Privacy/Security

[DawnChaser]

I am concerned about security, and am careful what I do online. That said, I do manage my accounts online and make credit card purchases online. I scrutinize my accounts daily to stay on top of anomalous activities, and have had to remove erroneous charges that have appeared on my accounts more than a few times. For all that, I enjoy the convenience of locating what I want online, and acquiring it at that time.

My brother had his identity stolen, and was actually arrested for outstanding tickets that had gone to warrants. After a lengthy investigation, the culprit was found and prosecuted, but in the meantime his life was much like the movie "The Net", he was never sure what would pop up and cause him problems.

"Relax, you've got me watching over you. And if you start being nice to me, I'll stop selling your account info!"


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DawnChaser aka Thanatos (Dispositioner of Souls)

[Reeka]

I can't really tell you why, Moni. It's just me. My comfort level. I don't think it gives anybody power over me. Hell, maybe I am paranoid.

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O_H_F

[Moiraine]

I am totally in contradiction between my trusting nature and a very wary attitude probably got from the fact that I am a computer engineer. So I make compromises all the time. Like : I buy online, but I tend to stick to big well-known old companies. I buy all my English books at the same place, for example, at W.H.Smith. I am very reluctant to give my mail address to people I don't know (yes, it took me several days to accept to give it here when I didn't know the site ! ). More so, since my full name is in my mail address. I don't see any problem in giving both to people I have talked to, though.

I could say, I trust people I know, I don't trust computers.

So far, this attitude seems to work well, since I got almost no spam mails and almost no viruses, and never had any problem with giving my credit card number to the rare sites I buy on.

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The world is my oyster !
And now I have the knives to open it ...

[This message has been edited by Moiraine (edited 06-11-2001).]

[Lavindathar]

I aint bothered really.I dont use my real name,but those who want to know can have it.

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Originally posted by Reeka: I can't really tell you why, Moni. It's just me.

Good enuff!


Moni



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[Mouse]

Just to feed some further misgivings you may have, check out this site http://grc.com/

Be afraid.....BE VERY AFRAID!!!



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Regards



Mouse

[Charean]

I loved that letter... my ex works at the Pentagon.. I will not even bother to tell you about all the security they have there, but he does an impressive job of keeping them off the servers. They can be tough... you need to be tougher. I have a couple other friends in security at Fortune 500 companies, I learn a lot from them.

Basically, don't make yourself a target. If you are randomly picked...

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Defender for the Light -
Goodness knows there is a lot of Dark out there!! - Where are my matches?!?
Wandering Soul - Finding my life's calling is Bodhisattva
Looking for lost brain - I left it only for a moment....and there it goes... rolling under the table!!
Noticing that the Light has gotten further down a Dark Tunnel than expected... Time to get the Lantern... Knowing sooner or later - I will get to the End of this Tunnel to the Open Air once again...

[Lady Avalon]

I worry about it somewhat, but then don't want to be paranoid about it.

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[caleb]

I dont care I use my real name and even give out my street address sometimes I dont have credit or debit cards, and cash every check I think I only have 7 dollars in the bank and there is only games on my pc anyway so hack away! I could care less. I even knowingly let a hacker have some comp info just so I could see him do cool stuff like open my cd drive maybe when I get accounts for things that cost me money I will protect my computer and information but until then I dont give my myself stress thinking about it.

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BOW TO THE BISCUIT KING AND HIS THRONE OF SCONE!!!

Originally posted by antonius: How concerned with personal privacy is everyone? Most of us at least have some kind of pseudonym that we use (especially here), but beyond that how paranoid are you? Any hotmail member could track me down easily. Do you use any form of e-mail encryption? why/why not? Anybody reading a summary of my posts could probably work out an awful lot about me - I'm not concerned about this specifically (after all, I trust you all or I wouldn't be here), but I do have a slight worry about this in a more general sense. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? (This was prompted by yet another Echelon story - The NSA are moving to the UK - lucky us - form Germany)

If you have nothing to hide, why encrypt? maybe kiddy porn traders (KILL THEM NSA), or Warez people, but for the normal user, why bother? I don't think anyone would care if I sent a message to my friend saying "Hi, let's go fishing"

Another type of person that may use encryption is Head exec's.. so no one can see their company secrets.. FBI, NSA, DEA, CIA, FEMA, Skunkworks.. stuff like that.

Like Mem said, I don't care really.. I >DO< scan all emails with a virus scanner.. that's about it.. oh-- and a good spam filter!




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Ziroc
Ironworks Webmaster
www.tgeweb.com/ironworks