The latest issue of Consumer Reports had an article about cyber crime. One paragraph relevent to this group caught my attention: "Social-networking sites provide cybercriminals with more ways to gather personal information. Users may reveal sensitive family information simply by posting photos showing where they live or by describing a forthcoming family vacation, revelations that can help criminals." This helpline is probably safe for posting about your vacation schedule. But if you are considering posting such information on a social-networking site, you might want to reconsider.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23290 posts
That was the thing that was a little scary are the Tripit site that is constantly being hyped here.
Posted by
St Louis
411 posts
Frank, I agree. That was my concern about the site as well.
Posted by
Puyallup, WA, USA
881 posts
I wouldn't fear it. Just use appropriate discretion.
Tripit is a great tool, as are some of the other sites. You can chose who can see your trip, you can set permissions. You can keep your trip private or share it with specific persons only. That's well more safe than posting on RickSteves.com, Tripadvisor, or VirtualTourist.
Any time you share information online, there's risk. But the information you put on Tripit, etc with appropriate settings, versus what's outside your house in the garbage and recycle bin - well, I'd be getting out my shredder and not worrying about online things so much. 2 cents.
Posted by
victoria, Canada
11507 posts
Well, does anyone actually use their real names online??? I sure don't. I think that in July there are likely dozens of "joans" on vacation in my city of a couple hundred thousand,, LOL
I agree one should be careful about personal info, actual names, or pictures of your home or neighborhood( as someone from your own city may find it easy to identify what you think is a fairly safe picture of your location!)
Posted by
Tacoma, WA, USA
671 posts
I don't use my real name in a lot of places, but Facebook and MySpace have people I know IRL. With that said, only very few people on a need-to-know basis knew we were going. I didn't share it with the rest of my friends/acquaintances until we got back! I sure didn't put my MySpace/FB status as, "In Europe for half the month and our house is vacant!"
Posted by
OH, OH, USA
1158 posts
pat,
There are people who use their real name online, they even post other personal information such phone number, address.
Once you have your real name on a website , the criminals can get your address for free from the internet. I never understood why soem peopel are so stupid to put their preal names on a public place, such as www. And another thing is the owners of web sites. A web site is regsitered under a name and address. Unless is private or you fake that information, one can go on the registrant and get the personal information of the owner.
just my €.02
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2745 posts
There was a poster on another travel board who posted her "new married" name, her vacation resort, her dates of travel and the fact that she was taking lots of cash and valuable jewerly. Now this wasn't all one post, but over the course of a month.....
Someone finally pointed out to her that she had given a theif at the resort ALL they needed to find her and take her stuff. She got rather irrate at the poster, but it was the truth.