Contributing to our own loss of privacy - Page 8

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

Glad to be helpful, @Q4u.

I too have been online since the early 90s, in all sorts of BBS and forums, private and not. Remember when any and every forum post, private or not, was searchable through google? That could be...fun. Muahaha! (Don't worry peeps, it isn't so any more - at least, it's no longer that easy to do it.)

I too was witness to much nastiness - fortunately, towards others, not me personally other than the usual forum name-calling.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

Bri36 · ‎02-20-2017

There are several posters who post here and on the hosts' Facebook pages. It's not hard to figure out what their posting name is here. I think that's dangerous.

Some posters give out so much information about where they live. They might as well just give out their address.

Highlands72 · ‎06-04-2016

@Nomorebirthdays wrote:
@Moonchilde. Yes I have also read I turn 70 years old next Tuesday. That single thing gives potential hackers birthday and year.
Ancestry Web sites are a big tool for indenitty thieves.

In my opinion, the ancestry websites are the absolute worst; a treasure trove for identity thieves.

A hacker can get your name, birth date, your mother's maiden name, parents' names and birth dates, children's names and birthdates, photos, and much more.

SydneyH · ‎03-10-2010

@Trinity11 wrote:
What about photos? I have seen posters use photos of themselves in their avatar here? Couldn't they be easily traced?

Some have shared photos of their grandchildren.

Which is unbelievable dumb, photos can easily be traced.....

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

@SoX wrote:
One time a poster started a thread loosely entitled "Did you go to high school with a celebrity?" Lots of responses, but one stood out ... a poster had gone to high school in Indiana and had been in the same class with this actor.

Just for the heck of it ... I looked up the actor on Wikipedia ... found his high school and date of graduation. Went further ... it was a very small class, complete with names and pictures of the graduating class. One of them was probably of the poster ... wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to track her down if they wanted to.

Something like that really is identifying information and with just a few other pieces, a person could be identified. Not necessarily victimized or hacked, it takes more than that but identified and found. I have a friend who put a child up for adoption when she was in college. 20 years later the girl found her, even with her married name, with just a few pieces of information like where she went to college and her birth month.

proudlyfromNJ · ‎05-01-2010

@chrystaltree wrote:
I'm sure that no one is going to figure someone's identity out from the conversations here. that's just silly. In all my years on this board, I have never seen anyone give out any true identifying information. You eye color and where you shop and who does your tax returns is not identifying information. The only thing here that troubles me and I've only seen it 2 or 3 times are the grands who post pictures of their grandchildren. I just think thats not necessary and intrusive, even if they don't give the children's names and where they live. It just makes me uneasy.

Hmm. Someone mentioned they had a semi famous relative. Someone I had never heard of, but I googled it. Sure enough, With all the other info given out, it wasn't hard to put together. This was years ago and they no longer post. But yes, it can be done.

ShowMe · ‎09-06-2010

@chrystaltree wrote:
I'm sure that no one is going to figure someone's identity out from the conversations here. that's just silly. In all my years on this board, I have never seen anyone give out any true identifying information. You eye color and where you shop and who does your tax returns is not identifying information. The only thing here that troubles me and I've only seen it 2 or 3 times are the grands who post pictures of their grandchildren. I just think thats not necessary and intrusive, even if they don't give the children's names and where they live. It just makes me uneasy.

I remember private info being given out on the old boards. I was awful.....caused a lot of trouble. That poster got permanently banned and rightfully so.

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@SusieQ_2 wrote:
Somebody upthread went ahead and answered those questions that were posted which is fine. But what I got out of the this thread was that the more of those threads there are, the more comfortable we get with them. Then, we get lulled into a sense of security and when the more prying ones pop up we might not be as cautious as we should be.

It's great advice to be aware and know how much is too much.
Thanks @Moonchilde for the reminder.

Yes, very true @SusieQ_2. I highly doubt that random "just curious" questions from long-time posters we "know" are meant to data mine. But because we're comfortable with those, we tend not to give much thought to a pile of them from posters we don't know; instead we thank them for their "fun & interesting" questions, and happily "spill."

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@proudlyfromNJ wrote:
@chrystaltree wrote:
I'm sure that no one is going to figure someone's identity out from the conversations here. that's just silly. In all my years on this board, I have never seen anyone give out any true identifying information. You eye color and where you shop and who does your tax returns is not identifying information. The only thing here that troubles me and I've only seen it 2 or 3 times are the grands who post pictures of their grandchildren. I just think thats not necessary and intrusive, even if they don't give the children's names and where they live. It just makes me uneasy.
Hmm. Someone mentioned they had a semi famous relative. Someone I had never heard of, but I googled it. Sure enough, With all the other info given out, it wasn't hard to put together. This was years ago and they no longer post. But yes, it can be done.

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Right @proudlyfromNJ

Can and has been done, more than once.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

@Noel7 wrote:
@chrystaltree wrote:
I'm sure that no one is going to figure someone's identity out from the conversations here. that's just silly. In all my years on this board, I have never seen anyone give out any true identifying information. You eye color and where you shop and who does your tax returns is not identifying information. The only thing here that troubles me and I've only seen it 2 or 3 times are the grands who post pictures of their grandchildren. I just think thats not necessary and intrusive, even if they don't give the children's names and where they live. It just makes me uneasy.
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@chrystaltree

It was already done, you are incorrect.

In that case, please give us the details because that could be of great help to posters.