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Linking to facebook and privacy


elegantlion
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Elegantlion,

 

Thanks for posting this. Nmoira, a facebook link that would have my posts show up outside this forum would be a deciding factor on whether or not I would continue to come here. I know this is a "public forum," but with it linked to Facebook, that makes it super-public, if that makes sense. That is no place I want to go.

 

 

I agree.

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I'm very concerned about linking to FB. Another farming group that I was part of, changed their settings and my very private question about how to deal with in-laws became very public, with an angry SIL to boot. Not a good day. I come here to ask questions and find sanity in my homeschooling world and I wouldn't like it if my extended family even knew that I posted on here! Some would definitely follow, sign up and read what I had posted and then "share" at the next family meal.

 

 

This.

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You can't stop people from sharing threads on a public board. However, I don't want to have WTM Facebook-ized, especially the general board where some pretty personal stuff is shared. And I really don't want changes that might affect user privacy by integrating WTM with other systems at any level without some discussions about the implications for members here.

 

 

I totally agree.

 

I'm not a FB fan (nor am I on it) & I'm not interested in having this forum suddenly linked directly to FB, Google, etc... along w/ the ensuing privacy issues. :glare:

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I know, can you imagine the privacy concerns? So some creep can, without logging in or having any accountability at all, see not only whether you're online, but where you live??!??!! So he watches your habits, when you log on, when you're off he cases out your house. That was the first thing that hit me. Just makes me feel HORRIBLY unsafe.

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I know, can you imagine the privacy concerns? So some creep can, without logging in or having any accountability at all, see not only whether you're online, but where you live??!??!! So he watches your habits, when you log on, when you're off he cases out your house. That was the first thing that hit me. Just makes me feel HORRIBLY unsafe.

 

 

I do not think this is how it works, but I am open to correction. :)

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Security is why I don't show up logged on. I don't use my real name which is unusual. I don't put my town in my location, although a number of people know what state I'm in and could possibly narrow it further. I also don't use a real photo of me. One must be proactive about security.

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Unfortunately it certainly can if the person was computer savvy enough. But it could have happened at any time since the inception of the boards, not just because of the new fb issue.

 

Bingo. We know full and well there are people who can track down ip addresses. So once a nasty person connects your username and your facebook, it's easy peasy to use that ip address and track you down. (or even without the ip junk) And you've been saying what day you're going to therapy or he notices your habits or you tell about the new computer you're buying. It was possible before, and it's even easier now with that kind of integration.

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Security is why I don't show up logged on. I don't use my real name which is unusual. I don't put my town in my location, although a number of people know what state I'm in and could possibly narrow it further. I also don't use a real photo of me. One must be proactive about security.

 

I can understand that Chucki may not be your real name....but the photo??? That isn't you?? Well blow my mind!

 

:lol:

 

Actually, ~AprilMay~ isn't my real name either. And I don't put a pic of me anywhere online either.

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Okay, so even though i did NOT use facebook to log in here, i just clicked the like button below this thread and....yep...it showed up on my FB wall! Ick. (i promptly deleted it) i dont like the fact that it is now so easy to link between here and facebook. Yes, it was possible before by cutting and pasting, but that took more effort, so few people did it. Now it's just the click of a Like button. Too easy for me.

 

And how did this account "know" how to post on MY fb wall, when i have not personally established any link?

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Okay, so even though i did NOT use facebook to log in here, i just clicked the like button below this thread and....yep...it showed up on my FB wall! Ick. (i promptly deleted it) i dont like the fact that it is now so easy to link between here and facebook. Yes, it was possible before by cutting and pasting, but that took more effort, so few people did it. Now it's just the click of a Like button. Too easy for me.

 

And how did this account "know" how to post on MY fb wall, when i have not personally established any link?

 

Hmmmm.....that is creepy. I'm going to check my FB (which I strictly only use for a small private family group).

 

ETA: I just checked mine to see if the Like button I clicked on here earlier showed up. I don't see it. But, then again...I don't know my way around my FB page very well yet....so I guess me checking was pointless.

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Okay, so even though i did NOT use facebook to log in here, i just clicked the like button below this thread and....yep...it showed up on my FB wall! Ick. (i promptly deleted it) i dont like the fact that it is now so easy to link between here and facebook. Yes, it was possible before by cutting and pasting, but that took more effort, so few people did it. Now it's just the click of a Like button. Too easy for me.

 

And how did this account "know" how to post on MY fb wall, when i have not personally established any link?

 

 

But it won't show up on your fb page unless you "Like" on the bottom of this page and then "Post to Facebook". It can't accidentally happen.

