is involved, may also vary slightly by jurisdiction). People aren't "actively" creating these, it's a byproduct of government transparency and public oversight.
That's what I'd take it to mean too, but the parent mentioned spokeo, which made me unsure if they were redefining the term to include anything public as they appear to harvest data from social media too. Official records are for most people pretty static, more familiar and more predictable than social media, and thus less dangerous, at least imho.
