Posting little details of our life on various threads…

Yes that is it exactly doodledog, they are not my stories, so i do try to be careful.

nanna8

One advantage of living a long way away from most I suppose.

Yes you do, but over the years I have worked out where at least two GNetters live. I have never met them or even been to their towns, but it wouldn’t be too difficult for someone unscrupulous to find their names and other personal details.

Agree GG
I have have raised my eyebrows a few times.
It's not the posters but the lurkers that are the problem.

A few years ago a poster posted a photo of husbands gravestone, they then mentioned a holiday on another thread .
They have several times over the years have mentioned area they live in.

With Ai all theses details will add up
I have been on gransnet along time .
I know that posts stay on the Internet for ever and will show up on Google and now AI

I don't post often and never post photos of people
Ai is becoming more intelligent everyday and will probably be quite good at face recognition.

One advantage of living a long way away from most I suppose.

Anything about my grandchildren is directly from my daughter posting on FB, so public domain already. I’m suitably vague about holidays.

Just don't be taken in by Donny Osmond, who loves you and needs £50,000 to enable him to come to live with you. He'll give up everything for you but he's a bit short at the moment and needs cash upfront.
He'll have lovely long chats with you online but in fact he's AI Donny superimposed on another body.

merlotgran

Anyone who can work out my passwords from stuff I post on Gransnet must have worked at Bletchley Park during the war.

Exactly what I was thinking! I’m trying to imagine the process, where someone decides they want to hack Daddima, so they need presumably to discover my name and address and possibly date of birth, then maybe my bank details before they get to even thinking about trawling through my social media posts to start guessing my password.
Seems a lot of bother to rob me of £34.50!

If anyone can keep up with my continuous movements, transactions and various passwords, then they're cleverer than I am! My dog is my giveaway information on here, but he has two identical brothers close by, so no one could even be sure if it was me speaking anyway! 🐕 🐕 🐕

PS as for being abroad, I have people staying at mine to feed the cat and look after the house, so watch out!

But a good reminder GrannyGravy13 even do.

No, not over cautious at all. It is so easy for info to be reused by an unscrupulous body.

Hackers and scammers are at the absolute bottom of my pile because of the anxiety they inflict just by being there quite apart from when they do something.

My passwords are very random - good job I don’t have many or I’d never remember them.

Yes, it's not lying, it's being economical with the truth for good reasons.

Ohhh! It's such a shame that even our lovely Good Morning thread could potentially be manipulated by ruddy hackers. "Stop the World. I want to get off!" 😶

Thanks GG .
I’m an over-sharer, so will be more careful in future. 😬

I just think this thread should be reminding us to be very careful of what and how we post but not be scared of posting anything at all.

merlotgran

Anyone who can work out my passwords from stuff I post on Gransnet must have worked at Bletchley Park during the war.

Same here!😂😂😂

I do that too, Galaxy, particularly where my children and other people are concerned. I don't think I have the right to tell anyone's story but my own, IYSWIM.

I slightly alter some of my details, so if I was talking about a friend who had a similar difficulty to something being discussed on a thread, for example, I would change their info, so I would say they were male instead of female.
I do that if I mention my children as well.
I lie basically but only with regard to non relevant details.

It is true, sadly, that it's easy to forget that there are many people who are looking for personal details which can help crime. One of the worst is telling the world when you will be away on holiday. My daughter in law does this and gives updates and photos of the places they are visiting. It's an open invitation for a burglar.
Many towns have on-line communities and again, people need to be careful not to give too much information. Anyone who reports a crime and uploads a picture risks being targeted.

How many of us, if buying online, tick the Terms and Conditions without scrutinising them each time?
They often include the proviso that the firm can pass your details on to third parties.

I don't worry about passwords, as none of mine are remotely connected to me, and a 'hacker' would need to know my bank details in order to use them anyway.

I am careful about what I post that refers to my personal life, and have asked people I trust on here to let me know if I do post anything identifying. I don't think people could work out who I am from my posts. For one thing, I am not in the public eye at all, so there is nothing to go by, and for another I'm not interesting enough for anyone to bother. I do think that if someone I know read one thing and thought 'Oh, Ddog has one of those, or goes to Timbuktu for her holidays' they could connect other posts and confirm their suspicions. I would hope that a true friend would respect my privacy and not do that, but people can be nosy.

Does it matter? Not really, but my concern would be that something I say on here might be taken out of context and reported to someone I care about. I am honest about my opinions on here, but like most people I am more careful about expressing them 'in real life' where I don't really discuss politics, religion or money with acquaintances.

We can't be too careful. I think there is a risk posting on the good morning thread. It is such a lovely thread and I enjoy reading all about people's day. It feels cosy and friendly and may give a felling of false security. It is so easy to give out too much information that may identify posters or people unwittingly divulge their location . Often posters disclosed personal information too. All this may paint a very clear picture to people who are not to be trusted. Perhaps I am over cautious? I am sure I will be told if that is the case !

It is good to be reminded about being careful about what we post. I doubt anyone could find my passwords or address from anything I post.
Maybe not giving the dates of our birthdays would be safer.

TBH we do get waves of “harmless” (?) threads here and on Facebook asking for first pets, favourite colours or flowers, first love, first pop song , school subjects and now football teams, I am sure an experienced profiler or indeed scammer could build up a very detailed picture of anybody who answered all of these questions.
The simple remedy is to ignore!

when ordering online, they send an email confirming the order, why then do they always ask for a phone number, they don't need it if they have the email address, I never give my phone number..

I learnt that lesson in the early days of Gransnet when I mentioned a post I had held and received an angry response from someone who thought they could and did do it better. So my first username disappeared and here I've been ever since.

I often lie about my dob having been warned not to divulge it to unknown people. Then I am puzzled by the ‘birthday’ wishes at random times of the year ! You can’t win …