Don't tell your life story on the internets!

[Auntie]

I knew many of you are internet savvy but I just ran across something on another site that really bothered me so I thought I would share the incident.

I use another website for home and garden advice. The search function is archaic so people often Google user names to find a post in the site. This morning I Googled a user name to find a post. I didn't get that many hits but I was shocked to see how much I could find out about this person from her user name. I got the results that I was searching for plus hits on an acne board, a weight loss board, a health board and a travel board!

We all know that nothing on the net is private. I was still surprised how shockingly easy it was to find out a tremendous amount of personal information about this woman without even trying. Be smart about user names, especially when posting sensitive information!

[Stormy]

Good advice...an example of how common sense is not always so common. That's why I like "Stormy" since it's so generic.

[BaileyCatts]

I did that once and actually found ANOTHER "BaileyCatts" posting on a board, and it wasn't me! My name is 'Bailey' (my kitty) 'Catts' (cause he was, well, u know .... a ! Plus I hit the "t" twice, but I called him my little Baileycatts all da time. Way too strange there is another BaileyCatts out there posting on boards.

[PDilemma]

I was still surprised how shockingly easy it was to find out a tremendous amount of personal information about this woman without even trying. Be smart about user names, especially when posting sensitive information!

I don't use the same user name across boards.

But...here's a question: did you find out her real name or where she lives?

Because without that info, it's really not so bad.

And if she spills that much all over the web, she might be the sort of person who doesn't care who knows. Some people spill all that info in real life. My sister-in-law tells everyone who wanders into her business endless details about her personal life and doesn't seem to care that the whole town knows every detail about her health, relationships, finances, etc...

[dbell1]

I'm apparently a professor and a fencing (sport, not stockade) expert. I'm also in New Zealand and looking for women? I did find a few things that were me. You can tell I'm a coffee drinker and owned a Subaru.

[MacMadame]

Until recently I was the only MacMadame anywhere on the entire interwebz. But now there is one on Twitter. Damn her.

[Mozart]

I suppose if I googled my username I would get lots of hits

[professordeb]

I googled mine and came up with someone who gives advice regarding online credit and two of my posts here at FSU made the first page!

[Squibble]

I am an octopus-like android.

[briancoogaert]

Well, are you sure this is the same person behind this username ?

[AliasJohnDoe]

My username in google brings up a lot of court cases. None are mine of course.

[KatieC]

Apparently there's lots of me, but none are me. At least the first 5 pages. It would creep me out to see all that information about me on the net.