Keeping Safe With Online Profiles

[JustAskJulie]

I was having a discussion with a couple last night that was bothered by some things they had learned about online profiles (and security/privacy) that I wanted to share. While, I know about these issues and I've shared it here before in relation to how you use this site, I want to share these issues in relation to how you may use ad sites.

External Profiles - are available to non-registered members. If you have an external profile activated, take a look at it (while logged out) and see what shows up. What pictures are available to those users who are not registered? Are non-registered/logged in viewers able to see more about you than you are comfortable with?

This is also important to consider if you add swinger info to pages like MySpace, Yahoo or AOL profiles - which I would not advise to begin with.

Even after you've changed things in your external profile (or even deactivated it), the profile (or previous version of the profile, including pictures) will still show up on Google. Google when it views a page caches it (meaning it stores it on its own server). You can view cached version of these pages by clicking the "cache" link on the Google result. This is helpful in some instances because if a page is moved or an article deleted and you still want to find it, it's often still available through Google. But, when it comes to our privacy and information, it's not so great... because your info is still out there even after you've changed/removed it, if someone decides to look.

Free Search - Swing Lifestyle (and some other sites) have a free search available to non-registered users. The idea behind it is that if someone searches and finds a lot of people near them, they are more likely to register their own profile. You can remove yourself from showing up in this search. ON Swing Lifestyle (I just checked) it only shows the search results (which includes the mini version of your primary picture, ages, interests). The user has to register in order to actually see the profile. Not so bad, but if you are worried about who can see you, you may want to consider what picture you have set as your default picture.

I'm sure there are other issues that some of you can think of, but I did want to share these to start as they were ones that came up last night in our discussion.

[two4youinswva]

Really good stuff here. Some folks just don't realize how easy it is for the info to get out. Once it gets out it's

Originally Posted by JustAskJulie

This is also important to consider if you add swinger info to pages like MySpace, Yahoo or AOL profiles - which I would not advise to begin with.

I agree with this. If you want to find an old school chum or a vanilla friend, go to a social networking site. That's where those folks hang out. If you want to find swingers, go to a swingers' site. That's where we hang out.
I would also advise against using Craigslist. It's good for picking up a cheap lawnmower, but that's about the only swapping I'd try on there. Leave Craigslist to the married guys looking to meet another guy in the local park.

[CXXC]

One of the things I have done in my career as a computer geek is to give Internet Safety classes to parents. I really didnt care so much about them as much as I worried aobut the kids and that was my concentration.

I wouls show these parents just how easy it was to gather informaiton from their posts and pretty much discover who they were and EVEN where they lived.

The LS is no different when you think aobut it. People post all sorts of things about where they live, what they do and who they know. Even a pet's name can link you to an individual. (Prooved that to a bunch of children in a chat class I held)

Be ambiguous! Dont post facial photos unless you dont care who sees them. Most iomportantly, BE VERY careful about the information you give in blogs, posts and profiles. It only takes a few unintentional words to let the "Cat" out of the bag.

[SW_PA_Couple]

Yes, it's in the Tools Menu, Profile Privacy Features page:

The Mini Search is the small search form on the home page. This allows visitors, that do not have an account yet, to perform a search of our members. We hope this will help more visitors decide to create a profile of their own.

If you have turned off this so-called feature, you will see this message at the bottom of the page:

Your profile is currently configured to be EXCLUDED from these searches.

I try to stay aware that all of my posts here at Swingersboard are visible to people not registered as members. And from any one of these posts a link can be used that opens our Swing Lifestyle external profile. We have the consequence of being recognized from our primary profile picture.

It is good, Julie, that you make people aware of this.

~M

[two4youinswva]

Originally Posted by CXXC

One of the things I have done in my career as a computer geek is to give Internet Safety classes to parents. I really didnt care so much about them as much as I worried aobut the kids and that was my concentration.

I would show these parents just how easy it was to gather informaiton from their posts and pretty much discover who they were and EVEN where they lived.

On another (vanilla) forum I used to frequent, one member didn't like it because people wouldn't use their "real names" on the board. He thought their security concerns were silly and invalid. This board tends to have an older membership, many of which are retired.
It took me about 5 minutes to figure out his exact address, phone number, and his wife's name. I PM'd the info to him, and let him know this is why people don't use their "real names". Too much information in the wrong hands could be a bad thing.
He dropped the subject at that point.

