<p>People are pretty easy to figure out, they use the same email address and screen name to post on Toys for Tarts as they do on Terrier Trainers.org.</p>
<p>While I doubt that employers in most cases are going to piece together bits of information about applicants from their postings on message boards, if you have your whole bio. inc picture and interests on a publicly accessible site- as some teens do, it won’t necessarily give the impression that you might want others to have - ( others that you aren’t interested in dating anyway)</p>
<p>Great article emeraldkity – great examples of the real world consequences of online posting – I will have my <em>myspacer</em> read it, definitely.</p>
<p>Howdy! I kind of like bore witness to your behavior on the financial aid area of this site. I saw nothing wrong with what you did at all, and if need be, I would be willing to vouch for you. It is not as though you displayed any conduct which would be unbecoming for a lady to engage in or anything. </p>
<p>All of us grown folks over the age of 18 and the like haven’t many worries. Most of us grown folks know right from wrong and have viewed those Dateline NBC Specials with the perverted #%@!$&*</p>
<p>Now, the minors who are ones for being online a lot and whatnot have to be careful. So, it is good of you to start a thread about internet security. All of that being said, I must say that it is a grand idea to not have the same little moniker on every web site you sign up for. That is dangerous, in a fashion, and it is also unoriginal :)</p>
<p>Oh EK, of course I ran right over to check out what you said. What a spoiled little brat that was… and how silly not to think that what he said was public. Even I know that everything I say online is public.</p>
<p>But I will note that my charming son will get his (single) bachelor’s degree from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT, which may have been was the other young man was referring to–many schools have EECS degrees.</p>
<p>It isn’t just kids who make this mistake. I am very savvy and THOUGHT I knew what I was doing, but I had too much indentifying information on a “friendly” site dealing with resources for struggling teens. There is a competing site (run by a complete psycho) which opposes all teen help programs. I didn’t even know about that site at the time I posted my contact information on the first site. Well, the psychos went on the attack, did a lot of research on me, and posted my contact information, work history, screen name from THIS forum (CC) and just about everything else anyone would want to know about me- much of it incorrect- all over their forum. I received vicious emails, phone calls and IMs. They posted that my husband was gay and lived apart from me in California and that I was a beard for him. They came over onto this site (were immediately banned) to try to discredit me. That site (the bad one) is completely unmoderated and you don’t even want to know the disgusting content that is posted about parents they decide to attack.<br>
Just keep this in mind. Oh- the other thing they do is check IP addresses when people post. So-even if it is supposed to be anonymous, they can check your IP addresses if they have moderator privileges and link them back to other posts you have made.
Call me “Burned”</p>
<p>So what is acceptable to say on the internet?</p>
<p>I feel like I have my internet life mostly under control – my online journal is completely friends-locked, my Facebook profile doesn’t contain anything I wouldn’t want my grandmother or entire hometown to see, and I don’t say nasty things on CC. But what kind of information is too much? Obviously I don’t have pictures posted on Facebook of me drunk and half-naked. But that’s a pretty obvious no-no – where’s the line?</p>
<p>Molliebatmit, the answer is to never, ever put anything on the internet or in email that you would not be 100% comfortable with every person in your life seeing, and also, that you would not mind if it made public in, say, your senate confirmation hearings in 20 years. </p>
<p>Absolutely everything can be tracked and traced. There are some steps one can take - using “crowds” for example can help hide IP addresses - but everything can eventually be traced, so, best policy is to keep everything you post, email, etc. pristine.</p>
<p>Even casual but legitimate searches can come back to haunt you. Have you ever used anywho, or reverse phone lookup? Some of those sites - some that would surprise you - are actually reverse sting operations for federal government agencies (not specifically anywho but search engines like it). They get your IP address etc. and find out what you’re up to, etc. </p>
<p>This is actually a very useful law enforcement tool - if someone is the victim of ID theft or is being stalked, etc. - they can go in, find the IP address of anyone who did a search for “Molliebatmit”, and begin to investigate that person, the criminal predication being that you filed a crime report. It’s a little bit frustrating at the moment because many ISPs don’t keep log files or at least they claim they don’t. DoJ wants the 110th congress to pass legislation requiring all ISPs to begin keeping log files, and if that happens, absolutely nothing you search for will ever be guaranteed as confidential.</p>
<p>Funny, I was just reading a thread about this on the Chronicles forum.</p>
<p>Your professors, your bosses, and your psycho stalker ex-boyfriend can all access the internet - and they will. Consider that before posting anything.</p>