Did you know you could googled using your GN name?

Me too curvygran I didn't know either. Seems we always leave a trail these days.

But if you only use it as your name on here and no one in real life knows what it is, it doesn't matter, does it? I have just googled mine and so far all i can find are a lot of events for singles.

Mine just brings up a lot of information about flowers and woods and a company called Bluebelle Co
I did get a shock when I put my Name in google years ago and came up with all my details including photos newspaper items etc through my job

I really cannot remember giving my permission for this; I suppose it’s hidden away in the T&C’s.

Ha! Mine changed the words to Pension pot and gave me sites for annuities

There is another person on the Internet with my user name so that is fine.

The odds are that there will be other people on the Internet with all of our usernames. The Internet is a big place . But our posts on here can be found with a search for 'XXX Gransnet' .

If anyone has access to your IP address they could be linked to your real identity, but that in reality that would involve more effort than it is likely to be worth.

Anything we ever put on the Internet, in an email, a message or in a text is traceable, though.

I've just done it and a lot of my messages from Gransnet came up. I'm a bit concerned about this as I sometimes share stuff that I only want Gransneters to know or see.

curvygran It is nothing at all to do with Gransnet or with you giving or withholding permission - EVERYTHING published on the internet can be searched through Google and other search engines. Try putting in something obscure and see what comes up! You will be amazed.

Where you CAN give or withhold permission is where a site gets private information from you as part of a membership - your email adress, real name, password etc.

Your username and anything you post on the forums is on a public page and is visible to be searched, even if the page it is on is subsequently deleted or altered, the old version is still archived. That is why it is recommended that you don't post anything you wouldn't shout from an open-top bus going along the high street. Think of it as the letters page in a national newspaper.

I really cannot remember giving my permission for this

No one needs permission to Google a username

I'm a bit concerned about this as I sometimes share stuff that I only want Gransneters to know or see.

Unless you've used a name that your family/friends would recognise, or you've used real family names and circumstances, I don't see the problem.

I fear many posters don't realise just how public social forums are, and are available for the world to see!

Just googled my name. Apparently Dottydots is a new style icon, whatever that means. I wasn't the first then to come up with the name and I think I quite like being a style icon.

I do think that It says somewhere on Gransnet that the site can be read by anyone - therefore it can be read by a search engine too!

I assume that most people joined because they had looked at the site first, and decided that they liked it. You couldn't have done that before you joined if only members could read it!

Apparently there's a boutique in Ireland of the same name! Nothing to do with me......

Thank you everyone for replies; I have always been extremely careful not to mention names, ages, even area I live in .
My concern was that others on the site may not be aware that posts can be read on Google .

I wish GN would somehow highlight this in a place where it is obvious to everyone who joins the forum. It comes up every so often and then a new lot of people are shocked all over again.

I believe there's a Facebook page where parts of threads may get republished and also that sometimes the tabloids quote things that are seen on GN. It's a worry where people put up information that is identifiable so posts are better not giving names and location which could be linked to a person via Google or Facebook or other social media.

Sorry curvygran, cross posted.

This is where it says it - www.gransnet.com/forums .

I have pointed out several times on GN, that I was amazed how easy it is to find people using the internet.
(In my case it was to inform a couple of people re my fathers death.)

Any info put on GN, no matter how innocuous is there on google.

For example
An area/town posted on Good Morning thread added to say a name of grandchild mentioned on another thread, could just be enough for a lurker, (who may never have even posted on GN themselves) to identify the poster.
How often do GNers then mention that they are off on a trip/ holiday or away looking after grandchildren??

To find my relatives I had very little to go on.
I used google
Company house.
And local Gov site (in my case the planning dept).

So easy to think that it's just chatting and passing the time with a friendly bunch of people (which of course most people
on GN are) and forget that there is a whole internet of people, who can read every word without even having registered
as a member of GN.

Please remember that GN also transfers some posts on to Facebook and Twitter.

Newspapers quite often print excerpts from MN and therefore could also copy GN posts if they so wished.

Just Googled my GN moniker and all that came up was porn sites featuring Grannies . Honest folks these do not feature the real me!!!

I also read something today about inviting someone to join your "Whatsapp group something " about it not being private, didn't have chance to read it all, but something to do with google. sorry half a story ..

Googled mine and got pages and pages of stuff about Star Wars. But then I googled another GN user's nickname and was at what I saw!

Just googled me and it came up with loads of bags for grannies! Handbags, shopping bags on wheels.....all very interesting!

Googled mine and got lots of recipes for katsu chicken and katsu curry.

If I google 'Cunco', I see it is a town in Chile, a racehorse (who was quite naughty on his first appearance in parade ring ) and maybe a plant or tree. No mention of my comments on GN.

If I google my real name, I find it is shared with a well-known person in a niche sports who died recently. It is odd to read one's own name against obituaries and tributes.