Lori E from Family Trees May Contain Nuts wrote a thought provoking post on Monday, titled, Privacy Issues Here And In Facebook. As of Monday early evening she had 8 thought provoking comments.
I thought I would share with you today a few of the things I do to reduce the TMI issues. I do these to put up a bit of a boundary between you, my valued readers, and Moi. A privacy boundary, if you will.
I do not use my full name here on my blog. I am forced to use it at Facebook, or I would not. My name at Find A Grave is just Carol.
I don't use the name of my home town here or on Facebook. Here on my blog I do mention the name of the county I live in, sometimes. I also say we live in "SE Michigan".
No birthdate on Facebook is shown.
I don't use the names of my hubby, sons, wives of sons, or grandchildren here. They are Man, Son # 1, Son #2, Son #3, Wife of Son #1, Wife of Son #2, and for the twins granddaughters, L & M.
I shy away from using photos that show their faces full front, especially recent photos. Yes, I do use some full front face type photos of Man and I from times "not so recent", as I did this week with my Sharing a Slice of Life, Trick post. But, I try to limit the recent full face photos. This also is the one place I where I tend to break my own rule. (Sigh).
I do not link TO my Facebook account FROM my blog.
I do not have, nor would I link to it, a GenealogyWise account, ditto Twitter.
I don't have a link TO my Find A Grave account, I have posted links to memorials I have created however.
I do post links on Facebook to my blog posts, but, NOT every day.
I, recently, had to incorporate Comment Moderation here at Reflections.
I do not use face recognition/name tagging in programs like Picasa, where your name is attached to likenesses of you in photos you post.
I use a variety of avatars. Facebook, Find A Grave and my blog all have different avatars. Only the ID photo here on my blog is an actual photo of me, Facebook and Find A Grave and other web sites that I use have other kinds of images.I don't post personal family issues, if Man and I have an issue, I may tell my closest friends, but, I am not going to post it on Facebook, or here on my blog.
I will continue to chat about our travels and trips. It is a bit hard to tell you about a 6 month Tana and Big Butt tour after the fact. I do hire a party to cut the lawn, my neighbor drives over the new fallen snow, I have a party that checks my house (not telling you when or how often tho, sorry), and believe me, the State Police know we are gone, who is watching what, how to contact us and our children in case of an emergency. And, I have insurance.
I use these procedures to provide some boundaries between you and Moi. Actually, not beween you, as in my readers and friends, but, as in them, the nasty snarly idiots that want to steal what is mine. I attempt to limit the info, try to never give away TMI and maintain some boundaries.
As I write a post here or a status line on Facebook, if I feel my comfort zone is compromised, I back off, delete, re-write or just don't post. My advice, find what works for you, discover and honor your own comfort zone, and friends, don't post things on Facebook that contain TMI (please, keep it to yourselves, I really don't want to know that stuff).
So, even tho, I feel I am careful, I don't feel I am over the top paranoid careful. I mean, a gal has to have a life, eh??
*Graphic courtesy of Clker.com
** T M I = Too Much Information (for Barbara)
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6 comments:
Smart woman with good advice. Thanks for sharing what you do to maintain your privacy. This is a very important issue.
Great post with great advice! I often worry about the amount of information I post when detailing the history of an ancestor. Just wondering, what are your thoughts about WikiTree, since this seems like the latest place to post information?
Thanks Cynthia and IrishEyes,
I have not investigated the WikiTree, I suppose I should/will.
Without having visited WikiTree, I will say, that for the most part, my tree is NOT on the net. There is an ancestral file over at the LDS sites. I submitted before the internet became what it is today. I was not and still am not happy about it being ONLINE. It was not supposed to go online. So was the promise, two days before it appeared, where, ya, online.
And, before the net was the "thing", I shared my information with other researchers, the old way, via snail mail. A few of them have also put my information online.
I have no Ancestry tree, no Rootsweb tree, for NOW.
It's not that I won't share, because I do. But, for now, I have chosen to not post my tree online.
So, all that said, I may not use WikiTree either.
OH, and as a warning, those trees of mine that are online via LDS or pre-net sharing, be warned, there are errors. Don't click, claim and repost on the net without snooping around yourselves, don't pass on the errors.
But, that is another entire post, another rant, another day.
Thanks Carol, I've sent you an email about this. Cheers! Jennifer
I'm another person who appreciates this post, even tho, I had to email you and ask what TMI stood for, I'm so out of it. Anyway, this was an excellent post, and thanks for educating me once again.
I see the footnote. And, last night I heard TMI on TV and knew what it meant! Thanks Carol.
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