Personal information

Is our personal information in our SL account available to other SL users? Can they get into our account to get our real name, email, or other info? Thanks

The general answer is no, people can't get your RL information.

The biggest risk is that of leaving the 'remember password' option ticked on your SL login screen, meaning that anyone using YOUR computer can log in to your account.

If people you know in real life know your SL name, it's always possible they could tell others and someone could join SL and spread that info around.

You are your own worst enemy when it comes to disclosing RL information. If you don't want it repeated, don't say it. All it takes are a few seemingly innocuous facts strung together by a halfway competent social engineer and a lot can be learned about you. Be careful.

^^ that.

This includes "seemingly innocuous facts" in other venues or social media which can be correlated with your SL name. For instance, one Twitter user I follow because they post about interesting SL-related events and articles once complained about the noise from a performance happening near their house that day, and 30 seconds worth of Googling the name of the performance and the performance schedule told me which city they were in, and likely what neighborhood (it could be heard from their living room, so...). That alone is innocuous enough, but several bits of such information compiled over time could conceivably provide a clearer picture than I think they (or I) would be comfortable with.

So while it's not usually possible to directly access your RL information from SL (although there have been a few famous incidents), if you wish to truly remain anonymous, you must keep even "harmless" RL information out of your SL life.

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And, as I've said elsewhere, if you age-verify using LL's third-party company they will sell your details - at least email - and you'll be deluged with spam*. (Easy answer to that one is to verify using a temporary, free, hotmail account or similar and then never use it again). What other information they might be selling I don't know but the spam isn't in the least targeted.

*Sample of exactly 1 SL user age-verifying. Pre-verification, average 1 USA-originated spam per month. Post verification (within 3 days), average 8 USA-origianted spams per day. So far, absolutely none of the offers have been applicable, let alone welcome.

This.

Sadly, the biggest danger seems to derive from SL relationships, where there is often pressure, in addition to a perfectly understandable desire to "share" with someone you've come to care about, to release details, pictures, RL names, etc. The worst thing you can do is release an RL phone number: just about everything about you can be ultimately traced through that.

Most SL relationships last a matter of months, if not weeks. And while, in 99% of instances, the info that you shared will remain safe, there certainly ARE cases of RL harassment, disclosure violations, and the like, as a result of a relationship gone sour. They not infrequently appear on this forum, actually.

Be safe, and keep RL and SL VERY separate.

[QUOTE
Be safe, and keep RL and SL VERY separate.[/QUOTE]

I second that.

I second that!

um not gotten any spam and no other forms of telemarketing calls or anything. verified back when it was still beta (first week) and just redid it again.

None of my age verified avatars are getting any spam e-mail.

Not me either.

Nor me, except from Linden Labs, and neither has my alt. And that's since soon after the first 1.23 release candidate was available.