How locked down can we make our accounts?

[telephone89]

Ok! Scratches head that I didn’t know that feature!!! Thank you for the directions. I was using the Find tab.

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure people knew that just because you restrict that ONE part everything else is still easily and widely visible. If one is ok with that then great! But we shouldn't feel "safer" or anything as it's still very very (very!) easy to find everything.

 

[lissyflo]

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure people knew that just because you restrict that ONE part everything else is still easily and widely visible. If one is ok with that then great! But we shouldn't feel "safer" or anything as it's still very very (very!) easy to find everything.

Is this some kind of glitch in the system set-up? It seems really odd that’s there’s a setting within our account parameters that we can set to avoid showing a list of all our posts, but that very same information is freely available in a different, but still incredibly easily accessible, manner.

Aaaah, if we can’t say anything in Hangout and no-one wants to post anything in SMTB because it’s too accessible, that doesn’t leave much... Could SMTB posts only be accessible to registered accounts for instance? It’s not much, but it would be a slight disincentive to dodgy activities. Or is that a no-go for site sponsors?

 

[Karl_K]

google knows everything that the public can see even if you tell them not to index a site they will anyway and just mark it private internally.
Its available to google and governments.

Locking everything behind a login page will usually keep them out but not always. If there is a weakness the bots will find it.
That's how some sensitive(banks, stores etc.) sites entire databases have ended up on google before.

Most sites willingly invite google behind the doors by using Google Analytics which is even more evil than the search engine. Then they add the facebook button for more tracking.

A site like his counts on having every page on google so it gets a high search ranking. That means more users and viewers, more adds seen, keeping the doors open.

We are the content.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

@Slick1 no worries about thread jacking, I think it’s great that as a result of this experience people are more aware of the limitations of the privacy settings

 

[telephone89]

Is this some kind of glitch in the system set-up? It seems really odd that’s there’s a setting within our account parameters that we can set to avoid showing a list of all our posts, but that very same information is freely available in a different, but still incredibly easily accessible, manner.

Aaaah, if we can’t say anything in Hangout and no-one wants to post anything in SMTB because it’s too accessible, that doesn’t leave much... Could SMTB posts only be accessible to registered accounts for instance? It’s not much, but it would be a slight disincentive to dodgy activities. Or is that a no-go for site sponsors?

I’m not sure. But even if you were to lock that part down, all you have to do is search the UN in the search bar and again, a list of posts show up. As Karl says, the user posts are the content. I’m not sure exactly the point of avoiding showing a list of user posts. It doesn’t aid in security, as all those posts are still there and searchable. You just need to do an extra step to gain the same info.

 

[Big Fat Facets]

...so short of getting rid of EVERYTHING ... all posts and threads, going back to just reading and lurking ... there's NO privacy???

 

[Missy]

...so short of getting rid of EVERYTHING ... all posts and threads, going back to just reading and lurking ... there's NO privacy???

Pretty much. Welcome to the 21st century.

With new technologies and the popularity of social media, everything is available for anyone's eyes. Once data enters the internet, it will be accessed and analyzed and compared and stored. Our love affair with technology has a dark side. An unstoppable encroachment on our privacy.

Selectively revealing yourself to the world -- Privacy in the 21st century

Fifteen years ago, if you wanted to join Facebook (then The FaceBook), you needed a valid college email address and the site did not offer much more than study group meetups or a place to chat and share pictures with high school friends. Today, Facebook is a juggernaut with roughly 2.5 billion...

betanews.com

The 20 biggest data breaches of the 21st century

Data breaches affecting millions of users are far too common. Here are some of the biggest, baddest breaches in recent memory.

www.csoonline.com

 

[SparklieBug]

Pretty much. Welcome to the 21st century.

With new technologies and the popularity of social media, everything is available for anyone's eyes. Once data enters the internet, it will be accessed and analyzed and compared and stored. Our love affair with technology has a dark side. An unstoppable encroachment on our privacy.

^^^ Thus, I post zero photos or ID-ing info to any social media, as well as sites like Pricescope. I turn off location finding on all photos I take (as well as other apps) and am careful what I share in written word.

Years ago I had to deal w/ an online, threatening person and within months of that, we moved to a town fairly close to where she lived (for DH's work). Before that, I'd been quite open with the city/province we lived in, posted pictures of our dogs, etc. After moving? Nope. Nothing, not where we now live or anything identifying. I'm pretty sure she was an egotistical, bored young housewife/SAHM who entertained herself by being a jerk online.

 

[Karl_K]

...so short of getting rid of EVERYTHING ... all posts and threads, going back to just reading and lurking ... there's NO privacy???

Google does not forget it and the way back machine will have past snapshots of most websites.
Once its on the net its always on the net.

And just lurking google and facebook as well as other tracking companies still know the majority of the sites you visit.

There is no privacy on the internet.
Even personal vpns are more hype than fact.

 

[CSpan]

Can the Mods block IPs? If they know who the account is from (spammer etc) can that IP be blocked?

I agree the internet is forever. And your phone is also tracking you. The Advertising ID is a nightmare. But you can reset it. To be fair the way back machine has limited usefulness as it only caches snapshots but if your post is in a snapshpt beware.

I agree a login to view or login to view certain forums (like meet ups) would be ideal. It isn't 100% but better than nothing. I understand why the site would discourage that for the general jewellery posts.

 

[Big Fat Facets]

Can the Mods block IPs? If they know who the account is from (spammer etc) can that IP be blocked?

I agree the internet is forever. And your phone is also tracking you. The Advertising ID is a nightmare. But you can reset it. To be fair the way back machine has limited usefulness as it only caches snapshots but if your post is in a snapshpt beware.

I agree a login to view or login to view certain forums (like meet ups) would be ideal. It isn't 100% but better than nothing. I understand why the site would discourage that for the general jewellery posts.

hi cspan
i must say im not fully understanding because it all sounds rather technical

im concerned with safety, security and privacy. lots of us share higher value items and i'd imagine this forum and some of it's members are "ripe" for questionable unscrupulous individuals. whether they are already registered and posing as members or are lurking

i suppose i am slightly less concerned with being tracked by algorithms than i am of criminal, sinister individuals and their deeds

i would hate to but i am prepared to delete all threads and posts ...

 

[OoohShiny]

This sort of thing is why I don't post any names, exact locations, photos, face pics, the same information on different forums... or use Facebook and Google.

I'm sure it has limited success but it's better to at least try!

It's sad that we can't share things we might want to, 'just in case', but it is more incentive to create actual face-to-face friendships IMO