[CXXC]

Originally Posted by two4youinswva

On another (vanilla) forum I used to frequent, one member didn't like it because people wouldn't use their "real names" on the board. He thought their security concerns were silly and invalid. This board tends to have an older membership, many of which are retired.
It took me about 5 minutes to figure out his exact address, phone number, and his wife's name. I PM'd the info to him, and let him know this is why people don't use their "real names". Too much information in the wrong hands could be a bad thing.
He dropped the subject at that point.

My point exactly! Some people simply dont get it, until it is pushed in their faces.

My method with parents was to have their children sit on computers in a separate room and use the systems to chat on a closed chat I had created. Just by asking a few simple quesitons, I got all the information I needed. Scared the hell out of some of the parents. Others thought it would never happen to them.

FOOLS!

[good times]

I would ad that people should keep in mind that if you upload a picture on the internet, to an ad site or anywhere else, it can and will be saved to the computers of complete strangers and often shared without your knowledge on totally unrelated web sites. Also keep in mind that your "private pictures" on ad sites are not really private. Many people can see them whom you haven't given permission to.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by good times

Also keep in mind that your "private pictures" on ad sites are not really private. Many people can see them whom you haven't given permission to.

Can you expand on that a bit?

[good times]

Originally Posted by JustAskJulie

Can you expand on that a bit?

Sure, anyone who administers the site can see your pictures. Most sites have people who moderate the pictures separate from the administration staff. For example, Swing Lifestyle lets anyone with a lifetime membership moderate profile pictures, I believe that includes private pictures, but wouldn't swear to it.

In the past I have been involved with the running of some picture sharing sites. I was always amazed at how many pictures were posted that the posters got from dating sites. Most of those sites have some scheme to inhibit folks from saving the pictures to the computer, but frankly, those measures only work on the honest folks. Picture collectors aren't slowed down a bit. The bottom line is, if it appears on your screen, it can be saved and reposted elsewhere.

So, if discretion is important to you.

Keep the face pictures private. A few people that you don't know about can still see them, but in most cases they have it in their best interest not to betray your trust.

Don't have any faces on nude pictures, crop the face out or hide the face in a photo editor. This makes the pictures less desirable for picture collectors.

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by good times

Sure, anyone who administers the site can see your pictures. Most sites have people who moderate the pictures separate from the administration staff. For example, Swing Lifestyle lets anyone with a lifetime membership moderate profile pictures, I believe that includes private pictures, but wouldn't swear to it.

In the past I have been involved with the running of some picture sharing sites. I was always amazed at how many pictures were posted that the posters got from dating sites. Most of those sites have some scheme to inhibit folks from saving the pictures to the computer, but frankly, those measures only work on the honest folks. Picture collectors aren't slowed down a bit. The bottom line is, if it appears on your screen, it can be saved and reposted elsewhere.

So, if discretion is important to you.

Keep the face pictures private. A few people that you don't know about can still see them, but in most cases they have it in their best interest not to betray your trust.

Don't have any faces on nude pictures, crop the face out or hide the face in a photo editor. This makes the pictures less desirable for picture collectors.

I thought that might be what you were referring to, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something.

[Speed & Trixie]

On Facebook, you can see photo albums of people even when you "must be a friend to view this person's profile." All you need is a pic from another album where that person has been "tagged" (which then provides a link).

And you can see everyone's list of friends, whether YOU are their "friend" or not. So it would be easy to go through the list and see who has a public profile, then get into their albums...

I've been on Facebook twice, ever! Let's recall I'm also the person who could not find the "advanced search" button on THIS message board LOL!

Just think what a more internet-literate person could do...

Trixie

[JustAskJulie]

Originally Posted by Speed & Trixie

On Facebook, you can see photo albums of people even when you "must be a friend to view this person's profile." All you need is a pic from another album where that person has been "tagged" (which then provides a link).

And you can see everyone's list of friends, whether YOU are their "friend" or not. So it would be easy to go through the list and see who has a public profile, then get into their albums...

I've been on Facebook twice, ever! Let's recall I'm also the person who could not find the "advanced search" button on THIS message board LOL!

Just think what a more internet-literate person could do...

Trixie

I noticed that last night. There's a section on your page where it shows the most recent updates from your friends. I clicked on a picture and it opened an album... that I initially thought was theirs - but no, it was just one they had commented on in one of their other friends albums.

There are privacy settings on FB that you can set to determine who can view your info, your friends list, your wall posts, etc, but I don't think your pictures/albums are one of those things that has a privacy setting (odd). I've pretty much set mine so that EVERYTHING there's an option for is set to friend only (the default is friends/friends of friends & network - anyone in your area).

[CXXC]

Here is a little advice from a computer geek who spent a quite a bit of time as an internet security agent.

