Posted on Nov 23, 2014
How safe are your discussions on the Internet?
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In this day and age when there are so many reports of cyberattacks and privacy breeches just how safe are your discussions on sites such as RP or other military sites?
Sure there are privacy settings that can be adjusted but that is in and of itself no assurance of privacy or security. For instance, did you know that despite adjusting your settings to only allow verified members to contact you, that the content of your discussions here are RP are viewable if you google your name and rallypoint as search phrases?
Try it and you will see for yourself. RP isn't the only site that is allowing Google and other search engines to allow their content to be viewable on the search engines and certainly won't be the last.
I raise this question because for me there are very definite privacy issues involved. For instance, here on RP SM have raised sensitive issues regarding personnel, PT tests, regulations and such. Many Veterans on here have raised sensitive issues of PTSD, Mental and Physical ailments, MST, and financial woes. Not to mention some of our more robust discussions on politics, religion, etc.
An employer current or future, or someone in your CoC can Google you and all of your discussion sins are out there in cyberspace for all to see. This could affect careers or military service if context is misconstrued or considered inappropriate as well as excuses to fire or let go of someone because they may be considered not up to the job due to disclosed PTSD for example.
I raise this not to be a troublemaker, but rather to make everyone more acutely aware. I'm also hoping that perhaps RP staff and the like will just as they have a feature to check a box to post a thread on social media, have a similar checkbox mechanism to not allow search engiines to see a particular thread and protect one another here on RP.
It is something I feel very strong about given the recent nature of many conversations here. We've had a member who reached out and ultimately killed himself despite best efforts of fine folks on here to help him. We've had members with acute PTSD and well-being issues raise discussions on here as well. I know this may get me in trouble or this thread yanked, but I've decided that this is worth standing up for.
So I ask for your all to stand up and let's have each other's six.
SPC D W, 1LT L S, SGM (Join to see), SSgt (Join to see), SGT (Join to see), MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca, Cpl Dennis F., PO3 Brendan "Smitty" Smith, SGT Robert Rainwater, SGT Jinger Jarrett, SSG (Join to see), SGT Richard H.
Sure there are privacy settings that can be adjusted but that is in and of itself no assurance of privacy or security. For instance, did you know that despite adjusting your settings to only allow verified members to contact you, that the content of your discussions here are RP are viewable if you google your name and rallypoint as search phrases?
Try it and you will see for yourself. RP isn't the only site that is allowing Google and other search engines to allow their content to be viewable on the search engines and certainly won't be the last.
I raise this question because for me there are very definite privacy issues involved. For instance, here on RP SM have raised sensitive issues regarding personnel, PT tests, regulations and such. Many Veterans on here have raised sensitive issues of PTSD, Mental and Physical ailments, MST, and financial woes. Not to mention some of our more robust discussions on politics, religion, etc.
An employer current or future, or someone in your CoC can Google you and all of your discussion sins are out there in cyberspace for all to see. This could affect careers or military service if context is misconstrued or considered inappropriate as well as excuses to fire or let go of someone because they may be considered not up to the job due to disclosed PTSD for example.
I raise this not to be a troublemaker, but rather to make everyone more acutely aware. I'm also hoping that perhaps RP staff and the like will just as they have a feature to check a box to post a thread on social media, have a similar checkbox mechanism to not allow search engiines to see a particular thread and protect one another here on RP.
It is something I feel very strong about given the recent nature of many conversations here. We've had a member who reached out and ultimately killed himself despite best efforts of fine folks on here to help him. We've had members with acute PTSD and well-being issues raise discussions on here as well. I know this may get me in trouble or this thread yanked, but I've decided that this is worth standing up for.
So I ask for your all to stand up and let's have each other's six.
SPC D W, 1LT L S, SGM (Join to see), SSgt (Join to see), SGT (Join to see), MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca, Cpl Dennis F., PO3 Brendan "Smitty" Smith, SGT Robert Rainwater, SGT Jinger Jarrett, SSG (Join to see), SGT Richard H.
Security
Privacy
Internet
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 28
Rule #1 of social media: Never post anything, ever, on social media that would cause you or others harm if it was seen by the public.
I don't know how many times we read stories about people who thought they were just posting a picture to their small group of friends, only to have a friend repost it, or have it seen by others to begin with. This is true on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, internet forums, chat rooms, and also on RallyPoint. There is no way that somebody can expect to write a message to hundreds of thousands of members on RallyPoint but at the same time have strict confidence that it could not be discovered by others. Privacy is maintained in one-to-one communication such as email, private messages, etc. However, nobody should ever post anything on the internet that you would not post if it were seen by the public. This also goes for workplace intranets, non-classified government networks, etc.
RallyPoint does provide the option to completely block your identity (something sites like FaceBook and LinkedIn don't offer), in your settings page. However, you cannot go back and forth... you must block it all the time, not only when you want to post something that you want to remain hidden.
There are new social networks which are actually based on the premise of everyone being anonymous all the time. Even on those, I would never recommend posting anything that you could not afford to be seen by others and tied back to you... since there can always be a security or protocol breach on the side of the hosting company. I believe what this teaches all of us is to be thoughtful in what we write and what we share. We should all be proud of what we share... whether that is helping somebody else, asking a question, or admitting we need help ourselves.
I don't know how many times we read stories about people who thought they were just posting a picture to their small group of friends, only to have a friend repost it, or have it seen by others to begin with. This is true on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, internet forums, chat rooms, and also on RallyPoint. There is no way that somebody can expect to write a message to hundreds of thousands of members on RallyPoint but at the same time have strict confidence that it could not be discovered by others. Privacy is maintained in one-to-one communication such as email, private messages, etc. However, nobody should ever post anything on the internet that you would not post if it were seen by the public. This also goes for workplace intranets, non-classified government networks, etc.
RallyPoint does provide the option to completely block your identity (something sites like FaceBook and LinkedIn don't offer), in your settings page. However, you cannot go back and forth... you must block it all the time, not only when you want to post something that you want to remain hidden.
There are new social networks which are actually based on the premise of everyone being anonymous all the time. Even on those, I would never recommend posting anything that you could not afford to be seen by others and tied back to you... since there can always be a security or protocol breach on the side of the hosting company. I believe what this teaches all of us is to be thoughtful in what we write and what we share. We should all be proud of what we share... whether that is helping somebody else, asking a question, or admitting we need help ourselves.
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SCPO (Join to see)
LTC Yinon Weiss PV2 (Join to see) I have always told my Sailors and employees, don't put something on the internet that you would not want to see on the front page of the Newspaper.
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PV2 (Join to see) Privacy is a thing of the past, especially when it comes to anything that is electronic.
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This is where common sense comes into play. Never write anything down on the internet that could ever be used to get you in any serious trouble. Even if you think it's safe behind privacy settings, login walls, or what have you, murphy's law still applies.
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