PSA: Everyone come in here, we're going to have a chat about internet safety

PinkCamino · October 2014

Good morning!

I'm assuming most of you know and followed the catfishing incident over on July 14. If you didn't the cliff notes version is that someone essentially faked a profile, story, life and pregnancy to catfish the women for over a year.

This is such an important topic to talk about because although we all think we are being safe, we can get our identities stolen, our photos stolen and are personal info traced back to us if we are not careful.

as a result I want to caution everyone here of a few things:

1) Your avatar photos: if your avatar is a photo of you please be aware that via reverse google search your facebook profile, instagram, twitter or pinterest can be found if the photo is also posted there. As a result and for the ultimate safety I'd really caution you against using a real photo of yourself.

2) Siggies: the same info applies here. If you've got photos - they can be traced back to you somewhere so be cautious.

3) Personal info: As much as this is a tight knit community I think we need to be careful about sharing our information. Just be wise okay?

Anything I missed?

I don't want to terrify anyone. I just want to give you a realistic understanding that the internet can be a really fucked up place. There are people out there who can steal or photos, identities and profiles to make themselves appear like a legit person. Just be careful okay?

xoxoxo

mflowers929 · October 2014

A week after I sent MH the first picture he'd seen of me, someone else sent him the exact same picture. I've been pretty careful since then, though now that you point it out, maybe I should change my avatar...

PinkCamino · October 2014

ashtog said:

This is a really good reminder @PinkCamino, thanks.

I was part of the may14 board when the mod-who-shall-not-be-named stole all the money everyone donated for mch77. It was a huge reminder then that the people we are talking to might not be the people behind their computers. this is another huge one, thank you.

I heard about this. What happened to the mod?

Km380 · October 2014

Silly question- so even though you can't see our faces in my avatar should I change it?

PinkCamino · October 2014

Km380 said:

Silly question- so even though you can't see our faces in my avatar should I change it?

If that picture is anywhere then technically it can be reverse google searched.

PinkCamino · October 2014

ashtog said:

not a catfish, but there's another girl with my name the same age who is also a photographer. she lives in the states and I am in canada. however her last name is her maiden name and mine is my married name, so I am hoping she will change her business when she gets married if she does.. I am sick of getting random inquiries from iowa.. or ppl randomly asking me when they can pick up their photos who aren't my clients. lol.

so on this topic, should I take Sawyer out of my siggy and change my avatar? everyone on my fb and instagram etc knows about him and my loss, so I am not sure if it would matter if they reverse searched his image?

That love is a totally personal decision. The only thing I would worry about is your privacy if someone from your IRL finds you on TB.

Km380 · October 2014

PinkCamino said:

Km380 said:

Silly question- so even though you can't see our faces in my avatar should I change it?

If that picture is anywhere then technically it can be reverse google searched.

Well that's just creepy. I think I'll change my avatar later. Thanks!

tigerlynx31413 · October 2014

So speaking of bump names. Mine connects to a bunch of stuff so I am thinking of changing it. Should I just post "Formerly Nieko0423" in my siggy or post a seperate thread to let you all know I have changed it?

PinkCamino · October 2014

Nieko0423 said:

So speaking of bump names. Mine connects to a bunch of stuff so I am thinking of changing it. Should I just post "Formerly Nieko0423" in my siggy or post a seperate thread to let you all know I have changed it?

I think putting it in your siggy defeats the purpose

If your sig remains the same I think post of us will figure it out.

tigerlynx31413 · October 2014

PinkCamino said:

Nieko0423 said:

So speaking of bump names. Mine connects to a bunch of stuff so I am thinking of changing it. Should I just post "Formerly Nieko0423" in my siggy or post a seperate thread to let you all know I have changed it?

I think putting it in your siggy defeats the purpose If your sig remains the same I think post of us will figure it out.

Makes sense!

eliida · October 2014

Andplusalso... Not too long ago I was checking my profile info and my husband's FULL name was listed in the account information. I think it loaded from when I started under theknot and it pulled names from our wedding registries. I don't know who that's visible to, but it still grossed me out a bit.

alm288 · October 2014

Wow - this is crazy. As long as the pic in our avatar isn't anywhere else on the web, it's ok, right? I'm not on anything else (twitter, FB, etc.). I have a Pinterest account but never pinned any personal pics.

tlc35 · October 2014

justanotherphotographer said:

how do you change your sn?? I just tried but I don't thikn it worked- it just occured to me that if someone were to look for me or whatever and found ashtog and saw through my posts etc that Sawyer was my boy, they might put two and two together.. so now I want to change it lol

It looks like it has worked now. Some times it takes a bit for the change to kick in.

Rachaeleigh · October 2014

I have a different photo uploaded to my profile of DH and I, that I used to use for my avatar photo.
I want to delete it, but couldn't figure out how to.
Anyone know what I'm taking about?

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