If you post it, they will see. It is that simple. There is NO SUCH THING as privacy on the internet. There are security measures one can take to avoid certain pictures or posts from falling into the hands of certain individuals. However, as the internet is not 100% autonomous nor un-manned, the probability of someone else seeing your photos or posts is quite high.

Ok, now that I have frightened everybody, let me explain the why’s, how’s and what not’s.

As each site is housed on a server, that server is kept in a room and accessed by individuals who maintain and keep things running smoothly. These individuals also have complete access to what is placed upon these servers. This is possible leak number one! These individuals may simply copy the images to another medium and collect them as they desire. You would never know.

Images posted on sites have virtually NO copy protection at all! Sure, you may not be able to right click and “save as” but you can do a print screen, cut and paste the image you desire as a new image and you have what was once thought of as a safe image. This is possible leak number two!

Chat sessions can also be logged. You may not be saving your chat sessions on your system but they are being saved at the host site. These can be posted by the admin or individuals running the sites. Also, yahoo, google, AIM, ICQ, IRC, to name a few, chat utilities enable the end user to keep chat logs on their systems. Even if you are not saving this information, the person on the other end might be. This is possible leak number three.

Google searches have also proven to be the bane to our lifestyle profiles and images. Do a Google search on your lifestyle name. Check out the links of your posts, possible images and the like. You will be AMAZED at what is actually recorded! Much of what is posted can be kept in cache for future viewing. So, don’t be surprised to find yourself on a Google search even after you have closed that account. This is possible leak number four.

Now for the educations!!!!

If you don’t want to be recognized, DON’T put your face or any recognizable attributes in the photos. Faces, individually crafted body modifications, specific backgrounds and other individuals will enable others to identify you with ease. Blur these items, cut them our, paste other things over them, or simply crop the items in question from the image.

NEVER USE YOUR REAL NAMES!!!! Janice Jones would not have a leg to defend if she used her real name as her swinger’s profile. So much information is given on your profile. Your last name and a zip code is all that is needed to link you! Other information such as local clubs, certain groups and even activities can be enough information for a good “detective” to discover you! Don’t lie, just don’t give out too much personal info. Illnesses, deaths, births, graduations from specific schools, community activities and the like will link you to a specific town. The rest is fairly simply research to discover who you really are.

In blogs or posts, the naming of others will also cause you to be linked. If you mention other individuals screen names, you have linked yourself to the individual and with a little detective work, you can be discovered still.

Folks, it is all about keeping yourself safe from stalkers, bosses, family members or friends. The best way to stay clear of these issues is to keep identifiable items from linking you (the Vanilla you) to the lifestyle. Be safe, be smart and most of all, have fun. But remember, not everyone on any lifestyle site is who they say they are. There are people out there hell bent and determined to expose us all if there is a profit to be made or a way to elevate themselves in society. We have read too many stories of being outted! Lets not give them any more cannon fodder!

That is all from the computer geek!

[dodgechevy]

Originally Posted by good times

Sure, anyone who administers the site can see your pictures. Most sites have people who moderate the pictures separate from the administration staff. For example, Swing Lifestyle lets anyone with a lifetime membership moderate profile pictures, I believe that includes private pictures, but wouldn't swear to it.

In the past I have been involved with the running of some picture sharing sites. I was always amazed at how many pictures were posted that the posters got from dating sites. Most of those sites have some scheme to inhibit folks from saving the pictures to the computer, but frankly, those measures only work on the honest folks. Picture collectors aren't slowed down a bit. The bottom line is, if it appears on your screen, it can be saved and reposted elsewhere.

So, if discretion is important to you.

Keep the face pictures private. A few people that you don't know about can still see them, but in most cases they have it in their best interest not to betray your trust.

Don't have any faces on nude pictures, crop the face out or hide the face in a photo editor. This makes the pictures less desirable for picture collectors.

Having a lifetime membership, you get a choice of selecting the ability to approve either Public pictures or the Gallery pictures. Private pics are only approved by staff I believe.

[ktimephoenix]

Originally Posted by two4youinswva

On another (vanilla) forum I used to frequent, one member didn't like it because people wouldn't use their "real names" on the board. He thought their security concerns were silly and invalid. This board tends to have an older membership, many of which are retired.
It took me about 5 minutes to figure out his exact address, phone number, and his wife's name. I PM'd the info to him, and let him know this is why people don't use their "real names". Too much information in the wrong hands could be a bad thing.
He dropped the subject at that point.

but all this "security is a moot point really. for one you have to have a reason for people to want to "hurt you"... secondly, anything you dig up on the net is either part of the public record (observable to anyone if their interested enough) or you've decided to put out there anyway...