Community Chat

[Nomorebirthdays]

Go to site.  Family tree now

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Saw a cyber guy on Fox news say you need to do this.  After you do records will be erased. DH was given this info at work also. 

Names, former addresses, phone numbers will be protected

[tansy]

The innocent question threads are usually from a supposedly new poster.  I figure the person is trying to get their posting history built up.  Sometimes I answer the questions and sometimes not.

[mstyrion 1]

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@Bri36 wrote:

Posters talk about restaurants and stores that "are right down the street" or they live across the street from a hospital or something else.   Very foolish 

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Exactly.

They name their city and then go on to give detailed information about businesses and restaurants that surround where they live-by name!  It wouldn't be all that difficult to pinpoint a residence.

Threads are not private.  You don't even need a password to read only.

[silentgirl]

Don't beat me up on this please-With respect to certain photo's and video-

I am genuinely horrified whenever I see a specific ex-host showing her home with all the door and window locations and layout of the entire house, knowing the location and even the type of security system is present on camera-

I could never be that secure having been stalked -

But, then, I grew up in a home where drapes were drawn for privacy at dusk,  so people could not see into our home when the lights were put on-

[Noel7]

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@Moonchilde wrote:

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@Caaareful Shopper wrote:

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@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, you are speaking from a perspective where you would never have the intent, inclination, energy, or know-how to carry out activities that are aimed at stealing your identity.  The questions are supposed to look innocent.  People can gather information and enter it into software programs with profiling algorithms -- or sell this seemingly innocent information to others.   

They bank on you scoffing at it all and thinking it's silly. My job where I work requires semi-annual mandatory training to warn about just such things.  

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That's it exactly. It's not that one piece of information will be disastrous, but many pieces fit in a jigsaw puzzle that can and does lead to peoples' identities. And whether it's for identity theft, burglary, other theft or just harrassment, none of it is a good thing.

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You're right @Moonchilde

I think at least some people here don't realize that someone else can backtrack on what little info they have.  Looking up the celeb in high school is a good example, but there are so many other ways to backtrack for identifying info.

[Moonchilde]

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@Nomorebirthdays wrote:

Go to site.  Family tree now

                     Select opt out

                     Complete I'm not a robot

                      Begin opt out procedure

Saw a cyber guy on Fox news say you need to do this.  After you do records will be erased. DH was given this info at work also. 

Names, former addresses, phone numbers will be protected

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Except that this is only one site of probably at least a couple dozen that do the same thing. It might erase you from one site, but then you need to get off/out of all the others. And when you DO get yourself "scrubbed" from the internet it only lasts for about six months and nees to be done all over again. Or you can pay another online company $100+ per year, forever, to do it for you. But that's what it'll take - forever monitoring and action. Most people will never spend either the time to do it themselves, or the $$ to pay someone else not just to do it once, but to keep it done, continuously, forever.

[Noel7]

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@chickenbutt wrote:

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@Noel7 wrote:

Some of us have been here longer than others and we can remember strange things that went on.

There used to be a poster who bragged about what state she was in and routinely posted photos of her grandchildren and the house where they lived.  It made many of us uneasy but she wouldn't stop.

She wasn't the only one to do that, either.  People love their grandkids, but IMO this is not the place to post photos of children and detail their activities.

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I think I know who it is, to whom you refer, and I guess that probably the only redeeming factor there is that I seriously doubt if 90% of what that person says is even true.

But, posting all those pictures of the kidlets - that was just wrong.  If they actually are that person's grandkids, I even wonder if the parents of those kids were ok with that.

I've seen a couple of different posters over the years here who post, bragging about their education and careers and I'd be hard-pressed to believe that based on numerous things about what they say and how they say it.   But, that's just me.  

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Hi @chickenbutt

The particular poster I made an example of has been long gone, for years.  I wondered if she posted about her real grandkids, too, but the photos she put up over the years were obviously the same kids.  Also details about the family.

Her bio grandkids or not, somebody's kids that she had access too were being plastered across the internet, and those photos included outdoor shots of their home.

[Noel7]

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@tansy wrote:

The innocent question threads are usually from a supposedly new poster.  I figure the person is trying to get their posting history built up.  Sometimes I answer the questions and sometimes not.

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@tansy

I answer questions like, What's your favorite sandwich?  That kind of thing.  Fun, and it gives me new ideas to see what other people say.

[jaxs mom]

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@Noel7 wrote:

IMO the very recent question as to whether someone is on AOL or not falls into this category.

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I didn't even know AOL was still running LOL 

[Noel7]

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@silentgirl wrote:

Don't beat me up on this please-With respect to certain photo's and video-

I am genuinely horrified whenever I see a specific ex-host showing her home with all the door and window locations and layout of the entire house, knowing the location and even the type of security system is present on camera-

I could never be that secure having been stalked -

But, then, I grew up in a home where drapes were drawn for privacy at dusk,  so people could not see into our home when the lights were put on-

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I'm with you @silentgirl