Outed On A Social Networking Site?

[Starling]

I'd love to be able to visit with you ladies who have private profiles on MySpace, but I'm concerned about having to become a member and sign in. Is it pretty secure, and what should I watch out for? I'm not a member in male mode.

Thanks,
Lallie

[kellycan27]

Your private information is pretty secure, and you use a screen name, so it's not like someone can type in your real name and have your page come up.I think the the chances of someone accidently coming across your page would be like a zillion to one. You can even use a fake name to register. Get yourself an e-mail account in gmail.com or hotmail.com (so myspace can contact you with registration info.)..........They use your e-mail address to verify your account. You won't have a problem
Kelly

[JoAnne Wheeler]

I am dubious of Internet social networking sites - it would be easy for your

info to get in the wrong habds


JoAnne Wheeler

[Sammy777]

I am dubious of Internet social networking sites - it would be easy for your
info to get in the wrong habds

Not really, but it would not matter anyway if you fudged the info when you signed up and there is no real info to "leak out" lol.

My [Samantha] myspace page does not have my male name on it. It has her's, lol.

[Starling]

Thanks, sisters. I'm mainly concerned because the sites collect your IP number, and I'm worried that hackers might be able to match them up easily just to mess with folks. Am I being paranoid? Is my slip, or any other article of female clothing, showing?

Lallie The Fugitive

[Super Amanda]

Thanks, sisters. I'm mainly concerned because the sites collect your IP number, and I'm worried that hackers might be able to match them up easily just to mess with folks. Am I being paranoid? Is my slip, or any other article of female clothing, showing?

Lallie The Fugitive



I think you're a bit paranoid. If you are using an up to date anti-virus program and have a secure network (if using a wireless network), you should be ok from hackers. These days, you are more likely to be infected with a malicious piece of software, that to have your computer actually hacked into.

Take all of the other girls advice here, and you will be fine.


This kinda reminds me of my uncle. He is an HIV infected, meth addict, and is a bit nuts these days. One time my brother and I were playing an old 80's arcade game called "N.A.R.C." on the computer, and the high score screen said "TOP NARCS". Well my uncle came in right on that screen, and he was all meth'd out, and thought it was an actual list of informants! Then he asked us if we had ever seen him on the internet! He was all paranoid, and thought police were living under his mobile home, recording him when he was "jacking off" and putting videos of it on the internet! We told him even if they did, who would want to watch that?

Sorry for that, but I think I was trying to illustrate that the internet is HUGE. So large that, as long as you don't put any real info about yourself like full name, where you live and where you went to school, you will not be found out. Besides, if anyone you knew found fem pics of you, would they even recognize you? And, why were they checking out cd or tg related stuff anyway?

[Starling]

Thanks for reassuring me, Amanda, and for giving me in your uncle a yardstick by which I can measure my sanity:confused2:. If I ever get one-thousandth as paranoid as he is, THEY can have me!

Lallie

[CharleneT]

Just for the record, many sites record the IP's of those who visit. Probably here included. It is not an unusual thing to do, and the info would be very hard to "hack" from the outside.

Places like MySpace are pretty wide open, if you are really concerned you might want to have the front part of the profile be "drab", your private areas (as mentioned by others) you can control who sees it.

[Senban]

Just a word of advice in passing. Setting up MySpace accounts with fake names violates their Terms Of Service. That came out during a news story last year so just be careful.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1089908/Mother-faces-jail-300-000-fine-setting-fake-MySpace-profile-bully-girl-later-killed-herself.html


Instead, she was charged with conspiring to violate the fine print in MySpace's terms-of-service agreement, which prohibits the use of false names and harassment of other MySpace members.

Saying that I know many people, including myself, who have MySpace pages set up under false names. I have one in my real name and one in a false name too. I don't think it would ever be an issue unless you were being an idiot and someone made a complaint.

As for the security of MySpace, I know many people who've had their pages hacked and it even happened to me, although that wasn't IP-related but rather someone cracked the password. I no longer personally trust MySpace and stick to Facebook these days although the same situation applies there. The golden rule is very simple - don't put information online if you're worried whether it could ever make its way into someone else's hands and that applies to your emails just as much.

If you're concerned about someone finding your IP address, try something like these.

https://www.secure-tunnel.com/

http://www.anonymizer.com/

You might find something of use to you here too.

http://pcworld.about.com/magazine/2010p044id103745.htm

[Gwendolyn]

Depending on your ISP...you might be getting a different IP address every day anyway.

I assure you that "HACKERS" have much better things to do with their time than to try to match up random myspace accounts.

Even if someone DID match up Joe Smith myspace account with Jane Smith....it still doesn't tell anyone that Joe and Jane are the same person.

Get out there and start myspacing...

[Senban]

Gwendolyn said - "Depending on your ISP...you might be getting a different IP address every day anyway."

Perfectly true. There are two basic types of IP address - fixed/static and dynamic. Assuming you have dynamic - and most people do - you get a different IP address assigned to you every time you connect to the internet. Your router will talk to the magical world of the interwebs via DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and you'll be assigned a temporary IP address.

Gwendolyn said - "I assure you that "HACKERS" have much better things to do with their time than to try to match up random myspace accounts."

Again perfectly true (apart from your use of the term "hacker", sorry, personal pet peeve). Playing pelmanism with random MySpace accounts is a pointless pastime and it's unlikely that anyone would even bother to look at your account in that respect. An account is far more likely to be targetted because someone who already knows you is curious to see what you're keeping private and the majority of people are far more likely to try guessing your password than some uber-cracking. There are a couple of ways to bypass the passwords of MySpace accounts (no, I'm not talking about URL hacking which is well known and no longer works) but I certainly don't intend to post such information here for obvious reasons.

Regardless, MySpace and Facebook are about as secure as any other website on the internet so enjoy them. Just keep in mind that the information you put up there isn't 100% secure but if you take basic precautions you should be fine.

[Gwendolyn]

Again perfectly true (apart from your use of the term "hacker", sorry, personal pet peeve).

I agree. Thus my use of quotes and all caps.

[Senban]

Just to raise awareness of a news story today related to this thread about anonymity on social networking sites.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7967648.stm