View Full Version : You've got to be careful on the web
English assassin
08-10-2006, 12:07
Hmm. For an experiment, I just tried entering my name on google images, and lo and behold, there I was (along with about two other ne'er do wells). Previously you would have at least needed to know where I worked as well as my name to get a picture off the firm's website.
I'm not too sure I like this. What i really don't like is its cached and so available indefinitely. Am I just being paranoid?
On a similar topic UK dudes, in case you didn't know you can opt out of having your name and address on the publicly available electoral register. I strongly recommend it.
Yes you are being paranoid. Anyone can find out what you look like by just going to your house and watching you come out.
I googled my name and there is a picture of some Canadian with the same name as me. Probably the only other person in the world with my name.
The second picture is of me and my son.
R'as al Ghul
08-10-2006, 12:26
I'm not too sure I like this. What i really don't like is its cached and so available indefinitely. Am I just being paranoid?
No, you're not. More and more information will be made readily available on the web. It's only a matter of connecting the dots if you want to know something about someone. Of course this only works if and when you leave traces. Having ones mugshot on a corporate website is a thing you can't do anything about. Even when you will retire eventually, be sure that archive.org has a cached version.
Our American patrons have certainly even more reason to be alert, since more information is put online than in Europe. But the trend will eventually come over to us.
I just read a piece on boingboing.net about AOL user info being released on the web. Although anonymous it's certainly revealing and there may exist possibilities to gain further information. Another thing to worry about is the identity theft issue. In the past 2 years several databases of credit card firms were raided and the data used to steal identities and use their credit cards. Then there's Amazon.com's wishlist. If I know your name I can look up your wishlist on Amazon, check out what you're interested in. There're plenty of other possibilities, too.
Not revealing your real name is a good idea on the web. Comparatively, you don't run around wearing your name on your shirt, do you?
R'as
English assassin
08-10-2006, 13:12
Yes you are being paranoid. Anyone can find out what you look like by just going to your house and watching you come out.
Umm, yes. On the other hand Rachel Stevens lives next door but one so hopefully they will be too busy looking through her bedroom window to bother about me.*
Being serious though, we were asked to tender a while back for something to do with animal labs, I will say no more. As it turned out we didn't get the work anyway, but the fact that my ugly mug is available for ever on the web for easy downloading and pasting into an Animal Liberation front leaflet is not too good.
* I should perhaps explain that from this we can deduce that she didn't make much money from S Club 7, just before anyone thinks I live on Millionaires Row.
Louis VI the Fat
08-10-2006, 13:52
What!? (http://images.google.nl/images?q=Rachel+Stevens+&hl=fr&btnG=Recherche+d%27images) ~:eek:
Kralizec
08-10-2006, 14:06
Wow Louis, you're hot :dizzy2:
what's your number?
English assassin
08-10-2006, 14:35
Yeah, that's the one.
To be honest, in the flesh, I've seen better. But I still would, obviously.
R'as al Ghul
08-10-2006, 14:55
But I still would, obviously.
Would what? (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge*)
You've got to be careful on the web.
Especially if your a bug
Rob The Bastard
08-10-2006, 18:37
Tried my name... and my image didn't appear.
No one but you guys know I look like this.
http://www.wise.net.nz/users/robm/RobTheBabe.gif
Don't tell anyone... someone might steal my Selma Suit.
google doesn´t know what I look like....
the most google can tell you about me aparently is what university i went to and what major i took.
I can live with that.
doc_bean
08-10-2006, 21:58
Pff all google tells me is that I had to pay back some money a few years ago (5.5 €) and the name of my thesis.
Hm, curious. I found one picture of myself, under my name that I knew was on the 'net. What I didn't know is that 5 other people from my High School class have my name attached to their photos. :inquisitive:
That is ... confusing.:dizzy2:
Big King Sanctaphrax
08-11-2006, 02:24
If you google my name you just get thousands of images of a famous comedian, so I should be alright.
The Spartan (Returns)
08-11-2006, 02:34
when i typed your name, it just showed your avatar nothing else BKS.
Big King Sanctaphrax
08-11-2006, 02:36
My real name... ~;)
Crazed Rabbit
08-11-2006, 02:44
I googled my name, which, apparently, I share with a musician famous enough to push entries of my name down to the 5th or 6th spot on google. So I'm safe. ~:cool: Image search gives nothin'.
Crazed Rabbit
Evil_Maniac From Mars
08-11-2006, 02:53
Buster Keaton? Charlie Chaplin? :inquisitive:
No, that's not how I imagined BKS, oh no...
Ja'chyra
08-11-2006, 09:22
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I share my first and last name and middle initial with a rather infamous US president, but as far as I could tell there is no info about me on there. I'm very careful about putting pics on the web, and the fact I don't like having my picture taken, it steals your soul don't you know.
Oh, EA, I would too, but only if she asked nicely obviously.
Somebody Else
08-11-2006, 13:10
Of course, we can now work out where EA lives...
Google my real name and got a political leader in the American Revolution
I got this :laugh4:
http://image03.webshots.com/3/8/67/59/21186759mHMynnwUCD_ph.jpg
Must have been at a party, I look pretty drunk :laugh4:
MEh You can find a lot of me on the net all my forum posts! I shoudl've taken different nick. No now you can find my posts on several forums when my name with a space bar or without. But if you look for images you'll only find 2 avatars. thank god for that.
macsen rufus
08-15-2006, 14:19
Ah, the joys of having a pretty common name -- I'm an olympic athlete, rock star, vice-mayor of a major Mid-Western city, basketball player, a convicted murderer, not to mention being black, white, transvestite (scary looking one too :help: ), retired and recently deceased....
Ah, the joys of having a pretty common name -- I'm an olympic athlete, rock star, vice-mayor of a major Mid-Western city, basketball player, a convicted murderer, not to mention being black, white, transvestite (scary looking one too :help: ), retired and recently deceased....
:dizzy2:
:inquisitive:
:inquisitive:
What's your name then?
I share my name with a junior ski jumper, apparently. No pictures of me online. Very satisfying on the one hand, very disappointing on the other. I am not yet famous...
Quid
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