AIBU to be a bit miffed at this FB post re internet security?

[prettybutclumpy]

I posted a photo of my two DC starting back at school (Scotland). Lots of likes from my friends and family, and several lovely comments. Then woman who I used to know through a hobby group which I'm no longer part of (so probably won't see her, we weren't really going out together friends) posted long and detailed comment about why I shouldn't have put up this photo showing the school badge for internet security reasons. Now she may have a point, but what I'm miffed about is that no-one will comment now, and it has made the post go a bit sour. AIBU to wish she'd sent me a PM about it instead?

Exact house? Not a chance - My FB puts me in the next village on a regular basis.

Mikelitoris - the difference is that computer savvy Scum will use it to find out more information about the item or person in the photo including location, what other schools are closeby, what information they can obtain to start or continue contact or plan out how to burgle. If Mark Zuckerberg can have his Facebook account hacked into, believe me, all of them can and often are without us knowing. Don't forget, friends of friends can see information about you and your DC too. It just isn't worth it.

For anyone who takes pics with their smartphone it is also wise to check your privacy settings on your google account which took over picasa - those tend to have default open settings. Tbh, I didn't know until someone "liked" a photo of my newborn.

Tee, don't get your knickers in a twist, just learn a bit more about basic technology and security.

Right I've just checked my photos taken on my iPhone. One series of photos taken at exactly the same time at exactly the same place have 7 different locations, spread across approx 6 miles.

They were 17 photos taken on a dog walk and snapped within a minute of each other.

Video made this week for US mainstream news channels www.myfoxal.com/story/23128168/geotagging

The details of which school dd is going to were posted on a public open page of her ex dance school & stage classes. I also discuss it with strangers on an Internet forum.

I doubt any harm will come to her! I did decide not to have It in the local paper.

Tee
I am not securing against anything in particular, just don't want my entire life broadcast online. I am not worried that anyone will track me down. I am in the fecking phone book, if someone wants to look :)

Ok, to the geotagging thing - there has been a lot of scare-mongering lately. Yes, in THEORY, someone could track you to the general area using geotagging, but why would they do that?

To break into your house when you are on holiday - that is perhaps feasible, and I have heard that it is becoming more common for burglars to check Social Media profiles when targeting a house. I have no firm data on that though, so might just be overcautious warnings from police.

To the idea that someone will track down your child via geotagging, I would ask you to answer why a paedophile would go to all that trouble, when there are children on every street corner? And we all know that the danger of abuse is much greater from a person your child knows than a stranger.

I do agree that we should be more careful what we share online, and that we should teach our children to be more aware that the updates and pics shared now will still be around for many years.

I am more concerned about teens posting 'bunked off school again today, what a waste of time' on FB and then wondering why they didn't get the job they applied for. Not about someone working out where I live and stealing my kids.

Okay. I'll get right on that.

[snort] at telling Tee to learn a bit more about tech and security.

I just really looked at your nickname HL.

I am honouring HelenMN :)

So I assumed.

Nope, still cant get worked up about it.

All that info you talk about is easier to come by than by tracking down a school from some fb pictures.

Im all for being sage online and have regular chats with the older dc about what is appropriate.

I think there is just a bit of unnecessary hysteria around lately.

I am all for being safe online.

I dont think I have ever been sage online or off.

Big risk putting a photo of your kids online! There's a paedophile hiding round every corner waiting to snatch your kids don'tcha know?!

haha at being sage.

I agree. There is an awful lot of hysteria around. I saw that video on FB recently and thought it was a load of bollox.

I think you were rosemary once, Mike but never sage.

"Don't forget, friends of friends can see information about you and your DC too" If your privacy is set to friends only. No one else can see anything on your profile you post. I suppose if a friends facebook profile was hacked, then the hacker could see your profile though?

I put up pictures of my kids. Always friends only.

I follow a lot of advice from facecrooks on fb though. They discuss privacy all the time and rumours/ hoaxes. I like to be fully aware of everything going on on fb and take precautions. And I cannot bear it when people post inaccurate rumours on there. Check before you post. Pet hate of mine.

Btw I believe no one can see the geolocation/ metadata if they download your photo

I would delete this person honestly. Or make them restricted from now on.

For me it's a privacy thing. I do my absolute best to protect my children's privacy online.

But people see my dc in their uniforms everyday. They wear them in public.

My thoughts exactly Mike. I put pics of my DC on my FB and on my profile here. It is my job to keep them safe until such an age they are able to keep themselves safe. I take them to and from school, I am sure that noone who sees their pictures is actually going to kidnap them because of it and anyone who reads my status updates would know they would soon want to return them anyway.

It's all to do with the barrier between the perception of someone being a stranger and friend. If someone has access to lots of information about your DC through whatever medium, they can break that barrier down over a period of time.

Social media is just another way of accessing (or providing) that information. If your DC's school picture appeared in the local paper with her name, address, age, names of family members, pets, likes and dislikes, where she'd just been on holiday and where she was going that weekend, you'd probably be less than impressed.

A friend of mine works in child protection and the amount of identifying information he can glean from Facebook profiles which can be used for grooming is staggering. Since he showed me what he found out about my DN from her, my DSIS AND MY BIL's profiles, I've never mentioned my DC on Facebook ever again.

But tbh it's not my responsibility to take care of every DC in the world. When other parents tell me the dangers of identifying info on Facebook is modern day hysteria, I just say what my friend showed me, do this and continue to protect my own DC.

Chica
I think there is a difference though between someone targeting a child, and snooping online to find out what they can about the child, and the kind of 'hysteria' that I am talking about.

The film linked to earlier was about locating where you live, based on your geotagged pics on FB. I don't think we have to be worried about some complete stranger doing this - it is generally someone we have had contact with in some way.

Of course it could be someone the child has met online, which is why it is MUCH more important to talk to children about social media, and to drum the rules into their heads about how to use the internet safely.

HelenaLindor - I was about to say "there is a well-known poster with a Lindor nickname, you might confuse people..." :)

Trills that was my first thought too!

I turned the geo tagging thing on the other day to see how accurate it was, apparently the photo of my sofa was in the middle of the motorway, and I was (sat on the same sofa) 3miles away from there.

I then sent the photo to my mum and asked her to look and see where it.was taken. It said location info was not available as it was sent from another device.