Wondering

[lighter]

I sometimes look to which posts are being viewed. 

When I see Izzy's posts come up, I wonder if her dd is reading them.  Perhaps I's  friend/therapist lead the dd TO the board... so she could get to know her mother, if she wanted to.

A while back I saw SIX pages of viewers looking at the board.   That was a crazy number of viewers popping up seemingly out of the blue.  I meant to ask Doc G if he'd mentioned the board to a room full of colleagues and they popped in for a while.  Or perhaps old board member A pops in with whomever she's posting with to SHOW them how beastly she'd been treated. 

In any case, I do wonder.

Lighter

[Hopalong]

I believe if we hold fast to pseudonyms and avoid identifying info/locations/too much lifestyle detail, we're fine. It's weird, I know, that it's Googleable.

But maybe Doc G can offer some reassurance.

Hopefully,
Hops

[lighter]

I've had to make peace with being stalked.  Here and elsewhere.
Oh well.

Lighter

[sKePTiKal]

Well all the browsers tend to display pages you've visited before when you use certain search terms. That's the history in your browser.

There are also bots that roam freely on the web and look for activity - and on discussion boards show up as "guests" viewing. For the most part - no human is actually looking at the content. So I wouldn't worry much about some nefarious online stalker - unless there was someone IRL that was acting that way too. The purpose of a lot of those bots is just to figure out which online ads to push to you.

These days, EVERYTHING online is vulnerable and the only way to protect your privacy is to not say it or post it onlline. But it was also that way at the beginning - if you had the skills. Not many did back then.

There are those background check websites... and it's fascinating how much information they can collect on a person. Your name, location & address are available via public tax records; Google earth has pictures of your place. Yellow pages can suggest a short list of phone numbers that might be you... and even track down your email address. OPM (Office of Personnel Management - US Gov) was hacked a few years back, and whole lot of people's SS numbers, family info, etc personal information was gleaned there.

But just unplugging and not doing anything online will get you unwanted attention too. And with the virus going around - I've been forced to pay bills online lately. Whoever is the doing the billing isn't getting the paper bills out in time to send in a check. And in some cases - I'm not getting the bills at all. 

That should be my choice, not theirs. And I understand an occasional glitch... but this seems to be recurring, spreading, and way more intentional.

[Dr. Richard Grossman]

Hi everybody,

The vast majority (typically 80 to 90% or more) of "guests" online on the message board at any one time are search engines from around the world.  I can tell by looking up their IP addresses.  But if you feel you are being stalked because of a post you wrote, please let me know!

Richard

[Hopalong]

Whew. It's only the Russians or the Chinese. Or the Iranians. It's the Bottians.
I am positive they're uninterested in me, or they'd have sent flowers by now. That's reassuring, Doc G, that most "guests" are not lurking stranger-readers, but bot programs.

I just don't have room for this particular fear. I don't censor myself much on this board because it's sooooo valuable and healing for me. (VESMB is an essential worker!) I do think not identifying names and locations or sharing too many specifics about where we work or our real estate is wise and my preference is to be vague about these things here--relationships and things learned, but not a whole ton of detail. (Though I've done it several times, it's also not a good idea to talk a lot about travels until you're back, because if anybody nefarious WAS reading you here, they might get motivated to tweak out your address for a robbery.) But that's about it. I guess I think clever robbers have much better targets than my wee house. And I had a housesitter while I was gone. Otherwise, I guess I've been sharing my bellybutton lint with the universe, and I'm content about it. So be it. It's worth it. ESPECIALLY during such an isolating time.

I hope you feel more at ease about this now, CB and Lighter, knowing about the Bottians.

hugs
Hops

[lighter]

Thanks for expalining the high traffic being bots, Doc.  That explains that.

And, I already know who's stalking me here.  I hear about it, and know.

Lighter