Has MN ever had a data breach?

[Flunkey]

Just wondering if Mumsnet has ever had a data breach where posts can be identified to the log in details/email addresses/ log on accounts?

How do they ensure anonymity is watertight? I imagine a lot of people could have their lives ruined if their anonymous posts on here were ever revealed to their family, friends, employers, neighbours etc.

I doubt name changing hides anything from a data breach. It's all going to be linked to your account still. The main thing would be to use an anonymous email address to sign up and login with.

No it wouldn’t assist with a data breach, but name changing allows a higher degree of anonymity. Registering with an anonymous email through a VPN and name changing is probably as good as it gets unless you just choose not to post.

Public searches show less info.

In my case when the photograph I’d posted ended up in a newspaper someone who might have thought ‘I recognise that photo, I am sure that Goddess has got a insert, house, dog, cat, cow exactly like that’ would have been able to search my entire post history to confirm it was me.

Ironically, I had rarely posted photos on here.

A little note for people using an anonymous email address. I did this for Twitter. And then the website for that went down and I cannot get into Twitter (or get them to delete my account!!).

Moral of the story is use Protonmail or another well established anonymous email account! Also if you're doing it to be anonymous, don't link it to your gmail/other email, which means you need to be very sure of your password, or write/save it somewhere else as you really won't be able to access your account if you forget it!