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The issue is not so much privacy, as anonymity. We all know the internet is not really private, but this forum for the most part has been anonymous since we could mostly segregate it from our personal lives. By integrating it with FB, we lose our anonymity and I just don't think you will get the same discussions if that is the case.

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Okay, I just went to the bottom of this page (not the Like This button on the sides) and clicked on it then clicked on Post on Facebook. I then went to my Facebook and found it on my timeline. I logged out of fb and then logged in on my husbands account. It didn't show up on anywhere on his wall\page, however, when I found a previous post of mine that did show up, I clicked on my name which took me to my wall (because I allow friends to view and post on my wall) where I saw this link and then clicked on it. I was able (as my husband) to read this thread AND go into my profile and change things. So, IF you click on that button on the bottom and choose to post on facebook, anyone who has access to your wall will also have access to this website AS you. So, until they get this fixed DON'T PUSH THAT BUTTON!

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Are you sure you hadn't logged into the site previously on your DH's computer and it remembered you?

 

Okay, I just went to the bottom of this page (not the Like This button on the sides) and clicked on it then clicked on Post on Facebook. I then went to my Facebook and found it on my timeline. I logged out of fb and then logged in on my husbands account. It didn't show up on anywhere on his wall\page, however, when I found a previous post of mine that did show up, I clicked on my name which took me to my wall (because I allow friends to view and post on my wall) where I saw this link and then clicked on it. I was able (as my husband) to read this thread AND go into my profile and change things. So, IF you click on that button on the bottom and choose to post on facebook, anyone who has access to your wall will also have access to this website AS you. So, until they get this fixed DON'T PUSH THAT BUTTON!

 

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nmoira - are you asking if I'm sure I was logged in on my husbands facebook account and not my own?

 

Edited: I know what your saying now...that when I linked from my husbands fb it logged me in to WTM becuase it remembered me. I'm going to go play with it some more to see if that is what happened....I hope that's what it was!

 

Edited again: Okay, I'm back. Sorry. :blushing: Yes, I was logged into WTM on this computer. I logged off of WTM on this computer and then logged in on a different computer. Then the link on my husbands fb account was able to access the thread but not anything else. Whew! That had me freaked out for a moment. So, bottom line is if you don't want people who have access to your fb wall to see what you do on the WTM forum then don't post it to your facebook with the link at the bottom.

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Okay, I just went to the bottom of this page (not the Like This button on the sides) and clicked on it then clicked on Post on Facebook. I then went to my Facebook and found it on my timeline. I logged out of fb and then logged in on my husbands account. It didn't show up on anywhere on his wall\page, however, when I found a previous post of mine that did show up, I clicked on my name which took me to my wall (because I allow friends to view and post on my wall) where I saw this link and then clicked on it. I was able (as my husband) to read this thread AND go into my profile and change things. So, IF you click on that button on the bottom and choose to post on facebook, anyone who has access to your wall will also have access to this website AS you. So, until they get this fixed DON'T PUSH THAT BUTTON!

 

 

That should be because you were already logged on HERE, not at fb. The board sets a cookie when you log in and tell it to remember you, and it will remember you no matter what method you use to come back here. If you were to log out here and clear your cookies, I don't believe that you would get the same result.

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing how this feature is different than the thousands of other websites that use it.

 

For example, you go to cnn.com and read a nice story about a cute kitten saved by a fireman. The story made you feel all warm and fuzzy and you want to share it with your friends on Facebook, so you click the "like" or "share" link (the sites seem to display it differently) and the kitten story will post to your wall. If you are already signed into Facbook (say, on another open tab in your browser), the link will post immediately. If you are not logged into Facebook, you will be asked to log in before the link posts. The link will be seen by anyone you have allowed to view your wall (friends? friends of friends? public? you decide in your FB privacy settings).

 

My understanding is the same thing will happen here. If I want to like/share/link this--or any WTM---thread on my FB wall, my friends will see it and they may click the link to get here (just as a random person performing a google search would). Since I logged in with my WTM credentials and not my facebook credentials, any of my friends clicking on the link on my FB wall would be clueless as to who I was in this thread or even if I actually posted to this thread.

 

And as far as the "Likes" widget, lots of other sites do it, too. Here's an example: http://www.cbs8.com/

 

So, this really doesn't seem to be something unusual. I'm not saying I'm a fan and it doesn't sound like many other are either, but if you really want to keep your WTM identity separate from your FB identity it seems you should: 1. have a WTM username and picture different from your FB username and picture, and 2. lock down your FB privacy settings.

 

Thanks to everyone for their hard work. I lurk here all the time and have learned so much.

