The Internet and the Death of Privacy

[Julie]

If I visit someone's profile - I am there and have no issue having them know.
If someone visits mine - I think it's nice. They are thinking of me (good or bad).
This is the internet and only those who are registered can visit. Whether they are who they say they are - is of no consequence to me - those who are *faux* will always be found and seen.

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Medusa

I'd like to hear folk's thoughts about the "Who visited my profile" feature here.

We have that feature as a fun way to see who's looking. It was meant as a "calling card" to say "Hey, Ebon stopped by your profile today!"

We have talked a couple of times about turning the feature completely off when frustrated with complaints like "I feel unsafe that so-and-so looked at my profile".

What do you think? Would you rather know who visited your profile or would you rather wonder about it?

My thought has always been that whatever is in your profile on this site is fairly "public" info, that there isn't really a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Curious what others think!

I like the feature. I see it as a calling card, as well.

I would think that it would actually help with keeping the "would be stalkers", away. People realize that it is kind of creepy to be looking at people's profiles repeatedly if you are not friends with them and leaving them messages.

[Ebon]

How am I supposed to stalk people with that feature on there?

No seriously though I keep my work and personal life seperate and my Facebook is on lockdown. There are only a few people on Facebook that I am friends with at work. I try to keep my facebook down to people that I interact with on at least a weekly basis. I don't like having Facebook friends that I never talk to. I don't understand the point of that.

[Liam]

I enjoy the feature.

[Queerasfck]

OMG! (abbreviation for O My G*d)....I love the feature. It's the only way I get any attention at all from complete strangers as well as my closest most intimate friends.

[The_Lady_Snow]

Originally Posted by June

"Validation through Profile Views"

Prime example of this:

Mr Bent almost 10,000 views

AND there's even a thread about said profile.

[Mister Bent]

Originally Posted by The_Lady_Snow

Prime example of this:

Mr Bent almost 10,000 views

AND there's even a thread about said profile.

Which is precisely why I feel so good about myself.

[The_Lady_Snow]

Originally Posted by Mister Bent

Which is precisely why I feel so good about myself.

8,396 and still going!

[girl_dee]

Regarding the feature, so what if so and so checks out my *page*.. what are they going to see really? Not much more than they would if they looked at any of our posts.. I see names on my page that are strange to me, people I have never seen or spoken to, yet their name appears very very often, but whatever.

ON the other hand I rather put things in place with the attitude that we are all here for healthy interaction and not come from a place to *protect* ourselves from each other. Some people put too much thought into what other people are doing .

What I don't understand is that on this site, what is a benefit of *friending* someone? I don't think there is more info given to our *friends* is there?
And truly, no one should be giving out real names and info anyway.

People think I am trying to hide my life because I have a separate FB account for my close family, nope just trying to keep my private life, private, there is nothing on FB that worries me, except maybe that I named a chicken after Diva, now that is highly confidential information.

[JustJo]

I periodically see that people I don't know have visited my page...and have never thought anything of it. I assume that they're newer members, or perhaps people who are still reading and not posting yet....and that something I have posted has resonated with them somehow.

Or....maybe it's an accidental click...I've done that myself more than once and suddenly found myself on someone's page.

I recently deleted my Facebook pages...both work and personal. It wasn't to do with anyone here...just felt like I wanted to be done with the kinds of input I was getting there...

[Reader]

Originally Posted by puregrrl

I am a therapist, like DapperButch. Because of that and my professional license being of public record, a lot of my information is available when you Google me.

SNIP

As gar as Googling myself, yes, I have done it. I wanted to know what out there is about me. One of the "interesting" things I have found is a woman, with my same name, in the same general area where I grew up, was busted for prostitution. So, people from my past could think it was me as my last name is not common.

I have a thing about privacy in general and internet privacy in particular. I adore that when I google my own name I don't appear, except maybe on the last page. Even then it is usually an address for somewhere I lived years ago. I enjoy "virtually" driving thru towns, as I do in real life, and I think the touring museums thing by google is splendid.

One fantastic thing we have in Jersey is for doctors. You can look up a doctor to see if they are Board Certified, and if they have any malpractice suits. Good to know when choosing a doc.

The net is so great, and it is over 40 years old, but as with most things, the technology is far beyond the ethical sensibilities of the humans who created it...just like nuclear fission. But, I don't want to go on an anti-nuke rant here, so I will now move along. I am indifferent to the feature you all are discussing.

[Random]

I like being able to see who visits me...

You come see me, I'm going to go see you

Then I'm going to see if there is anything of interest to me in what you post and that could lead me to discover a thread that I hadn't noticed before, or someone that has a way with words that makes me want to read more..

I'm a curious kinda femme... I like information..... I like new discoveries...

It's the lazy womans guild to thread stalking..

