Posting little details of our life on various threads…

People put their whole lives and every move on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok etc. Criminals trawl all these sites for information on people. I'm surprised how many advertise that they are away on holiday, sadly people do not realise if you have holiday pics posted, then are burgled. Your insurance company will not pay out.

Watching what you say on the net is not new and went on a long time ago
About thirty odd years ago a new family moved into the area and suggested setting up a neighbourhood watch.
Sounds ok until there was a spate of burglaries in the area.
I am sure you know what is coming next
My mother in law knew the name and by coincidence there had been a similar spate of burglaries when the same woman lived near her cousin
The moral being be very careful to whom you pass on information to

Reported

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merlotgran

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

You should be working for
M15.

Loud out loud

Grannygravy13

You are so right.
Plus those who post their holiday snaps while they are still away!

Grans who disagree need to read Which reports on the
e.g www.which.co.uk/news/article/scam-alert-social-media-hacking-on-the-rise-aN1uI6o5E9uq
www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-is-identity-theft-a7wcQ6c0RyI1

Berd

Daddima

kircubbin2000

I'm a little concerned for a local pair of new grandparents.They are so besotted with the child that she now has her own instagram account where they post every day. I wonder do the parents realise some of the dangers.

Could I ask what you see as ‘dangers’? I can understand why some children’s faces are obscured in school photos, as there may be custody or child protection issues, and I also appreciate that people don’t want their baby’s face on social media, but I can’t see that it’s ‘dangerous’ for grandparents to post photos. Sorry if I’m being dim.

Daddima - posting a child’s photo on social media is dangerous (no matter who does it) because paedophiles hijack these pictures and morph them into sexualised images - for example using your GC’s face on the body of a child being abused. This can be for their own use, but often for distributing among other contacts. There have been a lot of warnings about this. Even a pic of ‘baby in the bath’ isn’t immune. I feel awful just writing this - what a dreadful thing to have to warn about. You’re not being dim, just innocent. So sorry to destroy that.

My niece posts regularly, but she has a pretty closed account and only her selected friends can see them.

I run a parent's group, and I spend a lot of time deleting posts, especially from "professionals" running playgroups etc., and had to actually ban one from posting!

merlotgran

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

I was working on a govt project and they gave me a random generated one that I could not change. I learned it by heart and have used it, with variations for a few ever since.

I have, at last count, some 67 different passwords, none of which could be derived from anything personal, but there are times when I have to go through the "I forgot" process

I suppose it's difficult to have it both ways. If no one posted anything there'd be nothing to discuss. It's up to each if us to take care and be sensible.

Daddima

kircubbin2000

I'm a little concerned for a local pair of new grandparents.They are so besotted with the child that she now has her own instagram account where they post every day. I wonder do the parents realise some of the dangers.

Could I ask what you see as ‘dangers’? I can understand why some children’s faces are obscured in school photos, as there may be custody or child protection issues, and I also appreciate that people don’t want their baby’s face on social media, but I can’t see that it’s ‘dangerous’ for grandparents to post photos. Sorry if I’m being dim.

Daddima - posting a child’s photo on social media is dangerous (no matter who does it) because paedophiles hijack these pictures and morph them into sexualised images - for example using your GC’s face on the body of a child being abused. This can be for their own use, but often for distributing among other contacts. There have been a lot of warnings about this. Even a pic of ‘baby in the bath’ isn’t immune. I feel awful just writing this - what a dreadful thing to have to warn about. You’re not being dim, just innocent. So sorry to destroy that.

Anyone who uses a smartphone can have all their data taken. The answer is to get smart and not give important info away, especially when it comes to money...

I've said on GN today that I'm in France for a while.
So I'll repeat on this thread that there are different people staying at my house, and feeding the cat during my absence. One guest is a former marine, turned policeman, so watch out!

Thank you for raising this. You’re not scaremongering because it’s all too easy to let people in by the back door, then wonder how they got in your house! (If you see what I mean…)
Care is needed.

kircubbin2000

I'm a little concerned for a local pair of new grandparents.They are so besotted with the child that she now has her own instagram account where they post every day. I wonder do the parents realise some of the dangers.

Could I ask what you see as ‘dangers’? I can understand why some children’s faces are obscured in school photos, as there may be custody or child protection issues, and I also appreciate that people don’t want their baby’s face on social media, but I can’t see that it’s ‘dangerous’ for grandparents to post photos. Sorry if I’m being dim.

Galaxy

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.

Definitely the right thing to do. No harm in changing ages or gender of GCs a little for example. Avoid your location or anyone else’s. What a shame we have to be so suspicious but I suppose it goes with the territory of the Internet.

Thank you GG13 for this post. There have been a couple of times when I would have liked support and advice from grans but didn't post because I thought I could be identified if the gran of one of those involved happened to be on gransnet.

I did once send a private message and have almost done so again but each time it would have meant divulging information that might be to a scammer,. My passwords are in a Word document that is password protected and the DDs know the password. There is also a hard copy hidden in the house. I've never made up my dob - perhaps I'll start doing that now - but I make up everything else as so much can be worked out from genealogy websites these days. I have owned some amazing cars and exotic pets, attended some unlikely schools and was born in several locations.

Should you report your suspicions to Gransnet?
.

I'm a little concerned for a local pair of new grandparents.They are so besotted with the child that she now has her own instagram account where they post every day. I wonder do the parents realise some of the dangers.

merlotgran

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

That made me giggle, merlotgran!

My passwords are created by my laptop or iPad and only accessed via my fingerprint.

Caleo

RosieandherMaw

I might know who that is.
And if so, so what?
If it’s who I think it is they rarely go on holiday and have an EXTREMELY fierce guard dog 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hear ye all nasty intruders and stalkers! I have an extremely fierce guard dog and almost never go on holiday.

Ditto!

RosieandherMaw

I might know who that is.
And if so, so what?
If it’s who I think it is they rarely go on holiday and have an EXTREMELY fierce guard dog 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hear ye all nasty intruders and stalkers! I have an extremely fierce guard dog and almost never go on holiday.

Floradora9

25Avalon

My IPad will choose and remember difficult passwords for me. Just hope I never lose my iPad but it never leaves the house.

Is it password protected ? That is the main thing to remember.

Yes I have to use my finger print ID which I have set up before it will go in.

25Avalon

My IPad will choose and remember difficult passwords for me. Just hope I never lose my iPad but it never leaves the house.

Is it password protected ? That is the main thing to remember.

I don't think it's necessarily the amount of information shared about a lifetime's experiences. That's all pretty irrelevant, and will anyone really put together facts from the previous century?
I'm guessing it has to be specific details from current situations including numbers and maybe dates?

I would like to see an easy name change facility on here. It would help protect our anonymity.