Exactly. For every person who is not on Facebook, hides their profile info or uses Facebook under an alias there is always a chatty kathy spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend,child or friend to "out" them. All it requires is a apparently benign clue or two and following the trail.

Hmmm, I don't use my real name on Facebook, I don't have any interests, books, music, schooling, or my marital status showing. Doesn't say whether I'm married. I'm not Friends with any of my family/relatives. And I have just 9 friends. My birthdate is fake.

I just googled me with that info and on fb what came up is 10 pages of people in all locations with my name. I went thru 5 pages and still haven't found "me". What am I missing?

I just googled my FB name, and I found my obituary and a FB page that says

Sorry, this content isn't available right now

The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you're not in.

That sound ominous Jasdip. Is there any chance you've passed away recently and haven't realized it? Have you noticed people shivering when you enter a room? or perhaps a new-found ability to walk through solid objects?

:-)

I consciously try to keep a low profile on the Internet, and have no FB account. I'm almost tempted to ask Texas Gem to use me as a test case, but I'm pretty sure that despite my efforts, enough info useful to a skilled and determined searcher has leaked out that I wouldn't like the answer and so I probably don't want to know.

I know, there is plenty on the web. Mostly through cycling, some through gardening, and older from when I was an Extension Homemakers member. Then there is facebook.

No telling what Texas Gem might find. I googled and used her steps to find out stuff about "my guy", but really, nothing worth anything came up.

Moni

Sorry to hear you died. It's been wonderful to follow your path in life and marvel at the trail you've left this world. RIP. ;)

I loved her daily quizzes. She stepped right up and took charge of the quizzes that brought entertainment to the KT.

I think I understand where you are coming from. I just assume that I am not important enough that someone will want to "find " me.

Interetingly enough, people who DO have things to hide are hiding in plain sight. It seems that the "paper" trials are always followed after the fact.

I think y'all (that word chosen for you, TG) are really talking about "anonymity" rather than "privacy", don't you think?

Public information is public information. Whether from public records or from other artifacts of your life in the public domain, It's always been available to strangers. It's only the presence of the internet that makes it easier to find and obtain.

I take it back. After just a few searches, starting only from my screen name here, I found a detailed wordpress blog from a month-long voyage around the Caribbean, and a link to a webserver space on the servers at work from which you could determine my username at work and place of work, and that would quickly lead to my real name. From there given that my last name is unusual enough, nearly every page that turns up are, if not about me, about a relative of mine.

I'll bet it would take a smart searcher less than 10 minutes to go from my screen name to my home address or home phone number.

And that is with me mostly trying to keep a low profile. Even if I were to remove all of the pages I have control over that have some of the crucial initial links from my screen name here, those pages would still likely be findable through archive.org and the wayback machine.

Even without Facebook, knowing a few key words from info I've posted over the years, I'm easily found. Until now, I thought I'd kept a fairly low profile, too.

I don't use my last name on FB or where I really live but I am sure it is easily found through posts, apparently Cherryfizz is a drink when you search for it on Google or other people who use that name who are not me but referring back to old posts from here my last name can be found. Surprisingly with my last name there sure are a lot of people who have the same first, middle and last name as I do. haha Before the internet came along we pretty much thought not many people had our last name except for those who were family or ancestors. I can be found in family obits that have been published in the newspaper. And because my initial and last name are published in the phone book I can be found on Canada 411. Also class lists from high school that others have published. If someone really wants to find you they can.

It's not simply Googling a name. It's putting together all sorts of little pieces of info that are scattered here and there. For example a lot can be gathered right here from little games played, tell us about yourself posts, sharing what one did on the weekend etc. It's not necessarily information that would be harmful or create ID theft. Just like Elmer said it's more about anonymity.

I can list several things about Jasdip for example that would fit the type of thing shown in the video. It doesn't mean I could get into her bank account but I could startle her with an offhand remark IF she wasn't expecting it like those at the Starbucks in the video.