[Reader]

I think it would be cool to somehow be able to see who has gone into every thread, but I bet it would be a programming nightmare.

[imperfect_cupcake]

I have googled myself. A few years ago it would bring up ONE erotic short story I wrote (about 15 pages in to the search) which used to make me wince; it's not longer there as I think the site has been removed. The rest seemed to prove that women with my name were all either architects or photographers or shoe designers.

When I joined facebook I used a different last name because I work in public service, to ensure employers would not be able to look me up.

as for the rest... I have never filled in forms on line to join anything or any forum etc with my real name. It's always been something silly. I have two email address: one for my emlpoyers or when I look for work or correspond to the government, and one for my daily life. My daily life is a pseudonym, a fun name.

this seems to have taken care of any issues of privacy I might have that would affect employment. the rest I don't really give a shit about.

[ruffryder]

So this topic comes up once again with all the new changes to Facebook. I'm sure you all have opinions. Let's hear it! *bump*bump*bump*

We are all linked to the internet now and the government. Anyone can find us and know what we are doing at any particular time!

So, I'm applying for jobs and the line of work I'm looking at is very public. Everything about me is made public and they want to basically know my life for as far back as it starts, all addresses, friends, acquaintances, aliases, nicknames, websites, etc, etc. So I'm curious as to what they may come across. Low and behold I type in this ID to see what comes up and wow my bfp posts and even the thanks I give to others posts. I was surprised to see this. Because I choose to put myself out there and be a part of this line of work, everything about me should be disclosed. I just sometimes want a bit of privacy especially when it comes to sexual and intimate matters because that shouldn't matter when I apply for a job, but it may to some employers. incredible!

Nothing is safeguarded on the internet anymore and I always hear and must say if you don't want something "shared" on the internet then maybe you should just not post it.

Opinions, comments, perspectives?

[betenoire]

Most of the "Brandy G___" I see on google are people who are not me. Aside from that I see a few hits from the newsletter of the nonprofit I used to work/volunteer for, and a couple of guestbook entries on goth webpages from the 90s. Nothing to see here, carry on.

Originally Posted by Medusa

What do you think? Would you rather know who visited your profile or would you rather wonder about it?

The only thing that I find irritating is that some level's of membership that have the invisibility feature do not show up when they visit people's profiles. I'm all for them being able to have privacy when they are reading the threads - but if they are visiting my profile I like to know. Because for some reason it makes me just about half batshit when I see that the visitor number on my profile has gone up but the names haven't changed.

Also UofMean visits me about 790790870 times a day and she makes me very uncomfortable. When she's not viewing my profile on here she is poking me on facebook. Someone make her stop! (Dear everybody: I am kidding. This is also how rumours get started.)

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Yes. I am such a freak that I didn't even use my dog's real name on his picture here. It is an uncommon name and the one thing a handful of clients know about me is that I have a dog... some of them have asked his name.

I know his real name, I know his real name! *singsong*

Originally Posted by DapperButch

I would think that it would actually help with keeping the "would be stalkers", away. People realize that it is kind of creepy to be looking at people's profiles repeatedly if you are not friends with them and leaving them messages.

Sorry.

[*Anya*]

I just never Googled myself before-real name. At least there are only two of us in the USA but maybe that is not good either.

It is kind of scary. I have been very naive. I did not even know you could sign up on FB with a fake name!

[dixie]

Originally Posted by Anya/Georgia

I just never Googled myself before-real name. At least there are only two of us in the USA but maybe that is not good either.

It is kind of scary. I have been very naive. I did not even know you could sign up on FB with a fake name!

When I type in my regular user name for most sites (which is part of my email addy) most of what comes up is stuff like my eBay page, my YouTube page, Flicker photos, gaycities travel, some product feedback sites I've rated, just regular stuff. However, a couple of b-f dating sites that I used in the past popped up. I'm sure that once I get those deleted they will be gone. Oddly though, someone with my user name is registered as porn. (If I have ever done porn I must have put a huge mental block on it! LOL)

If I put in my real name, all my social sites (fb, twitter, google+, etc) show up, along with my high school alumni stuff.

I'm thinking if I didn't have a pic up on my social sites I could totally deny it was me...lol My reasoning for this: there is a girl who lives in my town with the same exact full name, age and birthday as me. We used to go to the same doctor's office, and they always had a heck of a time trying to keep our records straight.

[Soft*Silver]

I like the feature that allows us to see who was on our profile. It keeps me aware of when exes drop by....lol

[dixie]

For the most part, I keep my social sites on a privacy setting. As for the privacy on those sites, I want to share some things with some people. I just don't want to share EVERYTHING with EVERYONE. I know it's the interwebz and that most anything can be found out despite those settings (depending on how bad whoever wants to know), so I know that I take a risk every time I post anything anywhere. *shrug*