Why no location on your details

Bigpeetee

Guest
Loads of people ask questions, but sometimes it's easier to point than write an essay.

If members put in their location in their details, offers of help may be easier to give if you only live "down the road"

How about it, maybe you've got something to hide if you try to remain completely anonymous?
 
Bigpeetee said:
How about it, maybe you've got something to hide if you try to remain completely anonymous?
Click to expand...

Not so Bigpeetee. The very nature of this forum means that we go travelling and lets face it, anyone can join a forum to gather information.

I would never give more than a vague location of where I live.
 
I think Bigpeetee has a valid point.

If anyone is clever enough to find my house amongst the thousands of others in Gateshead then they have the brains to get into it.

Good advice is no good to somebody with no technical knowledge, a bit of hands on assistance to someone local to me would be no trouble at all.

Some threads asking for help can also be a pain when the OP does not give any details on the make or model of their van/fridge/oven/TV.....etc.
 
I have to confess I have something to hide, a skeleton in the cupboard, I'll have to come clean....I still believe in santa claus.
 
I routinely withhold personal details when I sign up to things on the net (and I have signed up to a lot over the years). If a badly designed webform insists on things like address and phone number, then I lie. It wouldn't be hard to find my address. On another forum long ago, one member innocently gave out enough information (didn't need much, but included the town), she wasn't ex directory, found her address, used multimap and then told her about the area she was living in. We later became friends, but at the time we were just names on a forum. She was a widow living on her own and she was a lot more careful after that.

My rule is only to give as much information as I think they need (not what they ask for) unless and until sufficient trust has built up.



Polly
 
Sorry to take this thread further off topic, but can I ask how far away from the turbines are you, and how big are they? I have always loved the look of them on hillsides and thought I would have no problem living by them(preferable to nuclear,or chemical plants) but plans have been put in near to my parents house meaning that they want to build one of the biggest wind farms in Europe and the nearest turbine will be 600m/800m across marshland from my parents house. I dont want to be a nimby but do have my concerns as the only thing between the house and the turbines is a motorway, no trees or hills.
 
I might do that David...I plan to wander France in the coming years. Although, I have to confess to being one of life's wind turbine hating people, for all sorts of reasons, but mainly on aesthetic grounds. They depress me, I am afraid.

However, my point was to illustrate how easy it can be to find out a great deal of information about someone starting from very little. This won't matter at all to many people, indeed it can be essential for customers to know your address. On the other hand, it might matter a great deal and if you are one of these people, I would exercise caution in how much information you share on the internet.



Polly
 
If there is somebody clever enough to design a security system then there is somebody else clever enough to hack into it. However it needs to be profitable enough to make it worth the risk of getting caught also the effort required to do it. I doubt my modest transactions are worth either but just in case I am a member of a large group so making it worthwhile I supply only the info needed.

Richard
 
Tbear said:
If there is somebody clever enough to design a security system then there is somebody else clever enough to hack into it. However it needs to be profitable enough to make it worth the risk of getting caught also the effort required to do it. I doubt my modest transactions are worth either but just in case I am a member of a large group so making it worthwhile I supply only the info needed.

Richard
Click to expand...

I like the analogy that you only need a small padlock, as that will suffice to stop an honest person....
 
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