Are you concerned about guests on this board

I used to have and was Webhost of my Seniors' site a few years back, and Guest visitors had no Access to profiles and could not post either, it is just how the owner and administration set it up, maybe the admin could/would enlighten us?
 

I have more 'freaky' stuff going on with my iPhone than my computer....I'm constantly getting text wanting me to click on this or that, sometime in the middle of the night.
 
Mike said:
I was discussing something with a friend in a coffee shop
before Christmas, when I got home and went to Amazon,
the item we were discussing was on the opening page of
the site. My phone was in my pocket, but his was on the
table, it had to be listening and knew who I was etc
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Same happened to me
Discussing something on the street corner with my bud, in front of the house
I didn't have my phone but he had his
Got on the laptop about an hour later
There it was
What was weird, was his phone was the only one within 30 feet
 

Mike said:
I wouldn't worry about information on the net, we
can't do anything to stop the spread, unless we stop
having computers,

Google are the masters, they gather information about
each of us from all over the net, anywhere they find out
more information, it is put into your file, yes they probably
have a folder for each of us.

I was discussing something with a friend in a coffee shop
before Christmas, when I got home and went to Amazon,
the item we were discussing was on the opening page of
the site. My phone was in my pocket, but his was on the
table, it had to be listening and knew who I was etc.

The machines are watching.

Mike.
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I was once watching a YouTube video on how to set up a machine I had just bought and partway through, a message came up on the tablet asking if I would prefer to watch it on my TV and, sure enough, when I clicked "yes", my tv switched on and played the rest of the tutorial! Freaky but, kind of groovy at the same time :) ;)
 
I think that seniors in general are favored targets of scammers, in part because some of us are less tech savvy and more trusting. At least every other week I get a scam sent to my e-mail; yesterday someone claimed that a Google Pixel had been charged to my PayPal account, and they wanted payment! I’m sly, so I checked my PayPal, and no such activity was recorded. Another scam foxed out and ignored, after reporting it.

Most folks here are good people who exercise discretion, but I’m amazed at how much personal information people routinely disclose on Facebook and similar sites, making them a scammer’s paradise!
 
I'm not concerned about guests here. As a guest, interaction on the board, including viewing member profiles is very limited. Forum articles can be read but not responded to without becoming a member. I think it's good that guests can see what types of content is posted here and the decide if they'd like to participate or be content to remain a guest. One can always sign out and view the forum themselves to experience what a guest experiences. Guests don't seem suspicious or nefarious to me.
 
As far as keeping personal information to yourself, well, that horse left the barn a long time ago. If you have a driver's license, that information is available to anybody, who pays the state DOT for it. Your buying habits are well known. Local property tax info is readily available. Also what kind of car you drive. Any information about you collected by a business can be sold. That doesn't mean you don't have to be careful when using social media, but if someone wanted to know about you, cash works wonders. I don't think I would worry too much about bots gleaning info , which is most probably already known.
 
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If you Google your name, information comes up. Even relatives that I have never posted online. How this works, I don't know. But yes, it's hard to be anonymous these days.

On the forum, I'm not worried. I put my state only publicly and don't want to say exactly what I do for a living.
 
I may be wrong, but I am not sure that unregistered guests are able to see personal profiles of members, That being said, I agree with someone who posted above me to be careful of what personal info we post on these forums, or FB, Too many not very nice people out there

Also, I remind people to report posts or new members who are simply here to attempt to scam people
 
fuzzybuddy said:
As far as keeping personal information to yourself, well, that horse left the barn a long time ago. If you have a driver's license, that information is available to anybody, who pays the state DOT for it. Your buying habits are well known. Local property tax info is readily available. Also what kind of car you drive. Any information about you collected by a business can be sold. That doesn't mean you don't have to be careful when using social media, but if someone wanted to know about you, cash works wonders.
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True! And then you can buy access. Worked with a woman who bought into a online detective site and looked up people.

