How good is your privacy on the internet and why?

[cori]

Hola!

Basically my friend just showed me how much he could find out about me on the internet using just my name.

This includes:
-Basics: where I live, my birthday, appearance, voice
-My thoughts/opinions (blog/youtube) this one is sort of self inflicted but I was hoping I could keep it secret from people I know irl sort of like hannah montana/miley cyrus (I hate having to use that example)
-My favourite websites on the internet (online bookmarks)
-My hobbies/interests (e.g what sports I play, what books I've read, what languages I speak, favourite movies/quotes etc.)

All I can say is that I'm thoroughly freaked out and I'm currently doing this huge cleaning/deleting thing where I try to wipe away my digital footprint as best I can. Although I question my natural response to tell random people on the internet about this, hmm.

So basically what I'm wondering is how good are your privacy settings? Are you the type to give out information about yourself freely or are you someone who prefers to hide in their anonymity? In fact, what would people find if they googled you and does that matter to you?

 

[Timotei]

My biggest risks are when I use my first name, which is rare, otherwise I just put "S S" in the name fields of sites. My name seems to be shared by another girl in New York and another in Germany, but nothing appears on me appears in a Google search.

I also don't have any social media accounts, unless you consider Steam a "social media for gamers". I also use a VPN (disabled at the moment because my ISP is run by fucking criminals who did something to cut my internet when using it), use Firefox with HTTPS Everywhere and a lot of other privacy tool installed.

 

[Scarim Coral]

As far as I know, no one seen to connect the dots from my profile on here to my Facebook account (however I do got my setting on there to friend only) eventhought I told my brother I am a member of this site.
Even then despite some hints I had provided on my whereabout on here, no one (I think) know where I exactly lived well one person got it close. Granted I don't think anyone cares or bother enough to know where I lived (or maybe they keep it a secret from me).

 

[Greg White]

I have almost no presence online, it seems. Aside from some older info, my facebook doesn't have much that would indicate me as me since I don't use my full name and everything online only has usernames and nicknames listed.

5 years of 'what to do before a deployment' briefs seem to have paid off.

Overall though, not very good by some people's estimate since the Fed has license to monitor me until 10 years after I die, but I knew what I was signing up for.

 

[TechNoFear]

And you would be amazed at the number of employers who google / check social media accounts of prospective employees.

 

[Euryalus]

Well, my real name is as common as anything.
If you google it, you get a photographer, a rugby league player, an ice hockey player, and a saxophonist. None of which are me.

I will now forever picture you as a hockey playing saxophonist.

OT: Everything I do to remain kind of private is ruined by my airheaded sister, so I've just accepted that serial killers can find out where I live if they want.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, I have an old fashion security system, I don't put information about me on the net.

OTOH, if you google me, you can tell I have some stuff to pick up from GW.

 

[Padwolf]

Mine is pretty good. Just using my name alone you can only find my old address, no phone numbers and no trace of my current address. It also seems to be a common enough name, and out of all of them none of my things came up on the first or second pages of the google search. But then I don't really use my real name for much of anything on the internet wherever I can avoid it. A search of my username, however, gets up my league of legends account on the first page and not much else.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

Just by Googling my name you get a pornstar

I think that a majority of people would stop looking by then with the prospect of being distracted by titties so yeah

I only really post my name on websites and I only really swap numbers with people if we talk for a while

Snippy Dippy Doo

Yaknowwhatimean?

 

[Euryalus]

Just by Googling my name you get a pornstar

I think that a majority of people would stop looking by then with the prospect of being distracted by titties so yeah

I only really post my name on websites and I only really swap numbers with people if we talk for a while

Snippy Dippy Doo

Yaknowwhatimean?

About the titties? Yes... Yes I do.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Googling me turns out my past addresses, but that's pretty much it. I used to care a lot about this kind of thing (VPN, using TOR, Peerblock, and a barrage of browser plugins that aren't the "A" word), but lately I don't put near as much effort into it. I have no profitable domain that would destroy me if it were DDOS'd, I've not angered anyone in RL enough that I'm concerned about them finding me, and my government is clearly capable of finding out whatever the hell they want no matter what I do. The only thing that really freaks me out is my smartphone, but the only consequence of that is that it freaks me out.

 

[alandavidson]

Well, considering that I WANT people to find me and know who I am, I would say that my "privacy" is non-existent.

A quick google search will reveal my website, Facebook, Twitter, and numerous ways to contact me. So, yeah. Have fun??

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No privacy at all, I write for two websites and sign articles with my full name. I think one of them also shows my e-mail. And my profile here shows my picture and links to my FB page, so...

EDIT: Ooooooh also I'm on www.goodreads.com, which shows my book, which scores a lot of hits for my name, even if most of them are just reblogs of the same two or three pages.

 

[Zeraki]

Many years ago I looked up my own name on Google just to see what would pop up. I found a site that had the addresses and social security numbers of every single member of my family listed where anyone could see them. Needless to say, after that I knew there was no such thing as privacy on the internet.

EDIT

Luckily I can't find that site anymore, but it doesn't change the fact that it was out there. I don't even use my real name on the internet. A Google search will still bring up my home address though.

 

[Total LOLige]

I've googled my full(uncommon) name and I can't find any of my social networking accounts, I stopped looking after 10 pages. I didn't find my phone number or ast addresses. I'm under the radar wooohoo.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

looked up my name and even looked up my name with my state as well in the search and I did not find any pictures or websites directing to me so I feel like I'm flying under the radar pretty well. Although I am not too surprised since I have a fairly normal name, don't use social networking sites and have not posted a picture of myself online in many years.

 

[JoJo]

If you type in my full name, you can find a few details like my old school, university, a picture of my face... assuming you can tell me apart from the other ten or more people who share my first and last name of course. I don't see a problem with that, I don't give away enough information to steal my identity or stalk me and anything that employers could disapprove of is posted under a pseudonym like this account XD

 

[FPLOON]

Besides my Facebook(?) page, all you'll find when you search my "full" name is [various] pictures of white dudes, real gravestones of deceased people, and ponies... Go further and you'll find [various] pictures of knives...

If you use my username instead, you'll find both ponies and memes...

Yeah... I'm nothing more than a computer alias that may or may not exist in real life... (I feel like there's a Ghost in the Shell reference around here somewhere...)