Why is everyone so concerned with privacy on fluther?

who told you people on fluther are concerned with privacy? give me a name!

@nmac According to their survey, a majority of users (78%) reported concerns about their social network profiles’ privacy, but when asked about specific behaviors it was apparent that concern didn’t translate into action. In fact, it didn’t even seem to translate into a basic understanding of how to use the privacy tools already in place on the networks today.

”...Webroot also found that younger social networking users took more risks than any other demographic. Those users ages 18 to 29 tended to use the same password across multiple sites (51% versus 36% overall), accepted friend requests from strangers (40% versus 28% overall), and shared more personal information online. In this age group, 67% shared their birthday (vs. 52% overall), 62% shared their home town (vs. 50% overall), and 45% shared their employer (vs. 35% overall).

Not surprisingly, this overly trusting group also reported more security attacks than others with nearly 40% having experienced an attack versus 30% overall. ”

ha – i just get annoyed with these hokey questions about fluther – but no one got my mona lisa q so i thought i’d ask are people seriously concerned? or is it glib and rhetorical for the benefit of facebook connection? otherwise it kind of sounds creepy. the eyeball totally biases me now… it’s not reassuring on the ping-ping way so i jump to conclusions. but maybe everyone is totally paranoid if they’re not on facebook. i should not talk to my own question but who chats anymore in exact real time.

@nmac Without analyzing my search on fluther there WERE over 700 posts involving the word, ‘privacy’. I expect most people joining in do not study site policy and tactics of privacy assurance well enough and use fluther fora to have others do their homework for them.

They have an over inflated opinion of their own self importance?

What questions are you referring to? Are you saying that having worries about privacy is unnecessary? Or that we just don’t do a good job of keeping things private?

Privacy—or how I interpret it—anonymity is crucial for me to be able to talk about what I talk about.

Privacy online is important because of the reason @daloon gave, and because I really don’t know who any of you are. You can seem like the nicest, most genuine person in threads and PMs, but you might really be total creepo who would harass me, make me uncomfortable, and be completely inappropriate if you knew identifying details about me. Erm, or so I hear that could happen…

Having a FB doesn’t mean you don’t care about your privacy on here or other forums.

I have no idea, honestly. I received some flak for arguing for the “display answers” section of our profiles when it was introduced. Anonymity on the internet is an illusion. If someone wants to find you, they can, and relatively easily.

I don’t knock people for holding personal details close to the chest – that’s expected and normal. Don’t misunderstand; I’m talking about irrational paranoia that someone’s going to come to your house with an axe and bust up some chifferobe, or whatever it is people do with axes.

BECAUSE I LIKE TO BE MYSTERIOUS

@nmac Because of websites like pipl.com

I’m not paranoid….in fact, it’s the opposite case. I’m not afraid of anyone stealing my identity because I’m in debt and have nothing else worth taking, I’m not concerned about criticism because I don’t give a damn, I’m not afraid of crazy people because I am, and I don’t fear computer viruses or anything else web-based because this is my husband’s computer.

@SpatzieLover Wow. I just pipl’d myself… that is waaay more info than necessary for any joe schmoe to have about me just based on my name! Maybe I’m paranoid… but I have unlisted phone numbers and don’t freely give out my address for a reason. I’m pretty pissed anyone could find where I live.

@Likeradar Yup…It’s scary shit!! When i found out about it I looked up everyone I knew. Check out a relative or two of yours…you’ll find out how many speeding/parking tix they have or worse.

Wow, I just went on pipI myself…thank God I’m much married….I couldn’t find myself! The IRS will never catch up to me.