I've seen the damage that can be done, and also spent my life working in IT and following up on concerns about online privacy and security, so I've been passionate about this topic for years.
I hope everyone will at least take time to think carefully about this, even though it might seem at first glance to be something to dismiss or laugh about.
Not only do posters provide enough info to be identified, they also provide data often used as website login info and the answers to typical security questions or data that combined would lead us directly to someone's front door.
We see pet names; grandparents' and children's and spouse's and other family names/nicknames; first car make/model; schools attended; hometown; birthplace; complete date of birth; favorite author or actor; current city/state; prominent businesses or places of interest near our home; descriptions of the neighborhood; the list goes on and on.
I do believe everything ever asked as a security question on any website has been offered up here in what can look like data-mining survey question threads.
In addition, sometimes people repeatedly post their email address, their actual first or middle name, photos of themselves or their family, how to find their personal Facebook page. An example of troublesome use of what seems to be innocent info: there was an algorithm discovered several years ago which used a person's date of birth and the state they were born in and calculated their actual social security number.
Everything we post here, including images, is available on all the internet search engines. It's all public.
For those who think no one would collect or use the data... think of all the remarks we post about the time, creativity, and effort nefarious people devote to criminal or hurtful scams and hoaxes, robocalls and telemarketing schemes. Those same people can use sites like this one, especially since it's populated with people who are active shoppers, interesting and lucrative targets.
We have no idea who is reading and posting here. Anyone can use the info they glean here to harm us or to impersonate us.
The bottom line, and we need to keep repeating it: we're talking about cumulative data. All of the data pieces collected and combined to draw a picture.
Cumulative data on an anonymous poster transforms them into a person with a specific identity.
Several years ago I saw a comment in which someone said they actually keep a notebook on posters with all their personal information updated. People on these forums have been stalked, located, contacted and harassed, and once it happens to you or someone you really care about it's no laughing matter. Please, be careful and cautious.❤️
Few things reveal your intellect and your generosity of spirit—the parallel powers of your heart and mind—better than how you give feedback.~Maria Popova
Blogs & Forums
Forums
Blogs