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I can see that the FB connection is a hot topic, and we'll remain responsive to the community--of course. If the majority of our regular users don't want a FB link, we'll rethink it.

 

Having said that, can I weigh in?

 

I'm going to repeat something I started saying five years ago and KEEP saying.

 

This is the internet. I know some people who post here think that their family/friends/stalkers/random acquaintances won't see their posts. This is not true. This has NEVER been true. You should be in the moderators' shoes for a little while. We *constantly* get emails from people saying, "Can you please take down my post about X? I'm afraid my family will see it!" And *every* *single* *time* that happens, I'm appalled by the lack of understanding about message boards it displays. When you post something here, it can be instantly copied and pasted. It can be cached by Google and pulled up even after it's been deleted. It can be saved in a screen shot.

 

That has nothing to do with this site's security or privacy settings. It's because when you post something on a message board, any message board, anywhere, it is instantly public information.

 

With or without a FB link, that is true of THIS message board. And it's always been true.

 

Queen Zarga is completely right. Check your FB security settings carefully. Don't use personal information in your WTM username or signature. Don't put your picture up. If it were me I wouldn't put the ages of my kids or my hometown. (Kind of pointless in my case, because I'm a semi-public figure and anybody can already find that out--but has anyone noticed how little personal information I share about what my kids are doing and what they're up to? In fact, I stopped doing those "day in the life" posts when my kids got a little older because I wanted to protect their privacy.)

 

FB or not FB, posting information about your mental health, your spouse's shortcomings, your hatred of your boss, or how you'd like to kick your teenager out of the house is a REALLY BAD IDEA. It's just not safe.

 

SWB

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Thank you SWB, for chiming in. I got a little panicked last night but figured out that my panic was for naught. The only way my friends on FB can see the content of my posts here is if I post a link of the thread onto my FB. Which I may do on occasion since I don't post things that I want hidden from my friends.

 

Your gift to us is most appreciated...please bear with us.

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That can be changed though in notification set up. I changed all my notifications to be on here and not via email which is what they were first set to, but I believe you can also have them turned off. There was a LOT of things to be notified of so some people may have it set to not tell them when something they post is liked. I appreciate knowing someone liked something I said. I take it to be like on fb when it can mean they agree, they found it insightful, they thought it was cute or whatever. It just means no more threads with quotes and the I agree smiley.

 

Actually my point was more that the action of liking a post using the forum tool was identified by name. It's not that I don't want to see the notification so much that I was surprised that the list of members liking a post was public.

 

By contrast if I note that an Amazon review was helpful the numbers change but it doesn't add my name to a list.

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I don't mind the facebook link, but I'm not on facebook, mainly because I don't feel like having my personal info sold and swapped without me getting a cut of the action. I also don't post anything I don't want someone else to read. I really think that if people, in general, didn't use the internet to blab EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. OF. DRAMA. and details of their personal lives, they wouldn't have anything to worry about at all. The internet is also not a good choice for your own personal psychiatry sessions. If you are afraid that something you post will come back to bite you in the heiney, then don't post it. It's not frikkin' rocket science. It's common sense.

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I don't mind the facebook link, but I'm not on facebook, mainly because I don't feel like having my personal info sold and swapped without me getting a cut of the action. I also don't post anything I don't want someone else to read. I really think that if people, in general, didn't use the internet to blab EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. OF. DRAMA. and details of their personal lives, they wouldn't have anything to worry about at all. The internet is also not a good choice for your own personal psychiatry sessions. If you are afraid that something you post will come back to bite you in the heiney, then don't post it. It's not frikkin' rocket science. It's common sense.

:iagree:

 

Audrey, as usual, makes some very good points. I had some concerns about the FB linking because I do not want people I know IRL knowing who I am here because this is a private refuge for me. At the same time, I realize this is not PHP's problem. It is my responsibility. I did some research, found plenty of info here about how things worked (calming some fears I had about reading other's posts), and went to work. I took down my picture here, made sure not to link the two accounts, and down loaded something to cut down on the tracking of my internet activity.

 

Also, I am aware that this forum is very public, searchable on google, and also easy to link. As a result, I tend to avoid posting really personal things, bad mouthing anyone, or posting anything I would not want linked to me. I also avoid many of those hot button issues, both here and on FB. It is easy to say something you may regret in the heat of an argument/heated discussion. As SWB said, once it is out there on the internet, it is out there forever.

 

As for other concerns people may have, maybe we should give PHP and their staff some time to get a feel for what is working and what is not. From what I have seen here, they are listening and trying very hard, so we should at least give them some time. It can't be easy trying to keep so many people happy. I for one am thankful for this site will continue using the forums.

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