Private information in the public domain

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I haven’t entered in on the contentious thread below, but was curious about how people feel about posters “figuring out” their private information, (including names, high schools, home towns, etc.) based on thinly veiled references to personal information, here on a public forum.</p>

<p>Google is an amazing tool, and very effective too. It sure isn’t hard to find things out, if just a few crumbs are dropped…</p>

<p>Likewise, how would you feel if other people had determined your identity, and you thought you were posting totally privately? Would it change your posting style?</p>

<p>Although few people on CC use their first names or more than vague geographic references, some have provided lots of identifying information about themselves and their children. </p>

<p>Do you try to protect your privacy and identity in the public domain, and if so how? If not, do you care if people figure out who you really are?</p>

2

<p>I think the forum moderators discourage disclosure of personally identifying information, but a lot of people seem to ignore that. </p>

<p>I had one guy question me about my background after he had disclosed his background and thought pretty well of himself. Although his background was unimpressive from my perspective, I didn’t reveal much so as to avoid getting into a pi**ing contest with him. He felt his background outranked my unknown background and, thus, suggested to everyone he was right. The guy was an idiot but he didn’t realize it. It’s guys like that that I worry about knowing who I am. For everyone else, I could care less. My opinions don’t change regardless of whether or not I have anonymity.</p>

3

<p>Allmusic, someone did actually “out” my city location, some time ago. Therefore, to save them the trouble, I immediately started listing my cities in my profile. I am cautious of my daughter’s information, because that “belongs” to her, but, I don’t really care about my own information. A few posters here have my real name, email address, telephone numbers, even Skype contact info. I don’t have anything to hide, never post anything that I care if it shows up on the front page of USA today etc., and I am not afraid of anything such as stalkers, etc. </p>

<p>Having said that, I’m not interested in simply broadcasting contact info - a few people have approached me in PM asking for advise or wishing to take dialog into email, usually about business matters, etc., and, I declined because I wasn’t really all that interested and I didn’t “trust” them in terms of wanting to spend more time on their issues or get to know them better, or at least not to the degree I like and trust the people who have my real information. </p>

<p>Bottom line, anything done electronically can be traced and tied back to the original author, etc., and I consider nothing to be truly anonymous, ever.</p>

<p>One thing about this site - it’s fairly self-selecting. For example, on most accessible forums, one could always ask “how do I know this person who appears to be a mother of two in college isn’t really a 60 year old sociopathic male with a criminal record and no children let alone any in college”, but, over time, it’s clear that people really are who they represent themselves to be - it would be impossible (I think) for example, for CGM, or Berurah, or Calmom etc. to “pretend” to be someone they really are not, and to continue to stay in character over hundreds of posts over time. Or at least that’s my completely uneducated, unscientific assessment.</p>