I didn't notice the link to the video until now

Snidely- (sorry, but Elmer just doesn't fit with the persona I've built up about you in my head) surely your "ya'll" comment was made in jest as I've made it well known that I dislike things I perceive as hickish or country.

Yes, the information is publicly available information such as marriage and death notices and public tax records and public business profiles and white page listings, etc.

What I was trying (and apparently failed at) explaining was that even behind your anonymous username, you can easily give away enough personal information for me or another searcher to discern your true identity, and from that, I could gather all sorts of personal data about you as both Bob and Mama goose discovered.

It's remarkably easy to find out everything you might want to know about a person if you start with their actual name and location. If you have to do a small amount of sleuthing based on a screen name and general comments, it can take a little longer to go from screen name to real name, but not much for a large portion of people.

No need for tin foil hats but awareness is never a bad thing. Surely you would agree as you only wanted to send a money order without your personal name attached to help fund the prom and you only ever refer to your children in gender neutral, non location specific terms.

You are someone I couldn't find more info on, even if I wanted to because you fiercely guard your privacy and personal identity.

I simply encourage others to be as cautious as you are.

As a follow up and further example.

A few months ago I read a thread here that was discussing weird births.

It reminded me of a story I had read maybe 10 years ago.

Young couple has ID twin girls. Couple decides to have one more baby. They conceive quickly but at the initial ultrasound they discover they are pregnant with triplets.

Turns out that they have one set of ID twin girls and one set of ID triplet boys.

The odds are so rare, doctors can't even calculate them.

There is one news article about the family when the triplets are born. There is only one other blip about them that shows up.

They allowed the local news to do a "day in the life of" feature when the triplets are 9 months old. (This was the original clip I saw 10 years ago)

Since then, no mention of them; they move to a smaller town and they actively avoid any spotlight. But I'm curious.

How are the twins and triplets now? Are they all still healthy? Are the parents still together? What could life possibly be like with 5 children so close in age who also happen to look alike?

An initial search only pulls up mentions of the original article on message boards. I couldn't remember their names, only the rarity of ID twins plus ID triplets so that was where my search started.

The local news site doesn't have publicly searchable info from decade old story blips.

But...one of those mommy/pregnancy message board users had made a post about the family at the time and copy pasted just enough info from the original story that I now have a first and last name.

I immediately turn to Facebook and search mom and dad's names and come up with nothing.

I google search dad's name plus state of birth and find a white page listing in a tiny town, population 2000.

I look up towns name and what county they are in and proceed to the county public tax records which show that dad and mom are listed as owning a property at Xx street since 2005.

Public tax records list moms full name, including her middle name.

I resume my Facebook search using her middle name and last name plus any common variation and/or nickname and lo and behold, I find a profile match.

The profile pic is of 2 young teenage ID girls with 3 pre-teen ID boys.

Hmmm, seems like a match.

Mom has her page fairly locked down, no link to dad but there is an updated profile pic of the vacation they took last fall and the picture is of 7 people standing in a circle, only feet showing.

So, it seems from my cursory research that mom and dad didn't want to be in the limelight, moved to a REALLY tiny town with a population under 5K and while dad has no social media profile, mom does, but only under a nickname.

Still, from a private life perspective, I was able to locate them and find fairly current pics of the kids.

All that because I was curious about a follow up on their family and health and how they adjusted to having 5 kids under the age of 4.

They only appeared in public media TWICE over a decade ago!! By all accounts they seem to have done everything possible to NOT be found but...they were publicly reported once a decade ago and mom still takes part in social media under a nickname and I found them.

It's a good thing I don't work for the media!;)

This was probably my most intensive "search" and it took me a grand total of less than an hour of actively searching. All done from my phone when I was taking breaks because the kids were driving me nuts. ;)

Well, Texas_Gem, private investigation might be a career in your future!

Wow, TG, that's remarkable!