Pictures over the Internet

I look at it this way Dyan.....if someone wants to find me, they will.  If I post my picture, well, that saves them tapping into the DMV files and getting a DL picture.....I refuse to live my life hiding in corners or under tables to avoid the bad guys of the world.......if someone wants to stalk me, they will.  The only person I've EVER met on the internet that I have found really frightening is that Betsy Perkins (maybe not) person.

Dyan,
 
I maintain a website for my family. ALL our pictures are on there. Fact is...holding my daughters hand and walking with her anyplace public...risks people that aren't right in the head looking at her and thinking disgusting things. No different from someone surfing the web to look at pics of people or children...no different at all. The public risk is actually more than the internet one, as they then can escalate to attempting to make contact with or abduct my child.
 
I do not consider putting a pic up of other family members until I ask if they are okay with it....most are. As to someone finding you from a pic? Much easier to simply steal a credit card number at the checkout stand, or your wallet, or your car for that matter, or follow you home. Bad people exist...sick people exist...I choose not to be uber paranoid about it, only safe as I can be without disturbing the flow of my life [] The people in real life scare me a lot more..lol!
 
Most forums, chatrooms, messenger programs etc have "ignore" features...those are great. What you put into a pubic profile is under your control and you do what you are comfortable with. For $19.95 you can look up public records including addresses and phone #'s for just about anyone if you know a firts and last name....whatchagonnado?

With a name like mine, if someone really wanted to find me, it wouldn't be very hard so there's no sense in trying to hide myself.[] 

ORIGINAL: rwbeagles
 For $19.95 you can look up public records including addresses and phone #'s for just about anyone if you know a firts and last name....whatchagonnado?

 
That made me shudder, lol. I can't believe that stuff like that is made available to the public, especially with all the panic about children getting abducted, etc..
 
I'm not extremely worried about posting pictures on the internet, but I most likely won't unless sharing them with a person I've talked to for a few weeks. I also own a few accounts on myspace/nexopia, etc.. I've never really had anything too creepy said to me, and I'm careful not to reveal personal details, which can get you into more problems than just sharing a picture. But I think I would've done the same, as you never know who could be looking at it. I understand where youre coming from.

Yep, if someone wants to find me they are going to find me. I've said this before and I'll say it again:

I've been communicating and making friends with the computer since 1988. That's before the internet became a public thing. Back then there were Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) that folks had to talk to each other. It's how I got into a whole new career of computer consulting, by the way! Without that BBS, I would never had met my mentor who gave me my first computer client, Geffen Records!

I taught computers for over 15 years, and may go back to it as well.

I think paranoia breeds paranoia and basically makes life rotten. I've never had a problem in all these years. I don't post my bank account, ssn, home address, phone number etc. But pictures of family? What is anyone going to do with that? Pictures of me? I'm a public person anyway. I play music in public and everyone knows what I look like.

Being freaked out over stuff is a waste of time. Live life and be happy. That's what I say.

Yep.  Gina's right.  If you've got a credit card and enough time on your hands you can get someones military records, job history, credit history, police record (if they have one) - you can actually find out more about someone than their spouse probably knows.  Makes me kinda glad I lead such a dull life. []

Joyce

Well very interesting,, and thanks for the replies!
I never blacked out anything before,,,and I'm sure in the archives there are tons of pictures on Idog...but after seeing a couple of people doing it,,,I thought maybe I should also....so I will rethink that!!  lol!

I only black out the faces of people who I have not gotten "the okay" from to post pictures of them on the net.
 
 

I've covered my mom's face to post before, because I didn't ask if I could post it, and it was a pretty bad picture (hilarious, but bad... Emma yawned right next to her head and it looked like she was eating Mom's face).

I've never covered mine. My address and phone number are public record. You can call either of my jobs, and get my schedule, on request (when's the next time whoever will be there?). What does anybody know if I post a photo of myself? LOL It could be anybody

I'm similar to you on that point of view. Not only could someone find me if they really wanted to but I fear no man. A person could try and mess with me and then, as my mom would say, wish to God they had never met me. Other than that, I'm a peace-loving, easy-going, animal-lonving hippie, with decades of hand-to-hand combat training and a master level marksmanship with a pistol. As for being hacked on the internet, it's like footprints in the snow, you inevitably leave a trail back to yourself.

I agree with everyone else about posting pictures, it doesn't worry me. But I recently read a story about how employers are doing internet searches on prospective employees and even current employees to see what kind of sites they post on, what kind of things they say, etc.  So in that case, having a picture posted would be one way to positively identify you to someone who may be checking up on you.  Wouldn't matter to me, but I can see how it might matter to some people.  Sort of OT, but did you hear about the recent snafu with AOL?  They had made a log file available for download which showed their customer's search terms.  The customers weren't identified by name, but they were all assigned a unique number.  And the buzz around the net is that based on the different search terms that someone uses, it may be possible to figure out who that person is, and consequently know everything they searched for on the net.  Especially since some people actually put their own names, email addresses, etc., into a search engine just to see what comes up about them.

I would blank kout someone's face if they haven't told me I can use their pic, but I don't care about my own.

Re: my earlier post about AOL:
 
[linkartner=MYWAY&agewanted=print]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?ei=5065&en=f83b62efc45c1112&ex=1155700800&artner=MYWAY&agewanted=print[/link]>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?ei=5065&en=f83b62efc45c1112&ex=1155700800&artner=MYWAY&agewanted=print]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?ei=5065&en=f83b62efc45c1112&ex=1155700800&artner=MYWAY&agewanted=print[/link]

my earlier post about AOL:

 
Yikes!!!   I read this,,,and I DO believe it,,,but I also believe there is a lot of BS going around the Internet,,,I sure hope this is one of them!!