Also criminal records are public. Even if you just got a ticket, which I have one, it's public.
 
CallMeKate said:
I have assumed (right or wrong) that the bots do their crawling to build the search engines and thus allow people searching for anything that's discussed on a forum to be able to find it. Guests are reading us because they most likely either searched for senior forums or for a particular topic we discussed. In both cases, I see it as possible new members, and that's a good thing.

Granted, even super big places such as Equifax get hacked, but that's usually for data like personal stuff (SSN, address, etc.) and we don't have any of those things here.
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Yes, the bots are mapping the internet and refreshing the database for search engines. Big financial institutions have the 'goodies' that data thief's want(SSN, account #s, DOB, SS# etc).
Bots and crackers* don't care about your photos of your trip to see relatives in Indiana last year. ;)

*Difference between hackers and crackers

index.jpg
 
Sadly, even our medical information isn't private anymore. If you insist on getting a copy of the electronic forms you are required to sign before getting medical care you can see who they provide your information to. However, there are no restrictions on who those third parties share your information with and I doubt is limited to American use only. There have been several documentaries about countries that tract their citizen's every move all day long just for data mining and control of all aspects of their lives.

Remember all the stories about how the obama campaign used data mining to contrive their appeal to unsuspecting voters a few years ago?

I have never wanted to submit to those DNA companies but enough others have that they can now figure out mine just because of others. But no, I'm not worried about visitors I can see, it is the ones I can't that are troubling.
 
kburra said:
I used to have and was Webhost of my Seniors' site a few years back, and Guest visitors had no Access to profiles and could not post either, it is just how the owner and administration set it up, maybe the admin could/would enlighten us?
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There is no private information on profile pages. It's more likely to give away sensitive information in discussions, but again, I don't think anyone would follow a stranger on forums to gather very vague info, it doesn't make any sense to me.

I have read some members' posts for almost a decade, I only know which cities they are from despite that I'm an admin, even if I'm a very evil person, what harm can I do to them? Sending some spam emails is all I can think of.
 
When at work we often had to send information on forms like SS#. I hated it as now it's "out there".
Even if I insisted on snail mail they would enter it in their system and doubtfully shred it.
Let's face it, it's all "out there" so when it comes to things like that I just have faith.
 
Matrix said:
I have read some members' posts for almost a decade, I only know which cities they are from despite that I'm an admin, even if I'm a very evil person, what harm can I do to them? Sending some spam emails is all I can think of.
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Totally agreed... I think that unless it's someone out to scam money from people they think are a vulnerable demographic, the damage would be in identity theft and that would require a social security number. Pretty sure no one here would post theirs. :) @Matrix
 
Blessed said:
I was checking to see who was on the board. Got my feelings hurt by another member, so I was waiting for a reply. @Matrix, they were so many guests viewing, so many bots. The only thing I could think is they are looking for personal information, gleaning what they can from profiles. Makes me worry about safety of information some post. I never did a full profile, where I live, birthday etc. Should we be concerned, I don't go into detail but some might. My detail is only related to everyday life. Can any other information be obtained by our activity on the board. Would it be best for people not to post where they live,,,,etc and any other personal information, can anyone access email addresses etc. Is this information protected? Just trying to make sure we are all safe. Thanks.
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I wouldn't worry about identity theft from participating in this forum. I've participated in many groups over the years and have never had my information stolen. About having your feelings hurt by another member...if someone upsets you, realize that they are a stranger to you. You don't have to deal with them in "real life," so why let them get to you? Geez, if I let people get to me every time I engage in a debate, I'd be an emotional mess. I couldn't care less if someone is rude or puts me down, although I will slap back and defend myself if they do. :)
 
I don't worry about it. I'm in the phone book if anyone wants to know where I live. My name and address is on every piece of junk mail I receive and it's a lot. I keep my financial info and image off the inter-web so that's enough I think.
 

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