How open is your life online?

[Nico Kempe]

If I look at all the information I've put online, people can find out quite the bit of info about my personal life.
This forum also is just the kind of forum where you'd easily tell things about your personal life.

So I'm curious, how open is your life online and how do you feel about that?

My life pretty much is an open book. I often easily tell people about me, my past, the now, and things that keep me occupied, for as long as people can listen without going crazy..)
I am careful with details about others tho, I'll not give away names or happenings about other people I know unless the person I'm telling it to is a real friend perhaps.

But as far as my own life goes, I don't really mind telling about it, even if it's online where it's likely to be available forever once you've posted it..)
I often wonder if it really would be that bad if I'd post my name, address, e-mail address and other info online. Would anyone care? Would I get stalked? Heh, I don't think so.

I don't think I'll do that tho, my life is one thing, my whereabouts is something else..

[Niki]

I think my life is pretty open and I think Google has something to do with it.

[SmellyOrc]

I'm pretty secure. There are no details of my life out that I don't want anyone to know about...

Free to search for stuff if you wanna

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by SmellyOrc

I'm pretty secure. There are no details of my life out that I don't want anyone to know about...

Free to search for stuff if you wanna

Well, I did find this about SmellyOrc...

.

[Dan.Linehan]

Just don't use your real name.

[Shamou]

Originally Posted by Dan.Linehan

Just don't use your real name.

Who's Dan Linehan then...???

.

[Jill]

My life's an open book online. My newsletter which I've been writing since 2000 has over 25,000 people on it who get to hear all about my kids, my travel, and whatever else happens to be going on. (Oh yeah, and they get to learn about SEO too!)

It's all published on my site too.

[Mark Lapierre]

There's plenty of information about me out there. My only concern is identify theft, but that's more likely to happen through someone stealing a large collection of personal data from a company I've given it to, rather than by piecing together my identity from bits and pieces scattered around the Intarsphere.

Hell, I was on national TV admitting I took drugs, and that was mentioned on a forum. After that, why bother hiding anything? I have secrets, sure, but they're secrets only because no-one has asked me about them yet

[Max Power]

I got my name off a hair dryer, need I say more

[Erki]

If you know where to look, you could get to know quite a bit about me... but then again I plan to become famous anyway so...

[Beloved]

It often amazes me how much information some people put out there. We hear all the horror stories of kids being preyed on because they've given out too much information. But the worst offenders I've seen are women on chat groups, they use their full names, then in their signatures they give out their kids full names, ages, even talk about which school they go to, team they play for. A lot of these groups have swaps going on, in one I was sent emails with names and addresses. A lot of these groups claim to be private groups, but anyone can join up.

I don't even give out my address when signing up for some sites, some demand your address on registration. I just give it as 1 none of your business drive, Privateville with a phone number of 0000 0000. Actually I just thought maybe I should change that number, because here in Aus, if you ring it you end up ringing emergancy services.

[Old Soul]

I'm open ...but not to open..

[Jenny]

I'm the same as I am in person. Limited openness in public settings but far more open with people I care about whether that be friends, family or even trusted co-workers and absolutely open with people who truly listen to what I am saying and ask intelligent questions and/or challenge my thinking.

I haven’t gone out of my way to either hide my identity or give it out.

[John Wesley]

I keep it open. Sometimes my friends ask, aren't you worried about having your picture and name of the internet? Honestly this doesn't scare me at all. It's sort of like being famous. People you don't know can see you and know things about you. I don't think most people are afraid of being movie stars, so why should online be any different. I want people to know what I am.

[Scin]

I tempt identity theft frequently. I'm way too attention-centric not to, heh. But I follow certain rules religiously - like never putting my city of birth online or even on my computer, or never putting my social security number through anything other than a secure connection and even then only when absolutely necessary.

[Erki]

What's the deal with the birth of city? is that then something to hide?
And I don't even have a social security number(or I don't know what it is..)... but then again yeah, sometimes I'm a bit insecure.

[Jay Bee]

Yeah I am interested in the city of birth thing? What's the big deal with that one?

Barb

[Scin]

The city of birth can be used as a sole qualifier to verify identity by banks, much like mother's maiden name (which I also do not publish anywhere on a computer). With it and your first and last name, anyone can access your bank accounts by phone, mail, or other form of direct communication.

[Mark Lapierre]

Hmmm, Australian banks may be different. Name, address, and DOB, at a minimum. I've never been asked for my city of birth (except maybe when creating a new account, but never since).

[Peter S C]

There is a large part of me that is shy and insecure. This is something I have consciously decided to change.

Putting my life "out there" on the world wide web often feels uncomfortable but I can feel my shyness and insecurities fading away which feels great.

Peter

[Kaddizzle]

Me personally, I prefer not to tell to much about my life. For example I would never share what city I live in. I'm still a teen and I would prefer not to share a lot of my personal information on myself. I would share things like if I have a girlfriend or not, but that doesn't matter because I never go on the net for a girlfriend, I go on for FUN!

[brandi]

I'm an open book, that's who i am in life too.
if i can share something or make some on elaugh or learn something from what i have experience, i share my story , my deepest thoughts.

a journal in a way
a history of my beliefs, my behavior, my feelings.
and i do not feel ashamed.

[Fortune7000]

The internet is a dangerous place, it is a happy place, it is a pleasure zone, it is a disgusting mess from the darkest corners of our own brain. It is our brain, all of our brains creating a super brain. It is how we can see our progress as humans it is also how we can see the most perverted workings of ourselves. The internet is a lie and it is truth, who is truthful and who is lying? We can never have honest conversations on the internet, but so too can we never have truly honest conversations in person, cause we never know fully what the other person is thinking. Now should we be truthful, I think that there are so many people on the internet that the ones who aim to find your information to use for their own benefit may never get to you. If they do and you are the truthful one then it sucks to be you. I would say that like our personal dealings we should be honest and truthful or the internet is nothing more than millions of lies, but be careful about telling people much about where you live and what your bank account pin number is. We have just begun to give birth to this new collective creature and we need more discussion like this because our amazing brains have created this gift, yet our sick and twisted brains are using it for some pretty perverted purposes.

[Nico Kempe]

Originally Posted by Fortune7000

The internet is a dangerous place, it is a happy place, it is a pleasure zone, it is a disgusting mess from the darkest corners of our own brain. It is our brain, all of our brains creating a super brain. It is how we can see our progress as humans it is also how we can see the most perverted workings of ourselves. The internet is a lie and it is truth, who is truthful and who is lying? We can never have honest conversations on the internet, but so too can we never have truly honest conversations in person, cause we never know fully what the other person is thinking. Now should we be truthful, I think that there are so many people on the internet that the ones who aim to find your information to use for their own benefit may never get to you. If they do and you are the truthful one then it sucks to be you. I would say that like our personal dealings we should be honest and truthful or the internet is nothing more than millions of lies, but be careful about telling people much about where you live and what your bank account pin number is. We have just begun to give birth to this new collective creature and we need more discussion like this because our amazing brains have created this gift, yet our sick and twisted brains are using it for some pretty perverted purposes.

So how open are you?

I would like to say that yes there is a lot of nasty stuff 'out there', but then there is also a lot of great stuff, like the Pavlina sites and forums.

I like the being famous analogy. Famous people have much of their lives available to anybody who wants it, many times beyond the comfort zone too.
In that way, I'm glad to have a choice, and I just reveal the info I like myself. Sensitive data is treated as such, just as you would otherwise, but it's mostly who I am that I don't mind sharing.
Maybe that's something more people get comfortable with, considering the ginormous number of blogs out there..