Personal information in your profile

I am a HOT egg, thank you very much
Well, at least according to most of you crazy SL chicks.
Except for Ingrid of course. I never get any love from Ingrid

I try not to reveal any information over the internet that would allow someone to 'piece together' such RL info as my address and other identifying info. I had a very unnerving event a number of years ago where someone who I chatted with online, gathered up enough tidbits of information (only three really, what I did for a living, my first name and what city I lived in) and simply appeared at my place of work one day. Seems he simply called around to the places in my city that conduct the business that I work in, and asked for me by name until he found where I worked, very simple and very effective tactic. No harm came to me from this but it did prompt me to move to a different city, it was completely unnerving to think that one day he could follow me from work to my house......

In SL the only info I give out is my first name (same as in SL except spelled D'Nel) and the province that I live in, I will not get more specific that that. I have become so paranoid that I don't even tell the people that I am closest to here the exact city that I live in. I have even avoided starting a website simply because of the ability to look up a registrant's infomation, although I may get a friend to register it for me. I am even quite reluctant to use peer-to-peer sharing or voice chat or listen to private streams for the fact that if someone got my IP it reverses to a name that actually has my city's name in it.

This all may sound overly paranoid to some people but after that one time... it really makes you realize how easy it would be for somone to track you down. As a single woman living alone, not the best of thoughts sometimes.

I encourage ANYONE to keep thier personal info to themselves, you never know who that person controlling that avatar in front of you really is, or god forbid giving it all out in your profile

Anyone else notice that the people who aren't worried about thier personal information getting out in this thread are all men?

I don't care if people know my RL identity at all, and I do have an RL picture of me on my profile. My first life is so public anyway in my city, I trade on my identity, and I can't go anywhere or do anything much anyway without people knowing about it. Where I live ends up being not much of a secret, someone somewhere will always end up spotting where I'm at. So it matters not a jot to me in SL.

Plus you all live so far away from me it so doesn't matter

I'm not worried about it. If you wanted to track me down I still probably wouldn't answer the door. I'm not rich, and I'm not hot and female.

if some one wants your id badly enough. they will get it. its the same as housebreaking. they want in bad enough. the lock is not goin to stop them.
And alot of times, your just not that important for the bad guys to spend time getting your stuff. just my 2 pennys worth

I don't think I've heard of wearing t-shirts with one's address on them.

When people here are talking about using whois to look up a website and get the registrant's information, just what does "website" mean in this context?

It doesn't mean a web page, does it? It means having a domain name registered, like www.sluniverse.com, for example.

Running Whois on, say, a web page made at Google Pages, gives info about Google, not about the web page user.

Cindy people are always asking where I live and what i do bla bla........It never stops to boggle the mind how tis online lowlife try to get in for with the lack of infor on theirside.

<-Paranoia->MYSPACE IS A TOOL OF THE CENSUS <-/Paranoia-> hehe..

You should not generalize based upon your individual lifestyle, and it's not necessarily an issue related to crime rates. Many who have a high profile job in real life, or are in the public eye for other reasons, end up with attention that others may not realize can become a problem.

To suggest that people who have nothing to hide will not have to worry about stalkers is really a limited way to look at the problem. I have been followed home from work many times in my real life, not because I lived in a high crime area, as a matter of fact the opposite was true. The reasons were related to my job and people who wanted to speak to me for one reason or another, usually related to a case I was trying or for legal assistance.

There is no way I would be able to have a listed phone number at home and for many years I had to recieve mail at a post office in a neighboring town. Protecting my privacy is not because I had something to hide as you suggest, its just common sense.

I am not sure what you meant when you stated "I am not a woman and I live in a place with low crime rates. Maybe you should work on that instead of living in fear." Stalkers, nut cases, obsessed individuals live in all areas and there are men who are stalked as well..even in low crime rate areas. Just ask David Letterman or watch the movie "Fatal Attraction."

Apart from the people I know here who I already know RL only one person has my real first and surname and any other information about me that might make me traceable. And the main thing that can be found out about me if you have my real first and surname, via the internet, is that I like tomatoes!

I've been using online forums (Particularly Usenet.) since '96 and I've never bothered to hide my identity. Indeed I've made a number of very good IRL friends over the internet, and started two relationships (The last one lasting 3 years.) with people I've met on the internet. I have never had a problem with anyone bothering me in all that time.

Personally, I wish that there were some official way to choose *not* to be anonymous. I'd love to have a way of sorting out people like myself who actually *want* to use SL as the Metaverse was used...as an advanced communications medium, rather than than a role playing enviroment.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I'd certainly like a choice, and a way to tell who's playing themselves, and interested in developing *real* friendships, etc., and sort them out from the people who are here to role-play.

Frankly, I think that if SL is actually looking to become a "platform" as opposed to just another game, that allowing people who want to to officially establish a real identity here is extremely important.

Personally I dont really care if people know who I am in RL.. and certyainly if someone so wanted they COULD track me down.. although I pointed to a house two roads over on Frapper

I'm stalking the wrong house!

BIGGY SMILE I hope ypu have your male skin on and not your female
Your cool Richie

well i have tendencies to not let clean traces of myself on internet (false adresses, phone, names, hell even my website whois is false) but it's not stalkers that makes me smudge my traces, i am just paranoid ^^

...but if you come to my house uninvited you can bring your own meat bag ^^ (that is if you don't like trashbags)

The chances of something going wrong are very small, but if it did, it would be pretty serious.

We should all take a cool look at our personal situations in sl and rl and ask what is there potentially to be gained and to be lost from revealing personal rl info.

I recommend to new residents that they keep rl details private until they are really sure about the other party.

And if I were an active furry intending to go into rl politics (which I'm not, but I know someone who is) uh...well there's little to be gained and everything to be lost.

I've never tired to hide my identity online. In fact I go out of my way to make sure I'm easy to track down. In all my years of being online (15 now?) I've never had an issue, but I have managed to reconnect with old friends that I'd lost contact with who were able to find me because I make sure it's easy to do. I don't subscribe to the myth that people online are more dangerous than people offline and I don't choose to live in fear of the general public. How depressing it must be to view everyone you meet online as a potential threat. I've always thought there'd be a lot less problems online if people weren't allowed to hide their identity.

I think its a lot different for men than women. There are people that become obsessed online and off but on the internet the number of people you encounter, especially on forums and in chats is just a lot higher than the number you encounter in RL. It just raises the likelihood that you will come across a person that fixates. If you are naturally friendly, sweet and chatty online lots of people will focus on you.

I have been stalked by a guy from a disabled issues chat room and it was very scary. I was also very stupid and over time gave way too many clues about my RL identity. Now I am more careful and obsfucate my inernet trail a lot better but still try to be open, chatty and friendly. I just choose not to live in a world where I need to fear people I start online friendships with.

I do not mind sharing a picture or my general location in SL even though I never ask more than time zone of those I spend time with. I have a link to a personal page here on these forums because I think knowing a bit more about me as a person deepens the bonds I have with gaming friends. I should probably be more careful but its worth the risk to me.

I don't hide my personal stuff too much, but i do like a little privacy. I won't just tell anyone my RL name, location, or gender. Age is ok IMO cuz i have nothing to fear there. When people want to voice chat or view my webcam i usually cause a stink... Why do they have to look at me to talk to me? I have a handicap that prevents me from making eye contact, and I have a problem understanding foreign accents + people who talk to fast.

I'm cautious but there are a few people who over the years I have trusted and have given my RL email to and would me up with in RL.

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I think they were referring to people's personal web sites, as in URL's they register themselves.