CSI Show got me scared... I do have a question I promise.

Sorry, I meant for average, walking-around semi-computer-literate folk like me, who would rather not have zombieware and the like taking over my computer, and will welcome the relative anonymity of looking like any one of a sizable number of addresses maintained by my ISP for just that purpose, because it prevents a lot of RL griefing of computers of such babes in the woods as myself. I am sure a business, for example, would very much want to have a "static" address and be willing to pay up for it. But if I'm going to be the mole in a Whack-A-Mole game, i'd rather have many addresses I coould be at than one.

Please excuse any confusion I create out of my near-ignorance. I promise my heart is in the right place.

A question that I've wondered about for a while, but not found any info on, is what can folks find out about you, your internet connection, ip address, whatever it might be, from a Yahoo Geocities page and other such sites.

I'm not wondering about privacy from the siteowner, like Geocities, or the government, which I assume can compel a siteowner to reveal the info it has, but about what ordinary snoops can find out.

Example: you get tired of a problem with some product, so you make a Geocities page to use as a platform to complain anonymously about the problem. What can people find out about you from a Geocities page that you don't list your name, address, phone number, IP address, etc.?

There are no facts in Hollywood. None. They all vanished years ago.

Ummm...some guys actually get turned on by that.

I'd worry more about using a laptop in a public place, like a Star Bucks.

Some people *ahem* have lil' proggies installed that let them inspect all the data packets as they fly thru the air.

Not that I have any use for the info. I'm just nosey & get a chuckle out of how many Business Men are looking at Porn.

It depends on how many breadcrumbs there are.

For instance: if you have a geocities site that you put the addie of on here, even if the site itself doesn't reveal anything, searching for it by addie on google could turn up another forum you participate in and where you posted the addie. Reading all the posts you made there could yield new breadcrumbs to follow, etc (works the same with email addie).

Case in point: a while back there was someone who posted on the forums about being a war veteran and asking for L$ donations because she was short on money to feed her family (could be getting the details wrong). In one of her posts she put her webstore addie. When other posters started questioning her story, putting the addie of the store in Google turned up another forum where she had posted about being debt-free with a decent two-person income (also had her actual RL name), which exposed her plea as just another scam.

Personal perspective: when I was still at uni, I was on IRC quite often where I had my first name as my nick. I didn't see much harm in that, nor in telling people what I was studying. Eventually I had the misfortune of attracting a local guy (same country as me) who was convinced that "we should be together". He got a hold of my last name (I'd guess from the class lists on uni's site) and my dorm room number - which was stupidly enough embedded in my textual IP addie - and took things to RL even though all I'd ever volunteered was my first name and what I was studying. That was extremely bad luck on my end and specific to my uni, but does illustrate that things that seem innocent can be enough already.

It's pretty easy to leave crumbs around, especially if you drink a bit.

Example: one time you say you work at a big department store. some other time you say went to lunch across the street from where you work at McDonalds. some other time you mention your city. You don't think much about it, but the text logs we can keep here store all this stuff, so you might as well have said "I work in such and such city at a big department store with a McDonald's across the street."

I recall someone in a text chatroom back in dial up days doing something much like the above. An admirer showed up at their work place. It was not good.

I still haven't been able to find out if you create a web page at Geocities or similar site whether viewers of the site can find any IP numbers or other personal information.

I think some web based email stores your source IP address and or some other info about the source in it, is that right?

sure, they can figure it out with geocities if it's not encrypted. anything is at risk if it's not encrypted. when signing up they can get your personal information and then when logging in they can get your name and password.

oh, and ftp and email? forget it. you might as well be pasting your password to your forehead. if possible, use scp or sftp and ssl or secure pop on email.