Caution - Too Much Information
 

I know that diary discussions have been done to death recently and that there is a range of opinion as to their appropriateness etc. I am not going to go over old ground, but I did want to share some concerns/thoughts that a friend and I were discussing recently regarding the amount of information we all give away in our posts, specifically diary posts.

BE is an open forum whereby there are no check as to who signs up, it is open to the whole of the www etc. That means that whilst I am sure that 99.999% of posters are all good people (i don't have figures to back this up) with only the intention of gaining and giving information, meeting new friends etc, there is always the small chance that someone could visit the forum whose motives are not innocent. We read about dodgy people on the Internet all the time and BE has no protection from them.

My point is that quite often we post information on this forum about our lives which in itself is innocent, but which when combined with a history of comments (and potentially photos), builds up a picture of someones life. Lots of posters are quite careful about the information they give away, others not so.

I am only making this point as I wonder if people are aware of the pictures of their lives which they are building up which potentially could be exploited by evil people. I am not trying to scare anyone, but I did think it was important to make people aware that what they post is available for anyone on the Internet to see.

Things which I would advise that people don't mention:

* Exact time and dates of meet-ups / night-outs etc - I know that is difficult on here as that is what many posts are about, but that info combined with other info (see below) which may have been posted previously could indicate to a burglar that a house is empty on a certain day/time. Although more awkward it would be better to email or PM this info
* Details of partners being away from home
* Address & land line phone details
* Information which could be used to ascertain an address (e.g. the exact date details of a pool installation)
* Photos with captions naming the people in them

Although each one of these things on its own would mean diddly squat, if you were to combine several I am sure you can see that this can build up quite a nice little picture for a potential burglar, etc

Again, I have NOT posted this to scare anyone, I merely thought that in todays society it is worth being a bit vigilant. It is easy to feel that BE is one big family of like-minded individuals, which for the most part it probably is. The problem is you just don't know who is reading the site!

Your Cyber-Neighbourhood Watch Officer

Dave

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

I know thats all sensible advice, but 99.999% of burglars are opportunist (I don't have figures to back this up ;) ). They walk past your house and look and see if its empty, try a few windows etc. We are not dealing with the pink panther here, they don't do hours of research collating people previous posts, marital status, partner away from home, and if they are away on a drinking night etc etc. Unless someones dumb enough to say "I've done a massive forex exchange and I'm keeping the proceed of my house sale in my new house in cash under the duvet in the guest room.

Having said that, I agree about not giving away too much personal information on forums. But I'm not quite as paranoid as you .... yet :D

JTL

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

I put photo's up on the photo post but got some strange responses, so they went.

I have had someone call my old place of work in Australia (I have posted its name on the site), ask for my e-mail address (small office, didn't take long for someone to work out the pommy bird was me) then send some very strange e-mails using info gleened from this site. Coincidence or true, who is to say????? I am 98% convinced.

My theory is do place your meet up threads on the Forum. Keep bumping up, have the person who started the thread as your co-ordinator and yes minimise the details you give away.

And remember the world is full of nutters.

M :D

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Oooppps! They might now :eek:

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Ahhh, well its a well known fact I have a mad dog. Any burglar is welcome to him, his favourite foods include arms legs and testes. :D

JTL

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Just to add my two pennies worth - there are quite a lot of adverts on the TV over here (sunny UK!!) about Identity theft. Some of the details mentioned in the original post would facilitate ID theft quite nicely. And this sort of crime is ( i imagine ) a well thought out, planned exercise....

Still you've got man eating spiders and crocodiles walking through the streets over there so i wouldn't worry about the chances of being robbed etc :)

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

I think you do have to be careful, especially with the amount of 'trolls' on here. Good thread darkless many thanks

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Big enough for a website:

http://www.identity-theft.org.uk/htm...tyourself.html

Didn't Professional Princess have probs with this? I know someone going through a LOT of stress with this.

M :(

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Good post. I agree entirely. It's not the people who post on here so much I worry about but who is on here and not posting. A new member recently stated they had been coming on here for something like 18 months (or thereabouts) before they had the bottle to post on here. Who knows who else is lurking around :scared: .

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Be like the equivilant of those dodgy blokes who knock on your front door to say "Hey missus, did you know that there are tiles missing from your roof!", while they eye up your new TV system through the window.

M :)

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

OMG we get this Irish gang round my way every couple of months asking about driveways. They really freak me out cos you can't get rid of them. Hope they're not lurking on here :eek:

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

A few Thursday's ago on a day off we had them, I freaked them out twice as I wrote down their van number then the second time got out my digital camera. I was taking a pic of the cat in the garden but for some reason they got a bit freaked.

Dodgy as hell they were. 3 rough looking bods.

M :mad:

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Anyone posting their e-mail address is asking for a torrent of spam and viruses to fill their in box.

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Just to explain that one further BP, when you say e-mail address do you mean say on your signature?

M :confused:

Re: Caution - Too Much Information
 

Anywhere it is publicly readable whether in a post or signature. There are programs that trawl the net that look for e-mail addresses to sell to spammers or for targets in a virus attack.