Privacy on MSE

pinkhair72

Please be nice to all MoneySavers. That’s the forum motto. Remember, the prime aim is to help provide info and resources. If you don’t like someone, their situation, their question or feel they’re intruding on ‘your board’ then please bite the bullet and think of the bigger issue. A Guardian article once "doffed its cap" to this forum as being the one place where consumers can collect together and fight back. Our job is to help keep it that way.

pinkhair72

I didn't realize it was a crime to be new and post to a thread. Everyone on these boards was a new poster at one time. But if this is the sort of welcome new people get.....................

KxMx

peachyprice wrote: »

So the same information that people in the posters real life will most likely know, people who actually live near her and are more likely to target her.

People you know in real life are much more likely to be trustworthy than internettroll#123

I just think posting such blatant information which could lead to random people on the internet to identify you is quite stupid and potentially dangerous.

You don't have to agree

Cloudydaze

paulineb wrote: »

Any of us could be trolled like that at random,

I would have to strongly disagree and I'd go as far as to say that I will never be a victim of a troll on here or anywhere else online. Simply because I know where the off button is and I would have no problem in using it.

We can't change the behaviour of others but we have absolute control over how we react.

Buzzybee90

I wasn't referring to trolling - that has nothing to do with your avatar - unless of course the troll was making comments about someone's appearance.

Anyway, the lady in the story had a business making curtains (or similar) and the 'criminal' noted many ways he could use knowing just her full name (and therefore her address etc) to his advantage and extrapolate details from the woman.

GobbledyGook

Surely it's also about what people feel comfortable with?

The internet is no different to 'real life' in that respect. Some people will meet someone new in a bar, have a few drinks and then arrange a date. At that date they'll tell them their life story - their work routine, their holiday plans and at the end of the night they'll take them back to their house (or give them their address). They don't actually know that person any better than they 'know' some people on here. However if the are happy with that then it's their business.

If someone is the kind of person who reveals so much information about themselves online then they are likely to be so offline and it's more likely a person they cross paths with through an acquaintance or something who robs their house/targets them.

Plus it's also about balancing the risk. When I needed advice the tiny risk of someone deciding to stalk or target me through my profile was small enough to make it worth while. Just like you balance the risk when you let your child play outside, or even each time you cross a road.

JimmyTheWig

GobbledyGook wrote: »

If someone is the kind of person who reveals so much information about themselves online then they are likely to be so offline

As long as they realise that's what they are doing online.

anotheruser

If you're that worried about privacy, type your name into a search engine and see what comes up.

Cloudydaze

anotheruser wrote: »

If you're that worried about privacy, type your name into a search engine and see what comes up.

Oh I just did.... Apparently I died last year in Mitchell, Nebraska aged 82....

coolcait

In various places throughout my posting history, you will find messages similar to the one posted by the OP.

I also believe that people are far too careless with the amount of information they give out online. The usual riposte to that suggestion is that the person doesn't share anything that they wouldn't say in real life.

Maybe. But in real life you're usually just saying it to friends and family, trusting (perhaps misguidedly) that they'll keep it to themselves.

Posting on a site like this is closer to the idea of standing in the middle of a crowded shopping centre, and bellowing out all of your personal details.

Most of the time, passers-by will take no real notice, and you'll get away with it. But, there's a risk that your public rant could end up going viral.

Even so, people might still be quite happy for the world to know every fine details about their personal grooming habits, their medical issues, their relationship problems.

The trouble is, unless they post exclusively about themselves, they are also risking the privacy of friends and family.

If someone gives out so much information that they make themselves identifiable, then they have also risked identifying the people they talk about in their posts. They might be less happy about the fact that personal information has become public information - through no fault of their own.