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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I was speaking at a conference last week in London on matters of digital privacy. There was a great deal of concern from the floor of the conference about the traces we leave when online. One specific area was privacy in social networks.
I had not thought of it this way before, but this board is one of many social networks.
They have hit the news recently because there is now the start of a trend to allow search engines to index them. The thing is, we should always treat any place where we put personal information as if it is already indexed by search engines.
One major thing that came up is the carelessness of people in placing personal details online. They put things online that they would not want anyone close to them to know. And then they give all sorts of clues which allow anyone with half a brain and a few minutes to search to find out who they are. It is the user's responsibility to give or withhold information
This is especially important when you have, for example, a sexual orientation that your friends are unaware of, when being outed would be extremely unwise. In some parts of the world being outed could be fatal.
It's also very unwise when you are that immortal thing, the teenager. Please take it as a fact that the teenager is more attractive than the old man. You just are. So leaving information online about your sexual orientation and whereabouts and name and age and body size/type is unwise. It's like saying "Hi, I'm 5'2" tall, blond with big green eyes. I'm slim, have a little patch of blond pubic hair, but I shave it sometimes to make myself look younger. I'm gay as they come and boy do I find old guys attractive. Take me and bend me to your will. Oh, I quite like being tied up in soft rope, too. I live at 25 Wayside Drive...."
I don't think Marc had that in mind when he suggested introductions. I think he had in mind the "Hi, I'm timmy" sort. Not much detail, just enough, if you choose, to mean those who need it can empathise with you.
Now I am truly nervous of the level of exposure some of you have given yourselves. Please remember that search engines visit here, and consider edits.
[Updated on: Tue, 02 October 2007 09:43]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Eldon, Jonny, Curtis....
You boys will go in and edit out your middle and last names, as well as the locations of your residence.
This comes under the classification of too much information.
Please don't complain about it.
Please don't bitch about it.
Please don't get all machismo about it.
Please don't overly worry about it.
But please alter it as a personal favor.
Thanks,
Marc
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I agree completely with Marc. Even if those details are made up, please lose them from here. I do have the "power" to do that myself, but I see it as your responsibility to yourselves to do it.
If they are made up they still look like encouragement to others to put everything here. Marc's original request talked about comfort and safety. Please stay safe online.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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No Message Body
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Okay, I'm in my homeroom now, and I can fix my posting right away but I won't see Donny until first period English. I promise to tell him. Knowing him, he'll bitch and heave around about it, then do it. LOL.
But seriously, thanks for being concerned.
Love you mentors,
Jonny.
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ChowanFarmBoy
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 93
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The things some guys say about other guys!!! Man!!! Although I like the idea of getting all machismo and throwing a lot of sand in the air about this I see the concern behind the request. Ok I'll edit mine too now.
Curt, I emailed Joshua and Micah last night after I IMed you and they are sorry dude but they don't want their pics going out to guys they have not personally seen or got to know. They said you would understand.
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ChowanFarmBoy
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 93
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The things some guys say about other guys!!! Man!!! Although I like the idea of getting all machismo and throwing a lot of sand in the air about this I see the concern behind the request. Ok I'll edit mine too now.
Curt, I emailed Joshua and Micah last night after I IMed you and they are sorry dude but they don't want their pics going out to guys they have not personally seen or got to know. They said you would understand.
Thanks for the good lookin' out men. I guess we got carried away.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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It's just one of those things. You need to treat the internet as a billboard that is around for ever with the stuff you write engraved in stone.
The problem is that it deludes us into a false sense of privacy.
Posting anything is pretty much like walking down main street, with a neon sign saying "look at me, I'm naked"
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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ChowanFarmBoy
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 93
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Well Jon says I do too heave around and bitch, and in fact I bitch alot when I think people are trying to tell me what's best for me. I mean day-um! We're seventeen, we know everything, right? ;-D
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ChowanFarmBoy
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 93
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Do guys do that where you live? Like do they really walk down the street naked? Try that in our town and the women who watiress at the diner would be on you like white on rice. Guys walk in there and we think we're on the menu the way those women look at us.
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I know google indexes the profiles on this site. That being said, if you want privacy, you should open up an email account with a user name that you do not use elsewhere. Otherwise you open yourself up to being searched out.
Google also indexes the individual posts it looks like.
But that is not a bad thing. If for instance someone was searching on a topic that had been discussed here then they would get it in the search results.
Aside from being unwantedly outed, what are the other dangers from being easily traceable ? I am easily tracable and have been known to be naive at times.
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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They really depend on you and your circumstances. If you were here as a 12 year old boy the dangers are potentially enormous. As a mature adult they are only potentially commercially damaging if your work would be threatened by it being known that you are gay.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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That makes sense. I can live with that. I just didn't know if there was a point I wasn't considering.
Thanks for the reply.
