Admin/Moderator

[TinkerbellT421]

I need to ask your permisson of posting some important information for people that may have smartphones and post pictures. It was on my local news last night, with video and information. And not sure if I can post these websites so that people can be aware of it. I would like permission of giving any admin.moderator the information in message form to see if you would like to post it. But it is definitely information in regards to how people can stalk you just by inadvertantly posting a picture to your twitter/facebook/myspace and would like to let everyone know so that they can shut this option off on their smartphones to stop any potential harm that could happen without knowing it.

[DizneyRox]

I'm NOT and admin/moderator and don't purport to be.

My suggestion to people is to avoid MyFace and the like like the plague. It sems every week there's a new controversy over the privacy settings in Facebook, or whatever.

You won't find me on any of those sites. Actually, I'm blocking them with my firewall so "You can't get there from here" on my network.

[TinkerbellT421]

I agree Diz! I am however on facebook to a certain extent and was horrified last night regarding the information being shared without knowledge for anyone that access social networking sites, IE twitter/facebook. SO being as paranoid as I am I felt the need to maybe share this information with you guys for those of everyone here that might use social networking on their phones. Because not only it being a security glitch with such websites its mainly a security glitch based on settings on cell phones that some (I know I had no clue) may not know even exists. Ive been debating all day after seeing this report if I should close out FB all together. :confused: I really think I should just find it as a very useful social tool right now.

And how I found out about this was my local news does a segment called "You paid for it invesitgations" and a couple times a week they do inside stories/investigation based on peoples emails and phone calls as to how we may be scammed, etc...So outside of Rhode Island I was pretty sure noone would really know about this.

[BrerGnat]

Being on social networks safely is possible. It just requires effort on the USER's part.

I am aware that my pictures, as well as those of my kids are available all over the internet. HOWEVER, I am very vigilant about who is allowed to see what information about me. Basic stuff, like my address, phone number, etc. doesn't bother me if it's online. However, you will never see that information along with the full names and ages of my kids, where they go to school, etc. unless you are a very close personal friend of mine (or family member), in which case, you already know that information.

Most of what is available about people online is ALREADY public knowledge. People are simply paranoid about this stuff to a large extent. It's the digital age...every time you swipe a credit card, store rewards card, or ANYTHING tied to you allows all sorts of personal info into computer servers all over the world.

Be careful. Don't put too much information online. Check your credit report often. Change your web passwords often.

I've been "online" since the first version of AOL. To date, I've had two "virtual attacks", both having to do with my Ebay account. So, I closed out my Ebay account and switched my email address. Easy as pie.

It's not as dangerous as people are led to believe in these news stories. In EVERY "horror story" I've seen on the news related to social media or internet usage, there was a massive common sense "fail" committed by the user...

[brownie]

One of the issues is that pictures you take with your smart phone may be geotagged, so the picture includes the latitude & longitude from the GPS of where it was taken. When you post this information, it's possible for others to get the location where it was taken.

What can make it a big problem is if you publicly post pictures for the whole world to see. If you restrict access to your photos, it probably isn't as much a problem. If you are really concerned, you should be able to turn this feature off so the information is not included in the metadata of your pictures.

On my HTC EVO, which is an Android phone, this is off by default. You can access the settings for this in the EVO, which is probably the same or similar for all Android phones, by going into the camera application, clicking on Menu, then choosing the settings tab (looks like two gears). There's an option to turn geo-tagging on and off.

[TinkerbellT421]

Brownie is correct. Im not exactly a technical words savy person so I forgot what the wording was regarding "geotagging". See with IPhone apparently geotagging comes automatically enabled. If you want to see what I was talking about the website is icanstalku.com it also tells you how to shut off the geotagging. But it was still pretty scary to see that you can literally pinpoint where you are or were when you took a photo and uploaded it to twitter, fb etc. I didnt want to post the website address cause I wasnt sure if it was against TOS. If it is I am sorry and hopefully an admin will remove it. I was just trying to let people know that may not realize its a possibility or not be tech-savy know what can happen. Just wanted to share the info. :) :mickey:

[dnickels]

I think the bigger risk is people constantly updating where they are and what they're doing - willingly giving away their location. I'm sure anyone who uses facebook can go to their friends updates right now and find a dozen people who have information posted indicating they're not at home, or enough info that you could find them with just the update and their name, even if you didn't personally know the person.

It doesn't really matter what 'my' security settings are. If any of my XX number of friends are browsing my profile at Starbucks or the Library or if they have any sort of spyware/virus on their computer then someone else can be seeing exactly what that friend is seeing -where I am, that I'm away from the house, etc. Unless I have control over the computers that every one of my friends use then those security settings are just a minor obstacle, they keep the dumb bad guys from seeing it, but not any of the smart ones. None of us control the computers of our friends or family so we should assume that anything we post online (security protected or not) can be viewed by folks we wouldn't want to see it.

