Regarding internet privacy

[ckay87]

I've been thinking....I see a lot of people post about how they don't like to share personal aspects of their lives or photos of themselves on the internet via Facebook, etc. Am I the only person who doesn't worry about this..... at all?

For me it comes down to 2 things. First, I don't think I'm interesting in the least. Pictures and personal comments I post might be interesting to people who know me (and all my FB friends know me in some way.) But no stranger would even remotely want to view or use my pictures. My pictures consist of things like me smiling with my best friend, dangling from a zipline, or enjoying a concert. I don't care if someone puts that on a billboard in Times Square, but guess what? They wont!

Second.... I'm proud of the life I live. Granted, there may be a few aspects that I'm not so proud of, but that's the stuff that doesn't make FB. You won't find videos of me yelling at my kids or pictures of my dirty bathroom. Otherwise....I don't know....I just don't DO anything that I would be embarassed to share.

With just a half-ounce of common sense (like don't post your bank account numbers or naked pics of yourself), I feel like you can share most things on the net. Unless you are a celebrity, who will care?

 

[NMAmy]

I feel the same way. I don't live a crazy life. On my Facebook page, you can see pictures of my family at different holidays, on vacation, and pictures of the dog. My most recent update consists of a conversation between my sister, my cousins, and my aunt about a recipe my grandmother used to make. (My sister sent me a copy via snail mail and I had a question about an ingredient.)

Hardly tabloid material. There's nothing on there that I'm not comfortable with my mother and my dd reading since they both have access. It could be printed on the front page of the local paper and I wouldn't care who read it or saw the pictures.

 

[FireDancer]

While I agree that people are a bit overly sensitive about what is considered privacy there are a lot of things people don't even realize can be an issue. Using the information on many people's facebook pages I can social engineer a way into their email accounts and once in there I can probably get into your other accounts.

For example, if you have an email account that needs 3 questions answered to get a new password you have to make sure the information can be deduced. For example, if one of your questions is year you graduated H.S. that can be figured out with your age (within a year or two) or by looking at the year and school many of your friends went to. Same goes for a question being "school mascot", well, if I know you school Google will give me your mascot. If a question is mother's maiden name chances are one of your friends is related to you via your maternal side of the family.

It is important to make sure any password reset information is not guessable or socially engineer-able and the password you use for facebook isn't the same as your email or financial password.

People get so worried about posting a picture that isn't really related to privacy at all yet neglecting the things that are. It is one of many examples of people concentrating on the wrong threat in the online world.

As for what is posted content wise just remember anything out there will be out there somewhere forever. I never put anything on any of my social pages that I wouldn't want my boss, a future boss, or my future children to see someday.

 

[jsmith]

All i need is your name and one other current verifying piece of information like the city you live in-with in 45 minutes to an hour ill have most of your financial information, the names of your parents and their financial information, the names of your children-very likely where they go to school, you home address-you get my drift-so yes i worry about whats out there on the net that i cant even control. I dont use social networking at all-for reasons other than privacy related-but i dont understand why people do-i dont even understand why people put the kind of personal information on the DIS that they do.

 

[HelenePA]

I could care less if people know my real name.. and if they want to visit please email or message me before you come so I can clean up... My life is pretty darn boring. I would be a very boring person to stalk.

 

[JessicaR]

Data in data out. No privacy on the internet. Dont want it found dont add it.

 

[ckay87]

All i need is your name and one other current verifying piece of information like the city you live in-with in 45 minutes to an hour ill have most of your financial information, the names of your parents and their financial information, the names of your children-very likely where they go to school, you home address-you get my drift-so yes i worry about whats out there on the net that i cant even control. I dont use social networking at all-for reasons other than privacy related-but i dont understand why people do-i dont even understand why people put the kind of personal information on the DIS that they do.

Ok, and that is a good point. But aren't there literally thousands of people who have that information about us? Any one of hundreds of people at my place of employment know at least two things about me, if they'd want to. Hundreds of families at my kids school....I don't know most of those people. See what I mean? What's the difference between posting it on Facebook and simply existing in the world?

 

[toddlers_mom]

All i need is your name and one other current verifying piece of information like the city you live in-with in 45 minutes to an hour ill have most of your financial information, the names of your parents and their financial information, the names of your children-very likely where they go to school, you home address-you get my drift-so yes i worry about whats out there on the net that i cant even control. I dont use social networking at all-for reasons other than privacy related-but i dont understand why people do-i dont even understand why people put the kind of personal information on the DIS that they do.

Because you can keep all of that information completely private. You can hide yourself from showing up in the search and you can make it so all of your info is hidden. The only way someone would have access to it would be to add you as a friend and you accept. Well, most people use common sense and don't add people they don't know.

 

[MIGrandma]

I may be a little paranoid, but I don't like giving out a lot of information on the internet. Too many psychos in the world, you just never know what could set them off and they could come and kill you.

