Do you worry about being indentified on Gransnet?

I have met up with other GN members, and have made good friends online.

I do not post anything provocative or personal about family members, they know I am on GN and it wouldn’t take them long to work out which username was me.

One GN member did post rather revealing info which could have identified my house, fortunately GNHQ removed the post PDQ

There are topics that I would like to open up about on here but as they are so specific to my personal situation I feel I can’t do it as anyone who knows me would immediately identify me.

I do not post certain information for all sorts of reasons. I am a private person by nature, and only post stuff I am comfortable with.

But it wouldn’t worry me if I was identified by friends or family.

They know I post on GN and are inclined to see it as one of my eccentricities. Smiling indulgently😀.

This thread is always a timely reminder that the site is open to the world and his dog not just a small, select and cosy group of GNs.
I am amazed to read posts which contain derogatory remarks about family, friends, colleagues and others by GNs whose posts are quite identifying anyway. They must be unaware or forget that the subjects of their comments may read Gransnet as well. Unless, as I thought when I first found Gransnet, that those threads were fiction.

However, I am aware that, unlike FB this is an open forum so I am careful about revealing my exact location and when the am going to be away etc. I believe posting when you are away on social media invalidates your travel insurance.

I dont say when I am going away, either.

I am wondering if your last sentence is true.
Makes some sense.

Anyone friend or foe who knows about our estrangement could easily identify me because of what I've posted over the years, but it doesn't bother me.

Too late now. I think everyone who wanted to could identify me but why would they want to.

I enjoy the meetups and only once someone asked not to be photographed and that made me pause to consider.

I hope my DC don't know about my not very secret life 😂

I had to inform my DGC that the old woman emoji stalking them on Duolingo was me .

I don't post photos of the DC or DGC

fancythat

^However, I am aware that, unlike FB this is an open forum so I am careful about revealing my exact location and when the am going to be away etc. I believe posting when you are away on social media invalidates your travel insurance.^

I dont say when I am going away, either.

I am wondering if your last sentence is true.
Makes some sense.

There were some photographs on here recently. Photos from our window or some such.

I'm not really camouflaged at all here. I've been to meet ups and took part in a COVID zoom group of us East coast Scots. One of my books was a GN giveaway at one point too.
So I tend to post my opinions but not about family or friends.

^AI Overview Posting real-time holiday photos on social media can invalidate your home insurance claim if it alerts burglars that your house is empty.

I wasnt aware of this. Not that I have ever done it.

I am always amazed at the questions people answer here e.g. what is your pet's name, do you have a middle name. These are the type of security questions your bank may ask. I got asked last month 'how far is it to the railway station'.

I am sure there are stalkers on here (and all other sites) gathering this type of information so they can steal your id.

Please be careful what you post

You can do wide posts. For example, instead of saying I live in Blackpool (I don't) just put north west. Instead of my sister, put my friend in Oz. You can cushion quite a lot by keeping key facts and placing them in different surroundings. Even say I read on an Australia social media site, whereas in reality it was your local FB page.

I do worry that family might identify me, even though I dont think I ever share anything that they would consider too private.
The risk is very low as I can't imagine for one minute that they would ever spend hours on end browsing through Gransnet, and even if they did, the chances of them finding a post that would make them think came from me is pretty remote.

The trouble is, when responding to a post about family situations that are similar to your own, it is so easy to get carried away in in a way that really could be identified by your own family, and there are certainly times when I type out a long response based on my own experience before I realize that I have just done exactly that.
Fortunately, I usually realize in time to delete some or all of it before posting.

My username is deliberately non-identifying.

Whitewavemark2

I do not post certain information for all sorts of reasons. I am a private person by nature, and only post stuff I am comfortable with.

But it wouldn’t worry me if I was identified by friends or family.

They know I post on GN and are inclined to see it as one of my eccentricities. Smiling indulgently😀.

What yes, I know what you mean.
That sounds like the same smile that I get from my own family on the very rare occasions that Gransnet is mentioned. In other words, when they are surprised by something 'modern' that I know about and they ask how I have come to know about it 😁

(I sometimes read Mumsnet too - I think their jaws might drop right off if I revealed a lot of the things I have 'learned' from that!)

Can we ask to have all our posts removed? Would it make any difference seeing as GN is public?

They know I post on GN and are inclined to see it as one of my eccentricities. Smiling indulgently

My lot just roll their eyes. 🙄😂

I was looking for something on Google and found a thread that is running now on Gransnet.
I try not to give much away about myself but I may have slipped up occasionally.

Oh, I have no doubt I could be identified. Not because I give too much away but simply because I understand:

a) how hacked data gets onto the dark web and

b) that our internet interaction is being scraped constantly by bots for data that can be added to what’s already known, to build profiles for scammers and other malevolent forces.

The Reform Party have made so secret of they fact that they are building profiles of people. There is a case against them in the High Court as they are refusing to respond to requests to discover what personal data they are holding.

When there’s a political party that wants to repeal the legal acts which currently give us some protection, that is very worrying especially when they plan to target specific groups.

People don’t just disclose personal data about themselves, do they? They disclose personal data about other people in their life. I wonder whether those other people are aware and how comfortable they would feel knowing that things which should be private are being widely discussed and shared.

The Human Rights Act gives us the right to a private life and that does include keeping our personal and medical records confidential.

It follows therefore that if you could be identified and have discussed personal information about a family member which would identify them then you are breaching their right to privacy.

Job seekers nowadays are advised to review their social media as prospective employers will look at it. AI tools make that very easy to do. What if your child or grandchild has done that but you have disclosed information about them that could damage their chance of getting a job?

DWP and HMRC already look at social media in investigations but it wouldn’t take much of a step to use it more widely.

Grammaretto

I had to inform my DGC that the old woman emoji stalking them on Duolingo was me. 😄😄

Did they mind Grammaretto?

Not long after I started Duolingo, DD1 asked me if the Xavier on there was me-because she’d just started and she knew I was learning Dutch.
I didn’t know she was a Duolingo fan, but ever since, we’ve been friends and sent each other gifts.

I avoid really personal things and don’t seek advice on personal issues. What would strangers know anyway ? I would never seek advice on tricky personal situations on a forum like this. Madness as far as I’m concerned. I would, however, seek information about things like health issues and reactions to medications to see if others have similar reactions. The GPs don’t always tell you about side effects. I live a long,long way away in a very big country, unlikely anyone would ever ‘find’ me. 😀

I don't think they mind Mollygo we often do challenges together. We are all doing different languages. DGS, always competitive, is currently top of the diamond league
Oh dear was that too much information?

I forgot to mention - a few times now I have found myself reading through what turn out to be old but newly resurrected threads, and have come across some posts that I totally agree with, only to realise eventually that I had actually written them myself some time in the past.

I reckon that if it takes me so long to identify my own old posts, the chance of anyone else recognising me from them is negligible 😂

A couple of people I follow on another site have been followed and harassed by people who disagree with their views. Police have been involved.

Just going off on a bit of a tangent, I often wonder if there are any famous older contributors on here. Obvs, we will never know, but just be good to know how far-reaching gransnet goes. Anybody else curious?

I do remember somebody whom I knew in RLwho must have been paranoid about being identified- to the extent that she wrote about her sons and about her DIL’s anxiety issues, when I know she has daughters, implied she lived somewhere, commenting on the weather, until another poster wrote something along the lines of “ I live there and we haven’t had rain for days” and made some other comments about GC which were far from the mark.
Surely it doesnt matter all THAT much as long as we all realise how easily a few details can place us and that our posts are open to all, including the media.
So while it may be tempting to pour out your heart, discretion should always be exercised.