Can employers track who i am and see what I post on here

[Cruiser24]

Serious question. Is the site completely anonymous or could my employer track me on here with my personal details surname name email ect

Unless your job involved a high level of security or something why would they even want to find you?

How would they know?

The internet is never really anonymous. If you were using a work computer or something that went through their servers, I'd expect them to be able to see your activity.

If all email addresses and user names are anonymous, it seems logical that tracing could only go as far back as the ISP’s records. That might show the location of the person who has subscribed for the broadband , but no much else.

MI5 could. Do you work there OP? 🧐

Wow, what had you posted on here?

Was it GC stuff?

No you do not disclose your real name when you sign up.

you can check what information you've provided if you go to your personal settings (top right, little person icon). MN would not want to collect peoples personal RL name because they don't have any purpose for collecting that data under DPA (former GDPR) so they don't ask for it as it increases their data risk x MMM.

all you provide is your made-up user name (which you can change any time as many times as you like as long as it unique) and your email address which can be a burner account that you create just for registering on MN. That's it.

MN as an organisation isn't selling you anything, or supplying you anything other than the forum, and any adverts they host are businesses that have their own B2C infrastructure to supply their goods and services.

the Jeffrey hack that happened a few years ago ended up with a bunch of email addresses which could be used to identify a real person so it was a GDPR (as it was back then) breach and MN had to go through the legal process of informing everyone about the hack within 48 hrs and stating what they'd done to address the matter. You're only as secure as your latest hack, that's your weakest link.

Morning..

Talk of burner phones/e-mails aside, and as background there's one well known company in the travel industry that tried but fortunately failed to force a forum operator to reveal ISP, user names and other identifying data about some posters.

The employers claim was posters were making allegations that were bringing the company into disrepute or libellous, so it's not just the heavy hitters in the security industry or HMG that might try to track someone down if they get really hacked off about what is written about them.

The bullying/harassment case I mentioned upthread in a pp was brought by a private individual. It was a few years back but as I recall it the forum operator involved was forced to reveal all relevant data they held but the complainant (? correct legal term) had to pay for the forensic services needed to actually identify posters using the data the forum provider coughed up....the individuals were identified.

The advice we always got from our Union on posting on-line etc was always treat forums as being public places (even when it comes to direct messaging) and write accordingly, most especially if writing about your employer. That was said to protect the forum operator just as much as it was to protect posters.

Interesting to see if MNHQ are prepared to express an opinion on this subject.

😯 How did they find you??

Work can't track you.

Unless you use a work laptop or work internet.
Or a work email so they can monitor any emails you receive.

MNHQ can't release user details unless they have a very very good reason.

Of course, if you discuss something that is clearly about your work, then you would be recognised.

MNHQ can't release user details unless they have a very very good reason.

Which can be something along the lines of the previously mentioned Norwich Pharmaceutical Order.

I know that realistically if someone just goes on MN and has a Friday night fairly unspecific whinge about a crappy week working at A company then chances are nobody will care one bit.

If OTOH they start making claims that a company ( especially a well known one) is doing something illegal, underhand, or is perhaps operating carelessly it might be another matter…and most especially in industries such as those transport sector where public perception is important.

Doing pretty much that has got other people in hot water on other fora (?sp) in the past.

There needs to be very good reasons for sharing personal information with someone else.

Which should be in the privacy policy on MN.

Privacy Policy | Mumsnet

This is MN policy

If there are obvious safeguarding reasons, or if we are contacted by the police about a possible breach of the law, we may share your personal information with public authorities without your permission. If we are compelled to do so by a court order, we will share your personal data to the extent specified in the order.
If there are compelling safeguarding considerations, we may share your data with public authorities without your permission. We understand 'compelling safeguarding considerations' to mean credible evidence of imminent risk of serious harm, especially to a child or vulnerable person.

In such circumstances, on the judgement of a senior person within Mumsnet and in consultation with the Data Protection Officer, we may proactively contact relevant authorities (the police or ambulance service, for example) and share any relevant data we have, such as location data, relevant posts, private messages, details of any children who might be at risk, and descriptions of the situation.
If contacted by the police about possible breaches of the law disclosed in posts, we may sometimes – on the judgement of a senior person within Mumsnet and in consultation with the Data Protection Officer – share your personal information with them.

We will share your personal information if compelled to do so by a court order, for example under Section 5 of the 2013 Defamation Act

This question and issue is one that does concern me too. I believe that how you behave at work is your employers concern but what you think is your own business, your workplace does not own your thought space. I have attended training in the past where the trainer has actually said "this is what employee need to thing" - fair enough about non-continuous issues ie health and safety etc but the issue of diversity is not clear cut. On this site people can be more frank about their views, which may not necessarily align to their organisation therefore I would be concerned about an organisation having access to your online comments. The GC view is an opinion it is not lawbreaking but some organaitions interpret it as breaking their codes of behaviour.

@cakeorwine

Thanks for the info..from that:

We will share your personal information if compelled to do so by a court order, for example under Section 5 of the 2013 Defamation Act.

and that’s perhaps worth bearing in mind.

Hello @Cruiser24 Mumsnet is an anonymous site and the amount of information you share on the boards is up to you. Your employer would not have access to any information you provide at registration, such as your email or IP address. If you are concerned about any posts, please report them to us.

As we set out in our privacy policy, we do not, as a rule, pass on any of the information you have registered with us, unless you specifically consent to us doing so or we are specifically required to by law.

The way that we store and process data is compliant with the following legislation: UK Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)EU Data Protection Directive 1995 (DPD)EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)ePrivacy Directive 2002 (amended 2009

what happened and why ?

I posted an issue with a fairly anonymous username but in hindsight enough to link the incident to me - god knows how they found the original post but it was all a long time ago and started looking for another job as soon as the disciplinary was off my work record!
Things have worked out much better for me - I'm away from a toxic environment and genuinely enjoy what I do now.

thats the mix sometimes, you never know whos watching etc was it on office computers / company computers as they may use their own software etc

Yes

Andrew, your ment to be restricted from the net

I have friends in high places.

fair points

When you have enough dirt on them, they'll help you.