Think I may have avoided an awkward talk.

[somestimeskaren]

A couple of weekends ago my grandchildren, a 12 yr old boy and a 10 yr old girl were spending the weekend with me and their father who lives with me. Their dad knows about my dressing and has seen me several times. So one afternoon I'm on the sofa watching T.V. and my grandson was sitting beside me with my phone .I had unlocked it so he could look something up on Google. I payed no attention to what he was doing until he turned to me and asked who had sent me these pictures? He had opened one of my albums in my gallery and it was my Karen selfies, just head and shoulder shots but in full makeup wearing different wigs. I almost had a stroke. I told him it was just a friend of mine .He asked what her name was and I said Karen and he wanted to know if I liked her and I said yes I did. He was satisfied with my answers and never mentioned what he found again. I guess I looked good enough to fool him but it sure put a scare in me.
I don't know what I would have done if he had said " I think that's you Grampa". Not ready to have that talk yet. Karen.

[RobynG]

Wow, I bet your heart was racing. That is the reason why I don't have any pictures of Robyn, well that and the fact the camera would shatter!

[kimdl93]

I have been cautious about any photos for some time, especially since a photo I posted in a subsection here turned up on a google search of my name.

[Geena75]

Wow, scary stuff. I remember a couple years ago my 22 year old daughter was reading something I had written on my laptop. The screensaver had kicked in and, in getting the story back, she hit the one menu option that shows thumbnails of recently viewed photos -- including some pics of Geena. When she asked me about them, I nearly died. Recovering, I said I was messing around with the photo shop feature (true enough), which seemed to satisfy her. Since then, I have been more cautious about storing photos.

[Lori Ann Westlake]

I have been cautious about any photos for some time, especially since a photo I posted in a subsection here turned up on a google search of my name.

Was this a Google search of your MALE name? If so, that's frightening, and I wonder how it could happen, how the connection could be made.

[Blanche Dubois]

I have photos on my Android phone, but I also have an app that I think came with the phone called "Secure Folder". I store my photos there. It needs either a pin or my finger print. Just sayin'. :)

[DianeT]

Your grandson just googled "Karen friend grampa selfie" and landed on this public CD forum post!
Just kidding.
However: I recently googled a few keywords from a post from Geena75 (the one about the duck nephews) and was surprised to see that, among some stuff I was looking for, the CD.com post also came in as one of the top results.
Be careful what you post in the public sections. It seems some of them (not all as far as I checked) can easily come up in a Google search. In other words, what you post for example in this public section can actually be REALLY public.

[Pumped]

I was talking to a friend. The night before I had taken a bunch of pics of me dressed. I was going to show him a picture of something, opened the picture galley on my phone and there I was! Luckily he had looked away and I fumbled with my phone saying "where the heck is that pic?", while deleting the one's he didn't need to see!

[Geena75]

Your grandson just googled "Karen friend grampa selfie" and landed on this public CD forum post!
Just kidding.
However: I recently googled a few keywords from a post from Geena75 (the one about the duck nephews) and was surprised to see that, among some stuff I was looking for, the CD.com post also came in as one of the top results.
Be careful what you post in the public sections. It seems some of them (not all as far as I checked) can easily come up in a Google search. In other words, what you post for example in this public section can actually be REALLY public.

I was stunned when I googled "Geena Kirkland" and the whole archived thread showed up from when I did a poll on what my last name should be. Gives me pause. Thank goodness no pictures accompanied it.

[Krisi]

My "rule" is, no photos of me dressed as a woman on my phone. Period.

This saves a lot of anxiety as far as letting someone use my phone, accidentally sending a photo to someone and losing the phone and having it found by someone.

[CharlotteCD]

I have the benefit of having an unusual real name, but that's shared with a few famous people, so even if you put my hometown in, it'll still not pull info on me other than charity work i've done.

My femme name meanwhile is shared by a number of people in my hometown - one of which I now work with, which was very confusing when I joined my current workplace and found Charlotte *surname* was working there!

As for pics, I have them in my archive folder on my phone, which is an odd place to go looking. Most people would check the bin, the main camera roll and the albums.

[April Rose]

If you google "APRIL ROSE" some pix of very beautiful actresses and models , and a bridal shop come up, but nothing of me. Every six months or so I google my male name. So far no crossover. I had thought my male was an uncommon one, but apparently not.

I am not as worried about security as some; a number of people know about me, but I like to be in control of my own narrative. I have recently started taking a few pictures of myself on my phone and I am aware there are privacy concerns with that, but the headspace I am in lately is about being more open, not more secure.

If I still had family concerns i am sure it would be a different story.