Avatars, online personas and suchlike

[mimitabby]

It looks like her though.

[lph]

Next Oslo trip, btw, will be Dec. 3-4. Maybe a mini-TE gathering at a coffee shop somewhere?

Hey, this could be fun, if we could manage to meet for a coffee. I work at Majorstua, but on the 4th I have a dr.s appointment at Aker Brygge so I'll be biking down there and back around 1-2 pm. Send me a PM if you're anywhere nearby.

[Trek420]

I have trouble coming up with creative stuff, like names. On the other hand, when I've Googled my name - I could be me, here in the Big Easy, or a wine grower in California (not me). Maybe I could switch places with the other BMcCasland?

I just Googled my first and middle name and came up with my own homepage, the part with family bio, family tree (helloooo vacation in Monaco!! ), archived donation pages for rides I've been on, rides I've donated to .... oh well. So much for the anonymity of the internet

[mimitabby]

yeah, but YOU know your middle name, I don't.

[Duck on Wheels]

They just did a story about on-line privacy issues on the bbc the other week. They showed just how easy it is to steal someones personality with the information they found on facebook and then open bank accounts/loans/credit cards. All they needed was name, address, birthdate and in some instances mother's maiden name. All of which they accessed within minutes and were able to open a credit card account on line within seconds. I'm not so worried about people tracking me down for my opinions or stalking me for whatever reson. But I do worry a bit about people stealing my identity to fraudulently rack up debt in my name. Especially after I had my credit card details stolen last year and someone had a nice holiday in Morocco on my card. Luckily the bank believed me that time and the charges were dropped from my account.

Yikes! And you never told us about this It happened to me too a few years back. Somebody copied my credit card info, I think when I paid for several people's lunch at the Ritz Carlton in Berlin, of all places. They then used the card info to buy €35,000.- worth of phone cards. I hadn't even seen this on my bill yet when the card company called me and asked whether I'd actually bought all that phone time, since it was something I'd never bought before. The charge never did appear on my bill, but I had to sign a form agreeing to appear as a witness if they ever arrested somebody for the crime. And now I have a credit company doing checks on me on behalf of my publisher because somebody hacked the computer with all their royalties information and could have stolen all their authors' identities and bank information. So yes, this is a real problem, and probably a bigger risk than stalking for most of us.

[Dianyla]

I tend to be somewhat cautious about my online personas. The main details I always protect are my real name, address, place of employment, location of school and list of classes currently attending, basically any clues that would allow someone to identify my current whereabouts and stalk me in person. Other details that I generally avoid mentioning as a matter of personal taste/preference are things like names of friends, family members, and revealing too much personal opinion. Hey, people have been fired due to employers finding their blogs, you never know! When it comes to this forum, it seems like overkill sometimes. However, another forum I am active on unfortunately tends to draw a fair share of lurking fetishists/perverts so I am very cautious no matter where I am.

My profile picture isn't of me, but it's exactly what I look like nekkid.

[bmccasland]

Speaking of trying to be anonymous on the internet - there's an SESer (Senior Executive Staff) that's currently in our office who used to body build professionally. And for some reason, DKA thought no-one would find the web site! She looks down right freaky, and "of course" all muscle gain was natural, and voice change, what voice change? It's really hard to take her seriously. Fortunately I'm low enough that I don't have to interact with her.

[Trek420]

yeah, but YOU know your middle name, I don't.

But if I just Google (and since when is that a verb?) my first name I get links to a German porn star

[Mr. Bloom]

My persona is "me"...but I'm still careful with that. If I google "me", I'm all over the internet:

• Full Name: 14 hits including public filings that reveal my income for the world to see , membership on the board of a national organization, and other bona fides and accomplishments
• Casual Name: Fortunately, there are about five other folks in america with the same casual name...two attorney's, a business owner, a disney imagineer, and a basketball player. So, they have stuff that dilutes the ease of "finding me". But, if you know what you're looking for, you'll easily find residuals of our family website (even though I've taken it offline), the non-profit boards I'm on, non-business press releases that I didn't know I was quoted in , church committees I served on 10 years ago!, and directions to our house

So, by going through this exercise, I'm convinced that privacy is something that requires ACTIVE PROTECTION, since plenty will happen WITHOUT ANY EFFORT.

[kelownagirl]

My persona is "me"...but I'm still careful with that. If I google "me", I'm all over the internet:

• Full Name: 14 hits including public filings that reveal my income for the world to see , membership on the board of a national organization, and other bona fides and accomplishments
• Casual Name: Fortunately, there are about five other folks in america with the same casual name...two attorney's, a business owner, a disney imagineer, and a basketball player. So, they have stuff that dilutes the ease of "finding me". But, if you know what you're looking for, you'll easily find residuals of our family website (even though I've taken it offline), the non-profit boards I'm on, non-business press releases that I didn't know I was quoted in , church committees I served on 10 years ago!, and directions to our house

So, by going through this exercise, I'm convinced that privacy is something that requires ACTIVE PROTECTION, since plenty will happen WITHOUT ANY EFFORT.

I googled "Mr. Silver" and got all kinds of info!

[Mr. Bloom]

I googled "Mr. Silver" and got all kinds of info!

Yeah, but did you google my full name: Mr. Golden Sterling Silver, IV

Did you know that Silver's first name is "Hi Yo"...?

[boy in a kilt]

I don't have a picture because I hate having my picture taken. Gir likes having his picture taken so I used his.

I don't use my real name because I don't want to. Might be hearing from Bruno about my name sounding like an Irish fish and chips Pub or something.

If I google my name, I get two or three hits that relate to me, all of which relates to some research I did in college and a paper I co-wrote (both are painfully boring).

As far as stealing my identity, the US Government has done more to ensure that happens than anything I can possibly manage. At some point, government carelessness has enabled the theft of records containing my entire military record up to 2006 and my employment info while I was a federal employee. If someone got their hands on that, they could re-create me better than I could.

[Zen]

You mean that isn't you playing the accordian? I'm crestfallen.

Before Surgery, (or BS)

Yeah, but did you google my full name: Mr. Golden Sterling Silver, IV

Did you know that Silver's first name is "Hi Yo"...?

I thought your real name was Max Power.

[sgtiger]

When I've googled my name, I didn't find anything about me. Surprisingly, I'm not the only one with my name in the U.S. though.

[HappyAnika]

Googling my maiden name comes up with a few things about me, mostly academic. Googling my married name comes up with nothing about me in the first 10 pages, all other people with the same name. I had a very unique maiden name, not so unique married name (and it's only two letters off from a very, very, very famous actress, so Google asks "Did you mean blank blank?").

I'm cautious with my real name, address, date of birth, place of employment, for stalking/ ID theft purposes. Personal stuff I'm careful of in terms of prospective employers. Googling potential job candidates is becoming very common, and I don't want anything on the web that could be construed as a negative against me when job searching.