[Updated on: Tue, 02 October 2007 23:05]
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the sabre and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all
~Phil Ochs "I Aint Marching Anymore"
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ChowanFarmBoy
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 93
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one of the things we have been warned about are "fishers." These are people who spend their lives cruising the Myspace sites and "harvesting" pictures of teenagers. Especiall nice looking guys and girls at the pool or at the beach, when we're in bathing suits and the dudes are shirtless. Then they repost the pictures to gay-oriented websites.
Daniel, Jonathan and I have all taken down our Myspaces, and our Facebooks, and the girls have done the same.
Two of our close friends had some pictures "harvested" and then reposted like this, and went through hell trying to get the webmaster of the site they were on to take them down. They threatened to go to the FBI with the information they were only 16 and then the person got all apologetic and their pictures vanished, but we were wondering how many people saw them.
It's a crazy world.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I guess there are two types of harvesting. I suppose, naively, I hadn't realised that pics on social networks of nubile cute people in skimpy clothing were harvested. I thought there was enough real porn to go around, with volunteers or paid posers.
The phishing (sic) that worries is that were identity is stolen. I had one try aming many this morning: it wanted my full personal details because I had won a non existent lottery.
Dear Lucky Winner,
We are pleased to inform you of the result of the
just concluded annual finaldraws of UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL PROGRAM.
international programs. After this automated computer ballot, your e-
mail address emerged as one of two winners in the category "A" You are
therefore been approve to claim the sum of £1,450,000 (One million,Four
Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling) with the information below:
Secret pin code x7pwyz2005
Serial number 5368/02
REF No:
UK/9420X2/68
TICKET No: 56475600545188
BATCH No: 074/05/ZY369
LUCKY
No: 887-13-865-37-10-83
Email:info_lotteryclaimsagentofficers@yahoo.
co.uk
Email:info_lotteryclaimsagentofficers@yahoo.co.uk
Contact
Person: Mr.Donald Wilson
Tel: + 44-7031-966-287
(1.) FULL NAME
(2.)
FULL ADDRESS
(3)NATIONALITY
(4) DATE OF BIRTH
(5) OCCUPATION
(6)
TELEPHONE NUMBER
(7) SEX
Sincerely,
Mrs. Cecilia Moore
For UK NATIONAL
LOTTERY.
But, if we post our details in plan sight then people can do it without even bothering to get us to be stupid and reply
[Updated on: Wed, 03 October 2007 06:58]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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This is a variation on the "Nigerian" scam.
timmy wrote:
Contact Person: Mr.Donald Wilson
Tel: + 44-7031-966-287
I once used the contact telephone number. I had been informed that I had won hundreds of millions of Euros in the Spanish national lottery. The phone number was in Germany and the person who answered had a distinctly mid-African accent. The moment I mentioned the word "police" they slammed down the receiver.
DATE OF BIRTH
They need this information to know whether you are old enough to have a bank account.
OCCUPATION
They need to know this to have some idea of how much there is likely to be in said account.
TELEPHONE NUMBER
They need this in order to be able to contact you. They will ask for your bank account details so that they can transfer the money. If you are foolish enough to give them the information they most certainly WILL transfer the money - out of your account into theirs.
We have been warned.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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That is why I never have put pictures of myself online that I don't mind the world seeing. But I am quite open, even when I was 16-17 and there were some pictures of myself I didn't mind other people seeing. It's important to keep safe, but also important to understand the risk and not over react. If you are informed, you are empowered. Very few paedophiles I've heard of go so far as to break into someone's home. Stalker paedophiles, while a risk, are less of a one than people you actually know. If you know what you want, you know what to refuse.
Full names, ages and addresses shouldn't be posted in a single public venue, unless you want anyone and everyone to be capable of knowing that. But remember- most people in your daily face-to-face contact are able to find out a substantial amount about you, too. The biggest risks aren't online, but the risks are still present.
Be alert, but not alarmed. Be informed and you'll be empowered and make smart decisions.
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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jack
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Likes it here |
Location: England
Registered: September 2006
Messages: 304
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Hi Timmy,
I know you jumped on this one quickly, but may i ask why you did not delete the posts that gave too much private information, and then email those that had potentially exposed their private details.
On the other hand all the information could have been false or a means of testing how far you would let things go.
life is to enjoy.
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I know Timmy has our best interest a heart and wants to protect us. Especially us younger ones. If someone wants my full name they only have to go to my yahoo mail. How much info I give out is my business. I dont believe Timmy would interfere cause it is a personal choice and would be to much like censoship.
Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you......
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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The answer is simple, and two part.
First, search engines tend to have a 2-3 week delay (in general) before they pick up the contents of this site, so there was time in hand (0.9 probability).
Second I am an absolute believer in the individual's right to be an "idiot on purpose", so, since there was time on our side, I let it run, knowing that individuals would be able to make a free and informed choice. We have no idiots. We just had uninformed people previously who are now informed.
I am an advisor, not a nanny, you see.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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I for one am grateful that this board exists and there are mentor-like adults here for guys like me. We might not always agree, but that's life.
So do we younger dudes get good-do-bee stars for editing our posts?
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Re: Ok..... This is whats going to happen...... 
To add another concern... 
