You do know this is a public site? Anyone can read posts and many can convert the fake names to actual names and locations.

When a person posts intimate details about a medical condition, or an event, that person is making that information public for whatever use.

A conversation last evening reminded me there are many people who gather data on others either as a hobby, or professionally.

Now, knowing posts here are public and that site cookies and other tracking follow you unless you remove them, if you choose to self-reveal that is your perogative.

Good reminder. I try to only post information that (1) is already "out there", and (2) I wouldn't be embarrassed to publically admit to posting.

Thanks HawkOwl. I have added this information to your dossier. You could save me some time and just give me the names of the people who you held the conversation with.

I figure my life is pretty much an open book, anyway.

Hmm. So I should probably not post my collection of sexy goat pictures here...

^ lol

Or even that you think goats are sexy!

* prerogative The spelling Nazis are watching.

PM sent.

They are watching you.

Believe HawkOwl mentioning for many reasons not the least is when someone crashes and may have an insurance claim or law suit that gets unwittingly compromised by on line comments which don't consider the unintended consequences.

Thanks for the reminder.

This forum does not provide secure anonymity; however unless someone was imprudent about disclosing enough info about their identity, I can't see that any info shopper could pin down someone's identity with sufficient confidence. OTOH I think that if someone actually knew me and was also a regular reader of BF they could probably figure out my user name.

Nevertheless, it is an important point to avoid posting anything confidential or embarrassing on any online forum. If you don't want to tell your spouse, sibling, friend, boss, or coworker; you should not be telling me on this forum.

Uh, so how many people are on Facebook?

A subpoena to the forum owners will do nicely to get more info about you, including IP address, etc. A good internet detective would make mince-meat of any effort to hide.

OTOH, I figure everyone knows everything about me anyway. The medical clerk who takes your info - including medical, relationships and social history, work history etc. is a veritable fount of knowledge to someone, and may even charge for the data. along with DMV clerks, etc., etc.

I did not have sex with that woman.

My goal in life is to cause all the people who spy on others for a living or a hobby to die of boredom. The NSA no doubt has my activity flagged to keep their people from falling prey. I pity the fool who reads my email.

I have missed the juicy disclosures. Can some of you data trolls post links so the rest of us can enjoy them?

But, did you marry your lawnmower?

WATCH: Iowa Man Tries to Marry His Lawnmower | Advocate.com

No, but I would marry my bike!

Remember, "personal" details also extend to plans and issues that take you outside of home. Given enough data someone could harvest enough information about you to learn where you live, perhaps even your name and town. So announcing "We're leaving this weekend for a week long trip" may just give someone an opportunity to visit your empty house.

Or even announcing the death or hospitalization of a loved one can clue them in to your residence being unattended for a while.

Data harvesting is very real and it's surprising what facts you can glean from seemingly innocent comments.

My life would have to get a whole lot more interesting to worry about it.

Not necessarily, we had a guy come in one place I was attending a party that promoted safety and specialized in "Social Engineering". We were having a little soirée before hand, we didn't know who this guy was and he mingled with everyone talking with everyone. He was a heck of a nice guy, knew just about everything about anything and had a disarming personality that really put 99% of people at ease in a few moments.

After about an hour it was announced he was our speaker, everyone laughed and cheered as he went up front. He announced who he was and what he did for a living. Then proceeded to cite from memory a whole string of facts he had gotten from the 15 or so people who were there. Where they lived, what they did for a living, marital status, things he overheard other people talking about. The room got real tense, real quick. It was amazing what he could learn from just a few minutes of conversation. Enough that he could probably impersonate a good many of the people there, and waltz into a situation and do a whole lot of stuff posing as YOU.

His message was clear, anyone can get the skills to be a social engineer and take advantage of seemingly innocent information, either in person through speaking or online in a forum like this. So be careful what you post, who you talk to on the phone and even in person.

He gave an example of approaching someone on a public forum. He saw someone was excited about a new movie coming out and was planning to see it that weekend. After chatting with him back and forth he was able to get his name, where he lived and when he was going to see the movie and the fact that the whole family was leaving the house empty for a few hours. It would be easy enough to rob him during that time.

The entire thing was eerily fascinating.

That reminds me of the infamous Facebook Incident where a teen posted about getting a trip to Europe after her Father got a lawsuit settlement, and he lost his settlement because her post proved that he violated the agreement.

Lesson learned: When Lawyers are involved, best practice is to say NUTHIN to NOBODY.

If someone wants to figure me out, they probably can.

[MENTION=323434]Rootman[/MENTION] Advice well taken but I think you'd have to make yourself a target before anyone would put forth the effort to dig deeper into you. There are probably thousands if not hundreds of thousands of internet posts everyday. Probably avoiding some simple keywords and phrases would suffice.