If someone asks me specifically where I live, I won't say. The state is enough. I would never give out my phone number, or cell number on the internet.

I don't mind posting generic pictures of myself, home, vacations, etc. but would never post pictures of my grandchildren without their parents' permission.

 

[disneylovin24]

On here, I try to say the least about myself I can just because there are so many memebers and I don't know most of them and I don't know who could be out there.

I have a facebook that is so only my friends can view it so I don't care at all what I post on there.

 

[Becky2005]

Considering there really is NOTHING private, if someone really wants information about you, they WILL be able to find it one way or another. It's just a matter of how much time do they want to spend on it tracking the information.

I don't worry about it. I don't put anything insane on there and I make any pictures are appropriate for anyone to see, etc... I do try to be cautious but nothing is foolproof.

Of course, since I'm just a face in the crowd, no one is going out of their way to find dirt about me or information. Now, if my DD becomes famous one day (she wants to be an actress), then I guess we will have to worry about the whackos but anything they find from her past that is on-line right now is no big deal if it ended up front page news.

 

[Becky2005]

I dont use social networking at all-for reasons other than privacy related-but i dont understand why people do.

I found out the hard way that when DD got to HS they use it to let you know about meeting time changes, etc... You can have private groups there, her school has student led acting performances. Those involved in it, used the group feature on Facebook to say things like "Practice has been cancelled today, it will be at 4:00 tomorrow at room 123" -- Literally that was the only way information was passed along. It wasn't just that but other clubs too. When my DD had surgery, we had a private group so I could update her friends on how things were going. She had the private group set-up, only invited certain people and I would just do an update to that group.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

The predators live all over the world, and they are taking advantage of the information shared on social networking sites every day to steal identities and so much more.

FireDancer is an IT Director, as am I, so we are not just pessimistic about the risks. They are real. So real that many companies are creating policies restricting the type of information that their employees can provide on such sites.

As FD said, once it is out there, you can't get it back, and you can't delete it or make it go away.

 

[airhead]

A good friend of mine does not have a computer,no credit or debit cards. She pays cash for everything and tells me she does all this to remain unknown. She's an older woman(mid 70's)and believes this will keep her "safe". She also guards her age like its the Holy Grail!
One day not too long ago,while she was visiting,I did a search of her name. Up popped her age,address,and her whole family!!! Needless to say,she was shocked.

 

[jsmith]

Im not an IT director persey-im a systems admin-in a DOD enviroment where we have be particularly careful with information. I opt out of social networking for reasons associated with my security clearance-and also because even with the security set up i use at home-your computer needs a condom on those things. My Family Readiness Group uses face book-i opt out of knowing whats going on rather than set up a facebook account-if they cant use something more secure-i dont need to know.

 

[bumbershoot]

One day not too long ago,while she was visiting,I did a search of her name. Up popped her age,address,and her whole family!!! Needless to say,she was shocked.

What the heck site was all of that on?

 

[FireDancer]

Considering there really is NOTHING private, if someone really wants information about you, they WILL be able to find it one way or another. It's just a matter of how much time do they want to spend on it tracking the information.

This is very true. If I am behind you in your car and have you license plate I could have your entire credit history in not much time. This is provided of course the car is in your name. It comes down who someone knows, how much they are willing to spend, and what back doors they have access to out on the Internet.

Even a fully locked down Facebook account can be accessed with the right amount of determination. All it takes is knowing how to leverage the lack of knowledge most Internet users have and the exploits that exist out there everywhere, even on your Mac. Luckily most people don't have information worth going through the trouble but look at the IE exploit that was used to gather Google information on Chinese dissidents. There was a perfect storm of valuable information and a determined person (or persons) who wanted to get at it.

 

[pigletgirl]

What the heck site was all of that on?

dexknows.com

you can put a first and last name, and up pops the name, address, phone number, and age range with a map of the street.

s

 

[Bluestars]

Since I am a fairly boring person and not worth stalking, I don't worry about it too much. I don't throw out too much personal information. My facebook account is only to keep in touch with my family.

I have credit freezes, so if someone wants to try to steal my identity it will at least present a challenge.

I will live my life cautiously, but not with paranoia. If someone really wanted to find out more about me, I'm sure they could. If it ever became a problem, I would deal with it. But right now it's not a problem.

I know a lot of people give out personal info on the Dis. But really, has any of them ever been stalked? Most people have better things to do.

I think the biggest threat could be in my mailbox or trash. That is why I do all of my banking paperless and I shred all personal financial paperwork that I receive in the mail. I also opted out of the credit card application letters. Things like that. And I for sure won't click on a bank link in an e-mail or give personal information over the phone.

 

[bumbershoot]

dexknows.com

you can put a first and last name, and up pops the name, address, phone number, and age range with a map of the street.

Holy crud! Where do they get all that info? (and for me, quite a lot of bad/misspelled info)

must be...classmates dot com, cable companies, phone companies...places you have an account with, yes? all selling you out?