[TinkerbellT421]

Exactly dnickels. When I was in FL a couple of weeks ago. NOONE except my best friend who was checking in with my mom while I was gone knew where I was. I never posted information on FB as to where I am, where Im going...I usually post jokes, song lyrics as status updates just for the knowledge that like you said, it doesnt matter what your settings are....if someone is in a coffee shop, anywhere outside where there wireless access....anyone can see it. And in my state (Rhode Island) being so small.....its not difficult to run into people you know, or in some cases run into some people that may want to stalk you. I had a friend that would literally post every where she was at every second of the day....I used to tell her not to do it. Well she eventually figured out when an ex-bf started stalking her that that wasn't a great idea....

[DizneyRox]

Read a few articles last year that really creeped me out. This is a quote from Eric Schmidt, Former CEO of Google.


'If I look at enough of your messaging and your location, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go ... show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You've got Facebook photos!'"

So, if you're using those online picture storage places with facial recognition, you're just giving away oodles of information.

And yes, a lot of it comes down to stupid user tricks. But when it's more about out-out instead of opt-in, people aren't going to be able to keep up. My solution is to not even play that game.

BTW - I'm a big fan of Google and most things that Google does. But I also take a lot of care in how I do anything with Google products. Do I give out too much information? Maybe, but I don't really show up in a Google search on my name, I must be doing something right.

[BellesRose]

Most people think that if their settings on Facebook are tight, then they are fine. They are so wrong! Computer glitches happen all the time. I know someone who could see literally any profile from her iPhone, and she didn't even have a Facebook account. I had my settings to the MAX, and I was horrified at what came up when I searched my name on the internet. Just because MY settings were tight, does NOT mean my friends were the same. Not only that, but most of my friends just add strangers or whoever they want just to look popular. And they would post photos without my permission (Unfortunately, those are still up). I deleted my page around Christmas, and not only am I so much happier in general and do not miss it one bit, but the last time I checked my name on the internet, I couldn't find anything on myself :thumbsup:
Thank you for posting this TinkerbellT421. I am going to pass it on.

[TinkerbellT421]

Your welcome bellesrose!! Hope I can atleast help your friends if they arent aware of this danger!! I was horrified watching the story on the news last night!!! They showed the news caster how to stalk her friends friends from her friends profile it was unreal!!!

[Ian]

Nat's right ... most of this risk can be minimized to an irrelevant degree simply by exercising a bit of effort.

This whole "OH MY GOD YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS OUT THERE ON THE INTERNET" is just a modern version of "THE SKY IS FALLING!!"

[DizneyRox]

I wish I could agree with that.

Here's an example that doesn't involve some wild cross country stalking case.

Many employers now make it part of their references check to scour the Internet on prospective employees. I don't need pictures from my annual toga olympics hampering my ability to find employment.

Should I think twice about posting those pictures? Of course! But why even take that chance? There are many other reasons to stay off the grid, IMHO.

Now I need to get back into my lead lined room and put on my tin foil hat. Excuse me for a bit...

[BellesRose]

I wish I could agree with that.

Here's an example that doesn't involve some wild cross country stalking case.

Many employers now make it part of their references check to scour the Internet on prospective employees. I don't need pictures from my annual toga olympics hampering my ability to find employment.

Should I think twice about posting those pictures? Of course! But why even take that chance? There are many other reasons to stay off the grid, IMHO.

Now I need to get back into my lead lined room and put on my tin foil hat. Excuse me for a bit...
I agree with you on everything you've said on this subject, including this. In fact, I was looking for a job and put in over 60 applications. Not one call back. After I deleted my Facebook, I actually got an interview for a pretty incredible job. Coincidence? Possibly. But I like to think I'm better off without having my face and information online.

[Puma]

One of the issues is that pictures you take with your smart phone may be geotagged, so the picture includes the latitude & longitude from the GPS of where it was taken. When you post this information, it's possible for others to get the location where it was taken.

What can make it a big problem is if you publicly post pictures for the whole world to see. If you restrict access to your photos, it probably isn't as much a problem. If you are really concerned, you should be able to turn this feature off so the information is not included in the metadata of your pictures.

On my HTC EVO, which is an Android phone, this is off by default. You can access the settings for this in the EVO, which is probably the same or similar for all Android phones, by going into the camera application, clicking on Menu, then choosing the settings tab (looks like two gears). There's an option to turn geo-tagging on and off.
Here are instructions for disabling geotagging in various phones (http://icanstalku.com/how.php). You can also remove jpeg metadata (http://www.digitalconfidence.com/downloads.html) from pics.

[BrerGnat]

Many employers now make it part of their references check to scour the Internet on prospective employees. I don't need pictures from my annual toga olympics hampering my ability to find employment.


Potential employers have every right to know what kind of person, exactly, they are hiring. Anyone dumb enough to post drunken party pictures or salacious status updates is probably never going to be taken seriously by ANY employer. The U.S. Government has been using social networks as a screening tool for military recruits and government employees for years. It's kept out a lot of questionable individuals, and has helped in prosecuting/court martial of others who have posted things that go against the rules of conduct. Almost every week, some idiot Marine gets in trouble for something posted on Facebook. Most of the time, the profiles are completely open for viewing, with no privacy settings enabled.

"Stupid is as stupid does."

The smart ones create several profiles, and lead employers towards the "dummy" one. ;)

I don't post anything online (anywhere) that I wouldn't want the entire world to know about me. What I post is who I am, and I'm at least intelligent enough to not post stuff that could make me look like an idiot later on...