onaemtnest

Pam you are absolutely correct in this post. We also were told by forensic computer specialist that any information once entered on the Internet is accessible. Banks and stores that have the most private information have huge teams of security specialists fighting hackers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. If you use a credit card not only on the internet, at a restaurant, local mall.... once it's scanned that magnetic strip across the back is loaded with personal information.

Have your ever stayed in a Hotel, gone on a cruise that uses card keys to access your room? The magnetic key that opens your door....all the information about you is on that magnetic strip...how you paid, what credit card is accepted, your home address, phone number etc. There are portable scanning devices that can retreive all the information from those magnetic strips and then a less than honest employee can make thousands of dollars selling that scanned information to criminal rings.

Scary is right....But how do we get around it? It's the way of life now, unless you want to go live in a cave somewhere I guess.

Our information can be retrieved through data bases that store everything and these data bases unfortunately are accessible to unscrupulous people and groups.

Google Earth takes anyone right to your front door, 3D photos of the street you live on and of your home. If your home was ever listed for sale and the pictures were posted on the Internet then those interior pictures are also accessible forever. NOTHING is private on the Internet is the bottom line.

It is the world we now live in. The warning is valid and we should all take heed. But as Pam has said, don't have unrealistic expectations that deleting information and changing information now makes you safe, because once was there is in reality still out there.

With all of this said, I refuse to be paranoid ~ careful a big YES ~ I for one have made such wonderful contact with the quilters on this forum and do communicate with them most often via email. As someone else mentioned I'm probably more concerned about the community I live in as far as someone tracking me to my front door.

clsurz

Regarding Facebook I have mine set up pretty much as private. I don't allow friends of friends to be able to access me or ask for an invite. I post pretty liberally on there but the only one's that can read what I have is if I opted for them to be able to access it.

As for eBay I've been on there since it opened it's doors labor day 1995 and it is a safe place to be if we follow the rules they have in place to protect us. No one on there can contact me unless they have a transaction going with me via eBay. I NEVER WOULD start or continue with emails outside of eBay with anyone no matter what. IMHO it's a place of business and not for personal use and should stay that way.

As far as stalking goes back in 2005 and 2006 I was stalked online for those two years because of my relationship with a direct selling company. One of the gals in the company did not like me at all and she made my life a living hell. I had to first go to my local police with all documentation and file against her. It was than forwarded to her state and the detectives there took charge of it. By the time they were done with her she pretty much disappeared off that companies website, on facebook and the yahoogroups and such I was on.

Personally there is no way that I will get all that friendly with folks online outside of groups I belong to and if I did that person would be checked out before I communicated with them via private email.

Regarding the eBay incident mentioned here by the OP I would recommend you report it to eBay and make them aware of it. If he did it to one he'll do it to others.

Regarding eBay I won't deal with a seller unless I check them out first by pulling there user info and making sure they are who they say they are. In the last 16.5 years being on eBay I've only found about 5 or 6 who were not who they stated they were after checking there user info.

gramarraine

These are the very reasons we don't facebook. Our kids think we are crazy but we just want to be safe. My daughter told me the other night that we were the only ones in the family that didn't do facebook. I guess we will just have to be left out of the family loop because we will not do facebook.

coldquilter

I am always warning my kids about the creeps out there on the internet and now it's easy to see how someone could prey on them too. I know for myself, I am not a skeptical person and so that isn't my first thought. You have me changing all my info online. Thanks for the heads up.

cassie69emt

Monroe- there is a way to get around fb if there are pictures of you on there that you don't want there.First ask that person to remove them and if they don't you can contact fb and they will handle it .Hubby did this and he has no fb page.Relatives should understand you want YOUR privacy and they should respect you enough to give it to you .

svenskaflicka1

bless your heart--this is why so many of us even on the quilt board don't list locations, details, etc. i have even curbed activities on things like ancestry.com, ellis island.com, etc because anybody with half a brain can find out details about anyone online, and then check sites like those to find out things like your mother's maiden name, your father's employer, etc. while i love that we can research online, we have to be so very careful about the info we post, or that we share.

when i teach my students in anesthesia, i kiddingly, but half seriously tell them, "cultivate your paranoia. it will be your best friend." in medical terms, it just means that if something doesn't feel right, pay attention to it immediately. in life, same thing. be careful, folks. be very careful!

quiltmau

right on!!

mizsandy7

Thanks so much for this article and forum. I've emailed it to daughters and friends. It's so easy to let your guard down.

cmw0829

Wow - that's really creepy.

I said to my DH the other day that we should get rid of our bank accounts, credit cards, loans, etc. All those things that require we disclose too much about ourselves. He told me I'd gone over the edge.

sparkys_mom

If you would like to scare the dickens out of yourself just read "The Broken Window" by Jeffrey Deaver. There is a ton of truth in this book.